NHT self-employed contributions climb above $1b
Published:Tuesday | April 26, 2016 | 12:00 AM
The contributions of self-employed persons to the National Housing Trust have climbed above the billion-dollar mark, having risen steadily over the last five years, but still trails way behind payments made by salaried workers through employers, data from the state agency shows.
Over the past five years, contributions from the self-employed group has nearly doubled, hitting $1.12 billion in 2015, compared to $649 million in 2010. Contributions for this group in 2014 amounted to $963 million.
The number of self-employed contributors now stands at 48,659, the NHT said.
Additionally, contributions through employers amounted to $14.4 billion in 2015, compared to $9 billion in 2010, and substantially higher than the $10.7 billion paid over in 2014.
As of April 1, all contributors, including the self-employed, must now make payments directly to Tax Administration Jamaica under the agency's recently implemented Revenue Administration Information System - RAiS - which is aimed at streamlining tax collection.