Andrew Munnings Slaps Tax Service With Lawsuit

Businessman Andrew Munnings is taking legal action against the Belize Tax Service after being named on the government’s list of major tax defaulters. In June, the Tax Service claimed Munnings owed more than $183,000 in unpaid taxes.

Munnings insists the department miscalculated his obligations. He spent a night in detention before being released the following day, and now he is fighting back with a lawsuit.

He told News 5, “Every time we have been in court over the past two months, I told him, you are taxing me wrong. Andrew Munnings is not a funeral home owner. I’m a funeral director, which means, you are in this office, right now. Do you see any casket being built here? No. Those stuff are outsourced.”

He added, “So once a family brings five thousand dollars, that five thousand is split up in fourteen different ways to rent this and rent that and pay for this. So when I get anything outta that, you woulda seh wa six hundred dollars? I have my overhead, I have my staff, I have gas, and all of these kind of stuff, right?”

Munnings said the lawsuit was not filed in response to his recent detention. “The lawsuit that you are now seeing that is public wasn’t filed for what happened forty-eight hours ago. That last route was in place for a well, because for the past three months, we have been in contact with the Department of Tax, and we have told them you guys are assessing us wrong. They do not want to take accountability at all.”

Munnings also drew attention on Tuesday when he appeared in court with a freshly shaved head, sparking questions on social media about whether it was a personal choice or a result of his detention. He clarified, “Andrew Munnings been never cute. And you think I cute with this? This wasn’t voluntary. I thought that me being in jail, I thought it was mandatory and I was told that yes it is, but you have to have been convicted and you have to had been through the process. I wasn’t through the process.”

He explained, “I got my hair shaved like round eleven, twelve and I was processed like after one going for two o’clock yesterday. So when everybody see my head like, yo, what gone on? Even when I went into the office to be processed everybody was like, but why did they shave your head? This wasn’t voluntary, I had to put in wa lee mark up and everything. Because it never cute. Still not cute.”

The lawsuit filed by Munnings challenges the tax assessments and seeks to hold the Belize Tax Service accountable for what he describes as incorrect calculations.