Trade License Bill: What are Villages and Who are Entertainers?

OJ Elrington

In scrutinizing the language of the proposed legislation, attorney OJ Elrington says that persons conducting business at the micro-level in villages will also be affected by the new law once it is enacted.  He goes on to share the legal definitions that pertain to villages, as well as entertainers.

OJ Elrington, Attorney-at-law

“It says, every person who wishes to commence a trade within the limits of any town shall, before the commencement of such a business commit to the board of the town wherein the purposes is to set up his trade.  Town.  Let’s go to what is the definition of a town for the purposes of this act and it’s in the third page of the substantive act, in the definitions.  It says a town, a town means any town mentioned and described in the schedule to the Town Councils Act or the Belize City Council Act.  B: the City of Belmopan established under the Belmopan City Council Act or any village declared under the Village Council Act.  The act itself tells you, every single place in Belize, including villages, is covered by this act. According to the act, in black and white, under the definitions, it says peddler means a person who sells or exposes goods for sale in any public place.  Good.  Let’s move on.  Let’s talk about the other big lie that these tax suckers are telling.  They claim that the act is only for, when the tax on entertainers, the tax is only for big entertainers, established entertainers, those who are having huge concerts.  So I don’t know if you know but there is a feature in PDF that you can search to determine if a word appears anywhere in the document, if the word appears anywhere in the document.  But let’s begin first with the definition of entertainers.  Again, the definition segment of entertainers… it says, entertainer means a person who performs any act for profit, including any acrobat, circus performer, dancer, singer, musician, comedian and disc jockey.  Nowhere does it says any person who makes over ten thousand dollars, over a thousand dollars.  It gives no qualifying criteria.  Any person who performs any of these acts for profit is subject to this act.”