Barbados govt announces Monday as VAT free day

Bridgetown, Barbados: On Saturday, Finance Minister Ryan Straughn announced that the general public would not be needed to pay tax on shopping for Monday. 

“Citizens are exempted from paying the legislated 17.5 per cent value-added tax (VAT) on goods and higher purchase sales“, he cited. 

This decision has been taken by the Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley administration ahead of Christmas, which will surely benefit from this decision to buy groceries and the other stuff. 

The citizens expressed their happiness over the governments’ announcement.  

The Minister asserted, “In filing the VAT, a company must provide sales data or receipt specifically for the VAT holiday. Companies would have to issue a tax invoice to the customer with the value-added tax recorded at zero percent”. 

As the supply is zero-rated, the recovery of input tax is allowed as the business would be entitled to recover the VAT initially paid on the items,” he added. 

While concluding his statement, the Minister highlighted this decision as a win-win term for both the general public and businessmen. 

The products that are available for sale with immediate disbursement or delivery to the consumer on the day and higher purchase sales are the ones counted under VAT.  

On the other hand, the products that aren’t kept in the stock, credit purchases or goods on consignment, motor vehicles, guns, ammunition, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, and the supply of accommodation do not fall under the eligible VAT category, hence, would not be tax exempted for Monday. 

What is VAT? 

A value-added tax – (VAT) is a consumption tax levied on a good repeatedly at every point of sale at which value has been added. VAT is commonly represented as a percentage of the total cost. For instance, if a product is $100 and there is a 15% VAT, the consumer would have to pay $115 for goods.