Chinese nationals charged for GST offense
GST continues to crack down on persons who do not pay their taxes. This morning, two business persons were arraigned in court for separate GST offenses following sting operations earlier this year. In the first case, thirty-one year old business woman, Xue Fei Cao, the owner of Number One store in Hattieville village was arraigned for Failure to Utilize a Programmable Cash Register and Failure to issue a Tax Receipt. Cao pleaded not guilty but asked the court for a long adjournment since she is pregnant. GST officer, Jacqueline Meighan offered to give her an expeditious trial to begin on April second 2013. Cao was released on bail. The second person to be arraigned was Shi Qin Chen, owner of Qin Shop in Belize City, who was charged with similar offenses and he too pleaded not guilty. Chen’s case will go trial on April tenth 2013.
Oh but it cannot be that these are the only ones not complying. There are hundreds of other Chinese doing the same thing. Perhaps these two were taken in because they refused to pay a bribe.
To be fair, it is not only Chinese businesses that ignore the law, in some towns it seems hard to find any businesses that obey!
Someday our entire tax and revenue system needs to be examined and maybe a better and more effective one put in place. Right now, tax collection is definitely hit and miss. And too often who you know and who you pay determines whether you will be hit.