As the island nears the implementation of the corporate income tax, legislation for enforcement goes before lawmakers for debate in today’s sitting of the House of Assembly.

The Corporate Income Tax (Penalty Provisions) Amendment Act 2025 was tabled last week by David Burt, the Premier and finance minister.

The CIT will be set at 15 per cent for businesses that are part of multinational enterprise groups with annual revenues of €750 million or more (about $810 million).

The legislation, which formalises an array of civil and criminal penalties to enforce compliance, will empower the Corporate Income Tax Agency with the power to impose civil penalties.

It will specify when liability comes into effect for “a criminal offence committed by a body corporate or other legal person such as a partnership is shared by the individuals complicit in the commission of such criminal offence”.

Penalties include deliberately failing to file a return along with tax evasion.

The definition of “tax receipts” will be fine-tuned to clarify that any penalties collected by the agency are receipts rather than the property of the agency.

Housekeeping legislation for workers’ pay will go before the House with the Employment Amendment Act 2025, which seeks to correct ambiguities over the lack of a proper definition for a gratuity or service charge.

It comes into play with the definition of what constitutes a week’s wages when calculating staff time-off entitlement, and will be made retroactive to March 1, 2024, when legislation to protect gratuities came into force.

The Municipalities Amendment Act 2025 is to push forward the date for elections in the Corporations of Hamilton and St George from this year to 2026.

Municipal elections would have gone ahead this year, but the Government sought a postponement while its Privy Council case with the Corporation of Hamilton remains under deliberation.