GST Gets Gegg

Businessman David Gegg, the owner of Discovery Expeditions and Cruise Solutions, lawyered himself up on Wednesday, December 12th when he made an appearance at the Magistrate’s Court in Belize City to answer to charges of not paying General Sales Tax (GST).

Gegg appeared alongside his attorneys Andrew Marshalleck and Priscilla Banner. A day earlier, Gegg was to have appeared in court on a committal warrant; however, he never showed up, instead his accountant, Sheffield Eck appeared on his behalf. After that court session, the committal warrant was lifted after a meeting was held between Gegg and the GST Department in which the Commissioner of GST allowed him time to pay. Gegg was still asked to reappear in court on Wednesday and he did so before Magistrate Dale Cayetano. 

The GST Department has been after Gegg for the past 6 months for non-payment of GST. Representative for GST, Jacklyn Meighan informed the court that there are two outstanding fines against Gegg. His company Cruise Solutions had owed GST in the sum of $111,530 and his other company, Discovery Expeditions, owes GST in the amount of $152,584. On Tuesday, he made payments to both the accounts which brought the balance on the Cruise Solutions account to $56,584 and $89,912.60 for the Discovery Expeditions account. He now has an outstanding $146,496.90. Gegg agreed to make payments on the balance by February of 2013.

The case was then adjourned until February 15th at which time, according to Gegg’s attorney, Andrew Marshalleck, payments would have been made in full and the matter would be settled as agreed.

In a similar case of the GST Department aggressively going after delinquent business owners, In July of 2011, the owner of Neon Plastics Catherine Barothy had already been placed on a bus to be taken to the Hattieville Prison when a payment was made and she was able to avoid being taken to jail. At that time, the GST Department was pursuing 13 cases and commital warrants had already been prepared for all of them. 

The GST is a tax that consumers pay to business houses which serve as collection agents for the Government. Those taxes should be paid to the GST; however, there are business who do not turn in the collections leaving the Tax Department with the burden of having to pursue the moneys through legal action.