Mustique firm citing politics among reasons for closure owes millions in taxes
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves responded to a statement made by James Archibald Design Limited in which the company cited a number of factors, including the political and economic situation in St. Vincent, as contributing to its closure.
Gonsalves, while speaking on WEFM’s Issue at Hand Programme said he usually does not know a person’s tax status unless a matter comes before him to do something, like in this particular case, and urged Archibald not to malign St. Vincent and the Grenadines, saying since the statement is in the public domain, some core facts should be made known.
“I’m really reluctant to do what I’m about to do here because the political environment is stable and the economy is on the uptick, and so are the activities on Mustique.” “The fact is that this company has been delinquent in its payment of various taxes, corporate taxes, value added taxes, and the like, for some time.”
Gonsalves said the matter came to his attention some time in 2019 when Mr. Archibald himself applied for citizenship, and the records will show that he asked for a special branch report and for checks to be made about the company’s status in respect of various taxes and nis payments.
“I made that notation in a file from early 2019; when all the relevant information came to me by the end of 2020, Mr. Archibald’s tax liability was humongous, close to $4 million on various ranges of taxes, and I wrote the following for the Cabinet secretary in respect of his application.”
“I will not give favorable consideration to Mr. Archibald’s application for citizenship until he liquidates his company’s indebtedness to the tax authorities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His company flagrantly ignores its obligation to pay VAT, which is already collected by him on behalf of the government. PAYE, which is also trust money collected on behalf of the government, was “not up to par.”
“The memo from the Comptroller of Inland Revenue speaks towards his initiation of arrangements to resolve his tax indebtedness.” Let him resolve them. I believe Inland Revenue is being fair to him. The matter probably should be brought before the DPP, the Director of Public Prosecutions. But that is a judgment call for the Comptroller, not me, and that is as it should be. However, as the minister responsible for citizenship, I cannot proceed any further with this application until the tax issues are satisfactorily resolved. I made that notation on January 14, 2021.
“Because of an action by the Inland Revenue Department, matters improved, but they were still not good enough. There were still some things outstanding. And then they applied for a gentleman to be the construction project manager, a gentleman from the United Kingdom, for a work permit and temporary residence, and a memo came to me sometime in late June, and it went before the Cabinet in July 2022, and I wrote on it, “Not for approval.”
“I said James Archibald Designs Ltd. is in an unsatisfactory condition for both PAYE and VAT, as well as for his personal income tax. However, by December 5th, a memo came, and I saw it on the 8th or 12th, and his personal income tax was in good order, both the file-in status and payment status. But there were some questions of an unsatisfactory nature in relation to VAT.
“However, there was a notation from the Comptroller of Inland Revenue.
“Please be advised that the taxpayer has entered into a payment arrangement with the Inland Revenue Department towards the settlement of whatever is outstanding. And so that is insofar as his own personal application is concerned; he had a residence before, and now he wanted to have this upgraded to citizenship”.
Gonsalves said, in so far as the Mustique company was concerned, he had been in touch with them on an ongoing basis in relation to this matter. The dissolution of JAD leaves over 90 workers on the bread line.
