The Editor, Sir:

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said that taxes are the price we pay for civilisation. Thus, if we want to live in a civilised society, it should be incumbent on us all to pay our taxes.

Here in Jamaica, we do not seem to have the natural appetite for paying our taxes. One reason probably has to do with the failure of politicians over the years to ensure that every tax dollar is used to the optimal benefit of the people of this country.

Furthermore, we seem to maintain the most ramshackle, complex and inequitable taxation system in Jamaica. A few reports have been generated over the years recommending the streamlining of the system to make it simpler, more workable and fair. Absent, seemingly, has been the political will.

Unnecessarily complex

We need not continue to make the work of the Government so unwieldy and unnecessarily complex. We must ensure we simplify the tax-reporting process so that our self-employed people, and others, can more easily and willingly comply.

Another reason is this laissez-faire attitude on the part of too many of our citizens, many of whom do not care to comply with rules, laws, conventions and practices that are geared to our having and maintaining an orderly and civilised society.

PAYE workers burdened

One of the problems we have in Jamaica, as accentuated recently by the Bruce Golding administration, is that the majority of the tax burden in Jamaica is being borne by the PAYE workers. Most self-employed people - including many lawyers, doctors, entertainers, taxi drivers, and the like - do not seem to appreciate the importance of paying their fair share of taxes.

Since some of these self-employed people have to be licensed to ply their trade, perhaps a condition of their licences being renewed annually is actual proof of their filing and paying their taxes for the fiscal year immediately preceding. Similar measures must be employed to capture those who are not required to be licensed to ply their trade.

We should allow for the random auditing of self-employed people so that those who choose to deceive us in not reporting their true income can be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Order and discipline must once again be allowed to reign supreme in Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

KEVIN K.O. SANGSTER

sangstek@msn.com