KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) hosted the first of its Virtual Biz Zone webinar for the year on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. The weekly series is geared toward providing robust training programmes for entrepreneurs within the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
The series began under the theme: Discovering the Convenience of the Tax Administration of Jamaica’s (TAJ) Online Services. The JBDC aims to provide relevant informational sessions that support entrepreneurs within the sector and it being tax season, the JBDC knows the relevance of sessions of this nature to the sector.
Miss Antoinette Anderson, Tax Education Officer with the TAJ updated entrepreneurs with a comprehensive presentation on the organisation’s recently updated online services. Miss Anderson detailed the scope of the organisation’s operations, what is new with their online services, online payment options and channels along with other relevant features of the website that can assist entrepreneurs.
The TAJ website has a non-logon payment feature where individuals can complete payment for certain service offerings and users are also encouraged to capitalise on the E-Service option that provides individuals with a wider scope of services. Miss Anderson noted, “registering and creating an account with the E-Services logon system allows individuals to be able to view balances for all their tax types and also request a statement of account, to see line by line items as well as their filing history.”
Anderson noted that “March 15 is slowly approaching and that means every self-employed individual must submit their tax returns or the report you give to the government regarding your activities. All of your returns become due on March 15, 2022, and they must be submitted online.” The TAJ is also offering a Special Taxpayer Assistance Programme that will run from February to the due date in March. It is appointment based, taxpayers must organise records and compute figures and should have available login information to access the portal.
The TAJ’s site has a resource page called the “How to Guide” that details responses and provides pictorial instructions for individuals that desire to get clarity on various procedures. The TAJ is looking forward to providing a better online experience and is in the process of expanding their online offerings.
The JBDC Virtual Biz Zone has been held since April 2020 and has seen more than 15,000 participants. The sessions are held every Tuesday at 10:00 am via Zoom and interested persons are encouraged to join by registering at www.jbdc.net. The sessions can also be watched on JBDC’s YouTube page.
