NIA-CHARLESTOWN, NEVIS (January 10^TH, 2011) — Employees of the Tax Reform Unit in Charlestown are hand delivering remittance forms to the island’s businesses. This, according to Assistant Comptroller of the Value Added Tax [VAT], Ms. Kimone Moving is to ensure that the appropriate forms are completed by the Jan. 15, 2011 deadline.

In a recent interview with the Department of Information, Ms. Moving encouraged businesses to utilise her staff at the VAT office, adding that her employees were competent to assist business heads with their VAT affairs.

“We encourage our businesses who are registered, to file by the 15^th to avoid any penalties on your accounts as it relates to VAT so all businesses who are registered, I encourage you to come into the office. If you need any assistance, we are ready and willing and able to assist you to fill out your VAT return forms,” Ms. Moving said.

She also commended the businesses on Nevis for their diligence since the Nov. 1, 2010 implementation of VAT.

“We are pleased to note that the general public has been very cooperative to date and we encourage them to continue to cooperate so that they can be compliant with the VAT Act,” she said.

With approximately 200 companies registered to collect and charge VAT on Nevis, the Tax Reform Unit has kept a close relationship with the Nevisian public in an effort to ascertain feedback regarding the VAT implementation and execution processes.

“Generally, as we would have stated in our public relations initiatives, that some of the prices would go down, some will go up and some will remain the same so the general public has indicated that they have seen an increase in some items and a slight decrease in others,” Ms. Moving explained.

When asked by the Department of Information’s Hazel Francis about the status of the zero-rated and exempt supplies, Ms. Moving said that items were added to the list of exempted items.

“The zero-rated items are pretty much the same but for the exempt supplies, we had an addition of the household pesticides [that’s] in addition to the agriculture pesticides. Additionally, in terms of the policy decisions that were taken, we have concrete and ready-mix concrete also being exempt: a benefit of course to the general public and to the construction sector,” she highlighted.