Property Tax Act of 1903 - Jamaica

(1) There shall be paid every year upon all property in the parishes specified in the First Schedule, a tax to be called ""property tax"" at the rates respectively so specified.

(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (3) the Minister may from time to time by order, amend the First Schedule.

(3) Any order made by the Minister under this section shall after four days and within twenty-one days from the date of its publication in the Gazette, be submitted to the House of Representatives, and the House of Representatives may by resolution revoke such order, or confirm it with or without amendment, and the said order shall not have effect unless and until so confirmed.

(4) If any order made by the Minister under this section be not submitted within the said period of twenty-one days to the House of Representatives for confirmation, it shall be deemed to be revoked as a fore said.

The property tax shall be payable by the person in possesion of the property made liable thereto, at at the date when the tax becomes due, and shall be paid to the Collector of Taxes of the parish wherein the said property is situated, or to such other oficcer as may be appointed to receive the same, ans shall be carried to the credit of the Parochial Revenue Fund established under the Parochial Rates and Finance Act. Until paid the said tax shall be a first charge and lien upon the real property liable thereto. 

The Tax Collection Act, other than section 23 thereof and such other provisions as relate to the making of returns and assessments and any enactment amending the same, so far as the same are applicable, shall be incorporated and read as one with this Act, and all taxes due under this Act may be enforced under the powers and provisions of the Tax Collection Act.

(1) In this Act""house"" means any dwelling-house, shop, store, wharf,

warehouse, office, or place of business; ""property"" means any property shown on the Valuation Roll made and settled, or fiom time to time duly altered and amended under the authority of any enact- ment relating to valuation and the Valuation Roll;

""person in possession of property"" means the owner, occupier, mortgagee in possession or other person in actual possession of such property;

""value of property"" means gross value of any property as shown on the Valuation Roll.

In any case in which new properties are added to the Valuation Roll by means of the Collector's assessment or counter-assessment after the first day of April in any year, such assessment or counter-assessment shall be deemed to be also an assessment for the purposes of the Tax Collection Act:

Provided that the minimum value of any property, for the purposes of this Act, shall be in the case of property consisting of land only, or of a house without land, or with land not exceeding a quarter of an acre in extent, forty dollars:

Provided also, that where one and the same person is in possession of more than one lot of property in the same parish each of which consists of land without house, such separate properties, up to and not exceeding forty dollars gross value, may be taken together and reckoned as one property.

(2) In this Act any reference to the unimproved value of property in whatever terms shall be deemed to be a reference to the unimproved value of land within the meaning of the Land Valuation Act.

(I) all buildings and lands, belonging to any social, charitable or cultural organization approved by the Minister and used solely for the purposes of such organization :Provided nevertheless that exemption under this section of buildings and lands belonging to a School shall not extend to any such building or land unless the same is used primarily for School purposes.

(2) The exemptions specified in subsection (l)(g) and (h) shall not apply to property forming part of the assets of the National Insurance Fund established under the National Insurance Act.

(3) For the purposes of this section the expression ""Preparatory School"" means a school providing an education designed to prepare pupils of age eight to twelve years specifically for entry to a recognized Secondary School, and giving a progressive course of general education (with the requisite organization, curriculum, teaching staff and equipment) suitable for that purpose.

Property in respect of which quit rents have been redeemed, shall be relieved from the payment of so much of the property tax imposed by this Act as shall be equal to the annual amount of such redeemed quit rents, calculated on the acreage of such exempted land as shall remain the property of the owner at the date of this Act :

Provided that the right to such exemption may at any time be commuted by such owner for a payment of ten times the annual amount of the quit rents redeemed; and shall be so commuted if such owner shall at any time sell or otherwise dispose of such property, and whenever such

commutation is effected, it shall be lawful for the Minister to direct the necessary payment out of the Treasury to be made to such owner, and thereafter all right to such relief or exemption shall cease in regard to the said land.

 

(1) There shall be exempt from the property tax-

(a) all buildings held in trust exclusively for public

religious worship or for religious worship and for use as schoolrooms, together with the lands immediately attached to them used as church yards or burial grounds;

(b) all buildings and lands used solely for charitable or educational purposes and supported solely by charitable or missionary funds;

(c) all buildings and lands belonging to and used by the University of the West Indies;

(d) all buildings and lands belonging to Primary Schools, inspected by an officer designated by the Minister responsible for education, or to Agricultural Industrial or Vocational Schools approved by the Minister, or to the endowed schools specified in the Second Schedule;

(e) all buildings and lands, belonging to Secondary Schools receiving any payment out of the Consolidated Fund;

(f) all buildings and lands, belonging to Secondary Schools, Commercial Schools or Preparatory Schools with not less than twelve scholars, in

average attendance, each such Secondary, Commercial or Preparatory School being certified by an officer designated by the Minister responsible for education to be efficient;

(g)) all unoccupied property belonging to, and all property belonging to and in the actual occupation of, the Crown, the Government of this Island, or any Parish Council, or the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation;

(h) all freehold property vested in the Commissioner of Lands and in the actual occupation of the Crown, the Government of this Island, a Parish Council, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation or the holder of a public office by virtue of his employment;

(i) all buildings and lands belonging to and used by the Council of Legal Education;

(1) all buildings, belonging to any church, which are used as church rectories, caretaker cottages or church halls, together with the lands immediately attached to them and belonging to such church, so, however, that the area of land so exempt in each case shall not exceed one acre;

(k) all buildings and lands belonging to, and used solely for the purposes of, any private hospital approved by the Minister.

(1) The Minister may remit the whole or any part of the property tax payable by any person or any class of persons if he is satisfied that it would be just and equit- able to do so.

(2) Notice of any remission of property tax made pursuant to subsection (1) shall be published in the Gazette.