 Property owners, let's get digital. Property taxes for 2024-25 are due April 1. Payments can be made by April 30 in full, half-yearly, or quarterly installments. Pay via these options. Online at jamaicatax.gov.jm, TAJ Mobile App, Mobile Tax Collection Unit, NCB Online Banking, and Scotiah Online and Mobile App, call 888-TAX-HELP or visit www.jamaicatax.gov.jm for details. A message from Tax Administration Jamaica. Welcome back to the Sports Mac Zones. Tax season and Tax Administration Jamaica is imploring all property owners to pay up their property taxes that became due on April 1. Property owners however have until April 30, 2024 to pay the unchanged amount online or at any alternate payment options. We're joining us in studio this afternoon to share more on how and where owners can pay their property tax is Courtney Johnson, Taxpayer Education Officer. Welcome to the Sports Mac Zone Courtney, how are you? I'm doing pretty well, thank you and it's a pleasure being here on behalf of Tax Administration Jamaica and everybody in the diaspora and Jamaicans all over the globe, it's a pleasure being here, thank you. So happy to have you on set and you know when people hear property tax, they instantly roll their eyes because it's like I have to give up my money, right? Can you explain to us and for of course our young viewers, what is property tax? Okay, so property tax is that tax that the government of Jamaica through the Property Tax Act levy on each person that owns a property in Jamaica and this is to help to maintain the uses of this taxes to maintain street lights, garbage collection, etc., etc., in one's community. So it is a part of community development and local development at the local area by the local government authority so that Jamaica can be the place to live, work, dwell and smell fresh. Right, so you have of course outlined the importance of paying property tax, but when does property tax become due? I know well it went on April 1st, you have given an extension to April 3rd, but is it every April? Yes, property tax becomes due April 1, so everybody should have that in their minds right now that yes, your property tax start, save some of the money after March 15 for April 1 because that's the time when it becomes due. According to the law, according to statute, that's the due date. Now due date is very, very important because lots of persons think that due date doesn't matter, it matters because after the due date, if you're not given an extension, then there are penalties that do apply. So we encourage everyone to abide by the due date. How big are the penalties? 15% for being late and there is a 10% penalty for interest for not doing it on time. I just have one more before I pass over to the man who actually has to pay property tax. Are there anybody that's exempt from property tax? Yes, most definitely. There are some organizations that are exempt and, for example, a church with a certain acreage of property, they are exempt from paying property tax as long as that property is for religious purpose or for charitable means. Charitable organizations are exempt and certain other organizations. Yeah, well Courtney, we have spent this week at least two segments of the show this week saying thanks to our sponsors because you are one of our sponsors. Earlier this week we had the St. Lucia Tourism Authority coming in here because they are also sponsors of the Sportsmax zone. I want to ask you this because there are a lot of Caribbean viewers watching the show. This show goes to 26 to 30 different countries. Are there significant variations of how the administration of property tax is? You referenced the Jamaican audience just now, but from your knowledge is property tax administration and the rules surrounding it pretty standard like throughout Caricum? It is in Jamaica we generally look at property tax as affordability. The government looks at it in terms of can the Jamaican audience, given the per capita income, can they afford this? Can they afford this property tax rate at this time of the year per property per local? And then you would then go ahead to look at, so as it stands right now in Jamaica, the rate that's being used on the books is for the year 2013. So it is affordable for Jamaicans now because that year rate of property tax is being used. Of course it would be a challenge if the year 2023 is used as the rate. So the government continues to monitor and looks at these decisions in a way to improve property tax administration by ensuring that it is affordable, persons can pay it and it is in line of course with Caribbean rates. Yeah, I'm going to ask this as well because there would be the question with regard to what the rates are aligned to. Is it the size of your property or the value of your property or in a manner of speaking those things are related aren't they? Yes they are. They are indeed. In some sense what the government in determining through the national land agency and the authorities that rates these properties, they look at where it's located, the local, rural, compared to town centers, compared to residential neighborhoods, compared to low-line areas. And there is a value band that's placed in this perspective and hence that's where you have the rates coming in and that's where they do the kind of waiting right there to arrive at. And then also in addition to that there are ranges. So if your property having been valued is between the value band of $1 to $300,000 you pay a flat rate. And for most persons who are in that value band it is $1,000 affordable. However, as your property value increases then you go into the other bands. You can go into $2 million to $5 million and then you pay a different rate. And of course the rates are on our website so persons can appraise themselves of these rates. Yeah, at this time of the year I see a lot of ads on television and radio urging people to pay up their taxes. So it does appear to me as if people are unwilling to pay these taxes and they have to be nudged. I'm just saying. Is that so? Well I'm going to put it three ways. There are those who don't understand the value of paying property taxes, what it does for a community. I mean I can't begin to imagine if no garbage collection is had because no funds are available from the persons living in the community. But that's what property tax helps want to do. And there are those who would like to preserve their value of their property as a matter of fact preserve their property. So they know that if they do not pay up then there are consequences. And of course like grandma used to make sure she wake up. She wake up early early as April 1, come and find the tax office. And I guess those were the days when the donkey was the preferred choice of transportation. But she would be riding that donkey straight to make sure that her property taxes are paid. So we have those three sets of persons. Persons and once grandma understands the value of maintaining property values. If you have dirty streets, garbage filled communities then the value of your property goes down. However when you pay the property taxes how does it might seem it's a lifetime investment that you cannot afford to miss. Well Courtney you sold the project very well. Yeah and just remind of you was before we wrap this segment again how they can pay. All right so there are several options available to pay your property taxes as you're seeing you could go to our TAJ website that's www.jamaica-tax.gov.jm and you could make your payment using a credit card or a debit card with credit card features. Of course you can download for those with android devices you download the TAJ app keeps you on the go and you can make your property tax payment from there in addition to property tax query and also find a property tax at a tax office where you can go to make your payment or we have other members of the the business community on board such as national commercial bank bank of Nova Scotia you can download their apps and hey you're ready and add tax administration Jamaica as a pay and you're good to go. All right well Courtney Johnson it was a pleasure chatting with you thank you so much of course for being one of our top sponsors of the Sportsmax zone and I urge you to head across and pay your property tax so they can continue sponsoring the Sportsmax zone. We take a break. Thank you.