With official concerns over the evasion of taxes and indifference to the payment of National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions by many emerging business enterprises having become an issue of some measure of official concern, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond last Friday used the forum of the Small Business Bureau (SBB) Small Business awards ceremony to remind business owners of their obligation to comply with the laws of the land through their payment of taxes and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions.
In the face of the proliferation, in recent years, of small businesses in several economic sectors, the authorities have become increasingly challenged in their efforts to ensure that tax and NIS payment obligations are met.
While the authorities have, over time, sought increasingly to link the facilitation of transactions important to the smooth running of small businesses to their compliance with the laws governing the payment of taxes and NIS contributions, that appears not to have done a great deal to reduce the level of delinquency.
