The Inland Revenue announces the September 28, 2023 dispatch of the 2023 Property Tax bills. The bill shows that the due date is November 27th, 2023. Consequently, property owners will be entitled to the 5% discount for early payment, once the taxes for 2023 are paid before the due date. The bills were generated using the recently acquired Property Tax System.
The system was developed specifically for the Government of Montserrat and is quite robust. Vital security features are embedded in the system with user and data access controls. There is also protection against unexpected user inputs and
actions.
Now that the bills are prepared, it is important to advise our customers that in general, the layout of the bill remains similar to the format used with the previous system. However, this new system provides for details of all registered owners of a property; to be entered separately. Nevertheless, with multiple owners it is not practical for all names to be shown on the bill. Therefore, where there are multiple owners the requirement of Section 23 of the Property Tax Act is applied where use of the words ‘and another’ or ‘and others’ is applicable. In such cases the bill shows
the first owner on the Land Register at the Land Registry followed by the words ‘et al’. Et al covers two or more owners.
Notably absent from the 2023 bills are the amounts due in respect of overdue taxes. This position is unavoidable as the Data Validation process, which is a comparison of the data on the physical records with the electronic system, is incomplete. This information should be available for our next billing cycle.
Given our customers experience over the past few years the management team is aware that the payment of taxes and in particular those using foreign currency has been a major challenge for property owners. Therefore, in late 2022 an online
payment platform was introduced and all property owners or agents can access the portal at their convenience. Hence property owners and agents can pay their taxes by visiting Property Tax Online (mcrs.ms) and following the instructions.
In addition, it is important to point out that, our lone local Commercial Bank no longer accepts any form of foreign currency payment other than wire transfer transactions. Hence, please be informed that we in the Inland Revenue cannot accept foreign currency modes of payment such as personal cheques, bank drafts and money or postal orders. It is also important to note that if you are making a payment via wire transfer, there is a processing charge by the local Financial Institution of XCD$20.00 for each wire transfer. Therefore, when making your payment using the wire transfer mode, kindly increase the amount submitted by XCD$20.00. Where the amounts for charges are not included, the fee will reduce the amount credited to your Property Tax resulting in an unpaid balance on account.
In summary, property owners are assured that the new Property Tax system does not make any changes to the ownership of any property that does not correspond with the Land Registry records. Further, one key feature of the system is that it enables our staff to attend to your queries more efficiently and result in less reliance on our physical records. Furthermore, the payment options now available makes it easier for you our valued customers to pay your Property Taxes on time.