Dear Subscriber,
In October of last year I made an inquiry into the Bahamas Dept of Inland Revenue that is responsible for the assessment and collection of Real Property Taxes associated with our land and home on Pigeon Cay. After we moved our new mailing address in the States was never updated with the Bahamas and we stopped receiving tax bills. I subsequently discovered two interesting items to share with you.
First, in 2013 the Dept. of Inland Revenue offered an amnesty program for all property owners that had not previously registered their property and any improvements. I registered my property under the Amnesty Act before the deadline. Unfortunately, there was a death in the Dept. and many amnesty applications and assessments were not properly handled, including mine. So the first thing is, if you’ve experienced any irregularities with your Real Property Tax Bill or Assessment, as we did, you should contact the Dept. of Inland Revenue to have the matter investigated.
The second item is the Dept. of Inland Revenue informed me it is now prosecuting delinquent and/or unregistered properties and filing liens against the properties and in some cases actually auctioning the properties to satisfy back taxes. I was further informed that contacting the Dept. of Inland Revenue and opening an inquiry (via email or letter) into my property taxes is sufficient to forestall or halt any lien or auction actions, not that any action had been started in my case. The Dept. didn’t indicate how delinquent taxes had to be in order to start an action. Either way, it’s important they have your correct mailing address for any correspondence to reach you.
On a related note, as a property owner, I am not qualified to appraise the value of my own property and improvements. As a result, I had self-appraised my home and land too high and am in the process of having this valuation corrected.
Additionally, any homeowner who is interested in renting his or her home must be current in the payment of all Real Property Taxes in order to register their home as an Owner Occupied Rental Home
I recommend checking the Bahamas Dept of Inland Revenue website for more information.
Warm Regards,
James D. Honeycutt
P.S. I’ve started the inquiries into forming a legal Homeowners Association for Pigeon Cay and will keep you updated on that progress. It’s mostly lots of reading for now.