Kingstown, St Vincent (CMC) — The St Vincent and the Grenadines government says it will give a tax break to any firm or individual employer who pays their workers an end-of-year bonuses of EC$250 (One EC Dollar=US$0.37 cents) or more.
Employees will not be taxed on the first EC$250 on any bonus that they receive,” said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who is also finance minister.
“A private company or any private employer who gives a bonus up to 250 dollars — they can give more …, that worker will not have to pay any tax on that bonus, which means they will save 60-something dollars.
“If they get a bonus of EC$500, they will pay tax on the second EC$250 but not on the first EC$250,” Gonsalves said on his new radio programme, “Ask Prime Minister”.
“And, for the employer, to encourage the employer, half of that EC$250 — the firstEC$ 250 — will go as a tax credit towards the company or the individual’s tax, the corporate tax, for the business,” he said.
He described the tax breaks as “quite a concession”.
Gonsalves said that Anthony “Tony” Regisford, executive director of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, is “ecstatic” about the policy.
“He loves it,” Gonsalves said of Regisford.
“I have talked to several companies, they love it. I mean, I would tell you that Joel Providence of Coreas, he said, ‘Prime Minister, this is very encouraging.‘ I think they are giving about 300 persons bonuses,” Gonsalves said.
The Prime Minister noted that his government will this month pay out EC$3.5 million in wages to road workers.
“We are power washing the market,” he said of the Central Market in Kingstown, adding, “So, the state is doing a number of things.”