INCOME TAX DEPT VS BELIZE TELE MEDIA

When we last left the case of the Income Tax Department versus Belize Telemedia Limited et al, revenue magistrate Edd Usher had issued an arrest warrant for the company’s chairman, Dean Boyce, because more than two million dollars owed in business tax arrears had not been paid.

Telemedia coughed up the cash within hours, but today, attorneys Eamon Courtenay and Elson Kaseke made it clear that their client only did so because the company’s top executive was faced with the prospect of going to jail. Courtenay and Kaseke had sought an “11th-hour” injunction against Usher’s orders on Tuesday, but the application was dismissed by Justice Samuel Awich.

So today, both men were back before Awich, asking him to interpret Section 112 of the Supreme Court’s Judicature Act. In his arguments to the judge, Courtenay contended that the under the law, orders made by the inferior court (the Magistrate’s Court) are set aside once an appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court. He maintained that “there is no bar in the law that prevents the taxpayer from appealing the decision, and the law, in immaculately clear language, calls for the suspension of Magistrate Edd Usher’s orders.”

Courtenay went on to claim that that the Income Tax Commissioner’s decision to even obtain a judgment debtor summons from the Magistrate’s Court is “fundamentally flawed,” and that the department had “jumped the gun and jumped into the wrong frying pan.”

According to him, “a four-million dollar debt should have been dealt with by the Supreme Court,” as the sum exceeded the Magistrate Court’s jurisdiction.

That point was put to the Attorney General’s representative, senior counsel Lois Young, by Justice Awich, who said, “Why did they take it to the Magistrate’s Court? It’s creating a lot of headache today. The Chief Collector could have gotten the money without going to court.”

Young’s response was that it was not her place to question the Commissioner’s choice, as he (the Commissioner) was acting within his discretionary powers in an effort to collect the taxes.

Young disputed Telemedia’s position that the Magistrate’s orders are to be set aside, as in her view, the Income Tax and Business Tax Act is “seamless in all its stages,” because it is designed to ensure revenues to the Government. She believes that once an income tax assessment is made, it is due.

Young told the court, “Taxpayers must pay now and dispute later,” the same position adopted by Magistrate Usher when he issued the arrest warrant for Boyce.

Justice Awich intends to deliver his interpretation in the matter at 2:30 on Friday, July 18. Following the proceedings, Telemedia’s counsel told us that the judge’s decision is key, as the company is involved in separate court action for business tax arrears for other months. Of note is that today, Courtenay told the court that the second half of the four million dollars in taxes has been paid.

However, Telemedia has filed notice of an appeal of the Magistrate Court’s June 24 orders, but a date has yet to be fixed for that hearing.

(GOTTEN FROM THE AMANDALA)