Who should register and file for Personal Income Tax?
If you satisfy any of the following criteria, you should register for PIT and file an annual return:
- All individuals whose annual employment income exceeds $25,000
- All self-employed persons
- Contributory pensioners with an annual income (from any source) above $40,000
- Pensioners under 60 years whose annual income exceeds $25,000
- All individuals who are in receipt of income from a business (rental or otherwise)
Filing and Payment Obligations
Filing Deadline
A Personal Income Tax return is required to be filed once a year by April 30, for the previous calendar year's earnings. For example, your 2021 return (what you earned in 2021) should be filed in TAMIS by April 30 of the following year.
How do you know what to pay?
When you complete your PIT return using TAMIS, the tax you must pay will be calculated and shown to you. Payments can be made online in TAMIS, cheque payments submitted via drop box or over-the-counter at any of our locations.
Payment Deadlines
For Individuals/Employees - With income of less than 25% from business:
- half of the tax due is payable on or before April 30th and
- the balance on or before the 30th September.
Failure to pay will attract penalties and interest.
Individuals with income from business/property and Self-employed Persons
Partners and individuals with more than 25% of income from business:
- quarterly prepayments must be made on or before June 15th, September 15th and December 15th
- with the balance payable on or before April 30th.
Prepayments are calculated based on the previous year's tax payable or may be determined by the Barbados Revenue Authority on request.
Failure to pay will attract penalties and interest.
Penalties and Interest
For Income Tax the following penalties and interest obtain.
Late Filing Penalty of:
- $500.00 effective from income year 2011.
- $100.00 prior to income year 2011
- 5% penalty is applicable to the unpaid balance due by by April 30.
Late Payment Penalty of:
- 5% penalty is applicable to the unpaid balance due by by April 30.
Interest of:
- 1% per month is applied to outstanding tax and penalty.
Notice of Assessment
Notices of Assessment are issued after returns in respect of an income year (i.e calendar year for individuals, fiscal year for corporations) are filed and assessed.
Taxpayers, who dispute their assessments may object online via the TAMIS website within twenty-one days of receiving the Notice of Assessment, stating the precise ground(s) of your objection.
The assessments to which objections are made are reviewed and "Notices of Re-assessment" or "Notices of Confirmation" are forwarded to the taxpayer.
If you are not satisfied by the decision of the Barbados Revenue Authority, you can appeal to the BRA Appeals Tribunal. If you have not received satisfaction via this channel, you may seek further recourse in the High Court.
Losses
As a self-employed person, if your business made a loss in the income year, you are still required to file a return. This loss may then be carried forward to be set off against future profits.