Hotel Amnesty Program Expires End of October

Abil Castaneda

In the normal course, these tourist properties would be required to pay their arrears and penalties upon registration. Director of Quality Management and Capacity Development, Abil Castaneda encourages these property owners to take advantage of the amnesty program as soon as possible, given the fact that there is an expiration date of December thirty-first, 2022.

Abil Castaneda, Director of Quality Management and Capacity Development, B.T.B.

“I think it is various factors, to be honest with you. But one of the main ones is that when you go on to an apartment you want to sell, you can open an account on Airbnb and these other platforms with the requirement of needing to show that you are licensed and registered. So that is actually in parallel  of what we are working on with Airbnb which is the major player here in Belize, to ensure that is a part of the process for them to be a approved as an Airbnb facility moving into the future. But, before we have that, we know that are still a lot of properties that are out there. The reality is when we do, if a property is coming in today that was operating for five years, when they come in the process we would have to do a tax assessment on them for the five years which they were in operations and they would be liable to pay those taxes, and back taxes, and penalties. So as a way to promote the recovery process for tourism, to formalize the informal sector, we at the B.T.B. decided let’s give a break.”