LANDS AND BUILDINGS TAXES ACT

CHAPTER 76:04
LANDS AND BUILDINGS TAXES ACT
An Act relating to taxes on Lands and Buildings outside the limits of the Municipal
Areas.
[30TH APRIL 1920]

1. This Act may be cited as the Lands and Buildings Taxes Act.

2. In this Act—
“annual taxable value” means the gross annual rental value, subject only to the
deductions and allowances mentioned in section 10;
“Appeal Board” means the Appeal Board constituted under section 3 of the Tax Appeal
Board Act;
“assessment” includes re-assessment; and “assess” shall be construed accordingly;
“building” includes any dwelling house, warehouse, store, storage tank, shop,
counting-house, manufactory, factory, workshop, stable, shed, and any other
building whatsoever;
“Commissioner” means the Commissioner of State Lands appointed under section 5 of
the State Lands Act;
“District Revenue Officer” means the Revenue Officer in charge of a District Revenue
Office;
“owner” includes the owner, lessee or occupier of any land or building, and the receiver,
attorney, agent, manager, guardian or committee of any such owner, lessee or
occupier; and includes any other person in charge or having the control or
possession of any land or building in right of the owner, or having the possession in
his or her own right or in that of his wife or as guardian of any other person of any
such land or building;
“tax” includes any annual tax assessed under this Act; andany tax, rate, charge,
assessment or imposition to which the provisions of this Act may be declared by any
Act to be applicable.

3. (1) On all lands and buildings not being within the Cities of Port-of-Spain and
San Fernando, or the Boroughs of Arima and Point Fortin, there shall be raised, levied,
collected and paid to the Comptroller of Accounts for the use of the State the following
taxes:
(a) on land—
(i) up to a maximum acreage of 10 acres—an annual tax of $10.00 an
acre or part thereof;
(ii) in excess of 10 acres and up to a maximum of 100 acres—an
annual tax of $10.00 an acre on the first 10 acres and $15.00 on


every acre or part thereof in excess of 10 acres;
(iii) in excess of 100 acres—an annual tax of $10.00 an acre on the
first 10 acres, $15.00 on every acre in excess of 10 acres up to a
maximum of 100 acres and $20.00 on every acre or part thereof in
excess of 100 acres; and
(b) on every building the annual taxable value of which does not exceed
twenty-four dollars an annual tax of ninety-six cents; and on every
building the annual taxable value of which exceeds twenty-four dollars,
an annual tax of seven and one-half per cent of such taxable value.
Buildings usually described as barracks containing separate tenements severally
occupied, shall be taxed at the rate of ninety-six cents for each separate tenement,
whether such buildings form part of any structure for the manufacture or preparation of
produce or not.

(2) The following lands and buildings shall be exempted from the tax imposed
by this Act:
(a) buildings occupied solely as churches, chapels, and places of public
worship of any religious denomination;
(b) school-houses, offices, and playgrounds of any school established under
the Education Act;
(c) hospitals, whether public or estates’, asylums, alms-houses, and
institutions for the relief of the poor whether occupied for such purposes
by public officers or private persons;
(d) lands and buildings belonging to and in the occupation of the State or its
immediate servants for public purposes;
(e) lands and buildings belonging to and in the occupation of the University
College of the West Indies or its immediate servants;
(f) lands and buildings belonging to and in the occupation of the Council of
Legal Education.

(3) The Minister may from time to time by Order prescribe that in respect of any
specified year or years and in respect of any specified area or areas the tax on buildings
imposed by this Act shall be at higher rates than those prescribed in subsection (1); but
the Minister shall in no case prescribe a rate which exceeds ten per cent of the annual
taxable value of any building liable to such tax.

4. All taxes to which this Act is applicable, and as to which no special provision as
to time of payment is made, shall become due and payable on the 31st March in every
year in respect of the year ending on the next ensuing 31st December.

5. (1) In Wards in which there is a highway authority the owner of any land taxable
under this Act shall make a return on or before the 31st October in each year according to
such form as may from time to time be approved by the Minister specifying the name of
the occupier, if any, of such land or any part thereof, and of the owner or occupier of
every building on such land and the annual value of every such building.

(2) Such return shall be filed in the District Revenue Office and shall be deemed to be and form part of the assessment roll of the particular Ward in which the land or
building in respect of which the return is made is situated.
6. Every person who at any time comes into possession in his own right, or in that
of his wife, or as attorney or agent or guardian or committee of any other person, of any
land or building by grant from the State, purchase, devolution, devise, lease or agreement
for lease, or otherwise shall, within one month next after he comes into possession, make
to the District Revenue Officer of the Ward within which such land or building is situated
a return according to such form as may from time to time be approved by the Minister,
specifying such land or building, the local situation and annual value of such building, the
quantity, extent, and cultivation of such land, and the title under which such possession
has been acquired.

7. Any owner of any land or building who wilfully fails or neglects to make any
such return as required, and in such form as may from time to time be approved by the
Minister, or makes any such return which is wilfully untrue in any particular is liable on
summary conviction to a fine of four hundred dollars, to be recovered on the complaint of
the District Revenue Officer. A complaint for an offence against this section shall be
made within three years from the time when the matter of such complaint arose, and not
after

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