The Min­istry of Fi­nance an­nounced yes­ter­day that busi­ness­es owed out­stand­ing VAT re­funds in ex­cess of $250,000 can now ap­ply to the Board of In­land rev­enue for VAT bonds.

In a news re­lease yes­ter­day, the min­istry said the Board of In­land Rev­enue (BIR) ad­vised that the VAT Bonds would be is­sued on a first come, first serve ba­sis with an ef­fec­tive date of Jan­u­ary 31, 2025 and a tenor of three (3) years.

The BIR said in­ter­est on the VAT bonds from Jan­u­ary 31 and would ac­crue at a fixed rate of 4.01 per cent per an­num. A six-month mora­to­ri­um, start­ing from the date of is­sue, will be im­posed on the en­cash­ment/trans­fer­abil­i­ty of the Bonds for com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing with­in the en­er­gy sec­tor that are ze­ro-rat­ed.

On­ly ap­pli­cants owed re­funds in ex­cess of TT$250,000.00 would be el­i­gi­ble to re­ceive VAT Bonds. Re­funds of TT$250,000.00 or less will be paid in cash.

Ap­pli­ca­tion forms can be ac­cessed by VAT Reg­is­trants on the In­land Rev­enue Di­vi­sion’s (IRD) web­site at www.ird.gov.tt, ac­cord­ing to the news re­lease.