Yesterday's Gleaner story about the low rate of tax compliance by fashion designers can be taken as a cut-out of the attitude towards paying taxes by Jamaica's creative industries - often underestimated in their earning power although highly visible in the media and daily street life.

In the story 'Tax phobic firms on wrong side of commerce', it was reported that an estimated 80 per cent of fashion designers and other persons in the industry pay no taxes. This figure was arrived at as Donovan Summers, head of the Jamaica Fashion and Apparel Cluster (JFAC), estimated the non-compliance of his fellow designers, dressmakers and tailors assumes that the delinquency rate is the same as the wider small-business sector.

Refusing to formalise

Summers pointed out that many persons are forfeiting grants and subsidies because they refuse to formalise their operations, which include paying taxes, generally fearing heavy penalties for their tardiness in adding to the public purse as required by law.

However, while Summers suggested the usual tax-forgiveness strategy, we propose a more fashionable approach. Nothing catches the attention like prosperity; the more obvious the better. Hence, we suggest that the authorities make tax compliance fashionable by putting the compliant on the proverbial catwalk.

Persuasion of self-interest

In other words, if access to grants and subsidies does not result in identifiable success for those fashion designers, dressmakers and tailors who open their books to the authorities, then asking the non-compliant to pay their taxes is futile. The persuasion of self-interest is, we believe, a much stronger motive force than the possibility (and a dim one at that, it would appear) of penalties.

We are sure that the members of the JFAC can propose definite measures towards this fashionable, tax-paying presence. However, we theorise that as most persons are unable to take up the available grants, more funds could be made available to those who have formalised their operations, thus enabling enhanced productivity in terms of quality and quantity. And a large public show by these persons is not inconceivable.

Some reward

And so it goes also for the business of making music, a highly lucrative business for many of those involved, if the high-end motor vehicles that many entertainers drive, and their decidedly expensive addresses are anything to go by.

Swinging the tax axe is one thing; but for one, it does not scare those who believe that their operations are below the radar of a constant media presence. And, in addition, there are no obvious rewards for those who have voluntarily paid up their taxes.

The obvious wealth that flows through Jamaica's creative sectors cannot be allowed to go untaxed forever, nor should it be a case of only reaping from the tree without watering its roots.

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