Dear Editor,
A fixed tax threshold that makes no provision for dependant allowances is unconstitutional, heartless and wrong.
Our country has a fixed tax threshold which prohibited parents and guardians from applying for dependant tax free allowances for children before taxation. These unjust, unreasonable and unconstitutional innovations took away the right of spouses and children to live free from hunger, as required by Article 40 of the Constitution of Guyana.
It also violates Article 38 D which provides for the right of every child to have maintenance and accommodation from their parent or guardian. While the $35,000 a month income tax threshold may be a little reasonable for an individual, it is unreasonable and unjust for an entire family. We must have tax-free allowances for our children.
The government must be made to understand the plight of the masses of poorly paid Guyanese, and revert to the former system.
If a man refuses to provide for the welfare of his children he can be taken to court and be jailed.
This means that expenses related to the upbringing of children are the expenses of parents or guardians which must rise above all else; and it therefore means that the authorities must appreciate that dependant allowances must become part of the tax system so there will be some sort of consistency with the income tax law and the social welfare laws.
In the business sector, income tax is charged after the expenses of a business are covered, and it should be applied when the expenses of a family are covered.
In the past before dependant allowances were removed, the basic living expense of families used to be covered before the income tax deductions were considered. But now it is only the working people’s basic living expenses that are covered by the income tax threshold, and that excludes rent and utility bills. In reality, the $1,150 per day can only provide basic foodstuff for a person, and that is less than the cost of snacks used by a Parliamentarian when they meet for a few hours.
The fixed tax threshold may also create many social problems such as a system of ‘runnings‘ where some persons may pay an accountant to prepare false income
and expenditure statements so they can retain a dependency allowance for their wife and children. The poor people of this country have to resort to creative ways of surviving, while those politicians are offered a host of exemptions.
The arguments for the approval of the law that introduced the income tax threshold and removed the dependant allowances were false all along. One argument was that persons had been submitting false birth certificates to claim parenthood or guardianship for children, and that the Inland Revenue Department could not have coped with the task of maintaining the checks and balances to determine the validity of documents submitted.
Today we have computers to check millions of documents per day. What will be the argument now? The PPP would never make an effort to change this unjust law which taxes the money for food for the children.
Government functionaries preach about the right of the child but do not want to grant any allowance for children. The current income tax laws constitute a crime against our wives and children.
The Government has no shame.
The administration is implementing laws that will give government officials big pay and benefits out of the taxpayers money when they demit office. I hereby ask His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo to make a statement on this issue.
I hereby ask the private sector and the business community to join in this fight for a better tax system. Let us fight for an income tax allowance for at least one thousand dollars a day for a wife ($30,416.66 per month) and for each child who is a minor six hundred dollars a day ($18,250.00 per month). Our country could afford this.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Carrington
AFC Region 4
Councillor
