A meeting between the government and the few Gaming Operators that are not compliant with the new gaming taxes is scheduled for this weekend, according to Attorney General Carl Bethel.
This comes after Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said that 70 per cent of operators were not compliant with the law.
The Attorney General declined to say what will happen to operators if they continue to not pay their taxes.
“I would not wish rattle the savor at this point, we’re in discussions and we’ll see what happens.
“There’s always a resort to nuclear options at a later stage, but we’re in discussions. We have a meeting for this weekend and we’ll see where it goes,” Mr. Bethel said.
Last week Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest told reporters that the government’s revenue in gaming taxes was down some $5 million.
As a result, he added, the government’s projected revenue would be affected.
A new tax regime came in effect January 1st 2019 for all licensed gaming house to pay 15 per cent on $0 to $24 million dollars of revenue and operators earning anything greater than $24 million will pay 17.5 per cent.
Based on the increased tax rate, the government had expected to collect approximately $35 million in taxes.
Last May, the government announced that a 5 per cent stamp tax was to be applied to all gaming patrons deposits, all non-online and digital sales.
A sliding scale tax was also announced climbing as high as 50 per cent; both taxes were to take effect July 1st 2018.
However, gaming operators filed an application in the Supreme Court last August placing a hold on the implementation of the proposed taxes.
