Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert said yes­ter­day that the tax amnesty and na­tion­al in­sur­ance amnesty in­tro­duced by the Fi­nance Act 2024, which ex­pired on De­cem­ber 31, 2024, will be ex­tend­ed to Jan­u­ary 31, 2025.

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, Im­bert said the nec­es­sary or­ders to ex­tend the dead­line will be pub­lished by to­day and be retroac­tive to De­cem­ber 31, 2024.

The min­is­ter re­mind­ed the pub­lic that the ex­tend­ed tax amnesty cov­ers penal­ties and in­ter­est in re­la­tion to the fol­low­ing un­paid tax­es for pre­vi­ous years and the year of in­come end­ing De­cem­ber 31, 2023:

• In­di­vid­ual in­come tax

• Gam­ing amuse­ment tax

• Pay-as-you earn (PAYE)

• With­hold­ing tax

• Health sur­charge

• Ho­tel ac­com­mo­da­tion tax

• Cor­po­ra­tion tax

• Club gam­ing tax

• Busi­ness levy

• Green fund levy

• In­sur­ance pre­mi­um tax

• Tax on fi­nan­cial ser­vices

• Val­ue added tax (VAT)

• Pe­tro­le­um prof­its tax (PPT)

• Sup­ple­men­tal pe­tro­le­um tax (SPT)

• Un­em­ploy­ment levy

• Stamp du­ty

The ex­tend­ed tax amnesty al­so cov­ers penal­ties and in­ter­est for un­paid prop­er­ty tax­es for 2024, which are now due and payable on or be­fore Jan­u­ary 31, 2025.

Im­bert not­ed the na­tion­al in­sur­ance amnesty cov­ers all in­ter­est and penal­ties out­stand­ing on con­tri­bu­tions paid pri­or to Oc­to­ber 1, 2024, and in­ter­est and penal­ties on any con­tri­bu­tions out­stand­ing as at Sep­tem­ber, 2024, where the con­tri­bu­tion is paid dur­ing the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2024 to De­cem­ber 31, 2024.

How­ev­er, the NIS amnesty ap­plies on­ly to em­ploy­ers reg­is­tered with the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board pri­or to Oc­to­ber 1, 2024.

Where a tax­pay­er/em­ploy­er fails to pay his out­stand­ing tax/con­tri­bu­tions dur­ing the ex­tend­ed tax amnesty and na­tion­al in­sur­ance amnesty, i.e. on or be­fore Jan­u­ary 31, 2025, the penal­ties and in­ter­est which would have been payable in re­spect of the fail­ure to pay the tax/con­tri­bu­tions shall be re­vived and be­come payable as if the waiv­er had not been grant­ed, Im­bert said.

Tax ex­emp­tions

In a sep­a­rate news re­lease, Im­bert re­mind­ed the pub­lic that the ex­emp­tion of cus­toms du­ty, VAT, and on­line pur­chase tax on sport­ing equip­ment, elec­tric ve­hi­cle charg­ers be­came ef­fec­tive on Jan­u­ary 1, 2025, in keep­ing with the bud­get state­ment for the 2025 fi­nan­cial year 2025.

The sport­ing equip­ment that has been ex­empt­ed from the three tax­es in­cludes ap­pa­ra­tus for sports in­clud­ing crick­et, foot­ball, net­ball, ten­nis, bas­ket­ball, fenc­ing, archery, eques­tri­an, gym­nas­tics, mar­tial arts and weightlift­ing.