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2. Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“agent” includes any partnership, company or body of persons which is acting as an agent;

“appeal commissioners” means the Appeal commissioners appointed under section 108;

“approved pension fund” means a pension fund approved for the purposes of this Act under section 63;

“assessable income” means assessable income as defined in section 8 and as ascertained in accordance with Part 5;

“assessment” in relation to any person—

(a) means a determination by the Comptroller—
1. (i) of the amount of chargeable income and the tax chargeable thereon,
1. (ii) of the amount of any loss allowable as a deduction, or
1. (iii) that no tax is chargeable, (Amended by Act 2 of 2009)
1. (iv) of the tax due and payable in accordance with sections 76, 77, 78 or any other section where a determination of the tax due and payable is to be made; and (Inserted by Act 2 of 2009)

(b) includes, where the context so requires, an additional assessment or a reduced assessment;

“body of persons” means any association of persons, howsoever described, but does not include an incorporated company or a partnership;

“business” means any profession, trade, venture or undertaking and includes the provision of personal services or technical and managerial skills and any venture or concern in the nature of trade, but does not include any employment;

“chargeable income” means chargeable income as ascertained in accordance with Part 6;

“child” in relation to an individual, includes a step-child, a child born out of wedlock or an adopted child;

“commercial building” means a building that is used or is purchased, constructed, reconstructed, altered or adapted to be used for commercial purposes including use as offices or a warehouse or for any trade other than—

(a) a building let out as a dwelling house;

(b) a building used for the purposes of carrying on any other qualifying business;

(Inserted by Act 15 of 2003)

“Comptroller” means the Comptroller of Inland Revenue;

“company” means a body corporate, wherever incorporated, but does not include a partnership or an unincorporated body of persons;

“controlled company” has the meaning given to it in section 39(3);

“disposition”—

(a) means any settlement, trust, agreement, arrangement or gift whereby assets, including a right to income, are transferred from one person to another, whether beneficially or as a trustee;

(b) does not include—
1. (i) a transfer of assets by will or other testamentary disposition, except to the extent provided by section 15, or
1. (ii) the assignment of any income by a deed or assignment, howsoever described;

“earned income” means income accruing directly from the carrying on of a business or accruing as employment income within the meaning of section 34;

“employment” means any employment in which the relationship of employer and employee subsists or an appointment in an office whether public or not and whether or not that relationship subsists;

“executor” means the executor, administrator or other person administering or managing the estate of a deceased person;

“graduate” means a person who has successfully completed education at a community college, a university or at any institution providing technical, vocational or professional education of a standard equivalent to university education;

“incapacitated person” means a minor, a person of unsound mind, or a mental patient;

“management charges” means charges made for the provision of –

(a) management services;

(b) personal services;

“Minister” means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of finance is assigned;

“minor” means an individual who has not attained the age of 18 years;

“ordinarily resident”, in relation to an individual, means a person who is a resident within the meaning of paragraph (a)(i) of the definition of “resident in Saint Lucia”;

“permanent establishment” —

(a) means —
1. (i) a fixed place of business through which the business of an enterprise is wholly or partly carried on,
1. (ii) a building site or construction or installation project only if it lasts more than 12 months;

(b) includes —
1. (i) a place of management,
1. (ii) a branch,
1. (iii) an office,
1. (iv) a factory,
1. (v) a workshop, and
1. (vi) a mine, an oil or gas well, a quarry or any other place of extraction of natural resources;

(c) does not include —
1. (i) the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise,
1. (ii) the maintenance of a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery,
1. (iii) the maintenance of a stock of goods or merchandise belonging to the enterprise solely for the purpose of processing by another enterprise,
1. (iv) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of purchasing goods or merchandise or of collecting information, for the enterprise;
1. (v) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for the purpose of carrying on, for the enterprise, another activity,
1. (vi) the maintenance of a fixed place of business solely for any combination of activities mentioned in subparagraphs (i) to (v),

if the activity or, in the case of subparagraph (vi) the overall activity of the fixed place of business, is of a preparatory or auxiliary character;

(Substituted by Act 12 of 2018)

“person” includes an individual, a trust, the estate of a deceased person, a company, a partnership and every other juridical person;

“previous Act” means the Income Tax Act, 1965 as amended;

“regulations” means regulations made under this Act;

“representative taxpayer” means, in relation to—

(a) the estate of a deceased person, an incapacitated person, a trust or a settlement, the trustee of that person;

(b) a non-resident, any person appointed under section 22 to act as agent on his or her behalf; or(c) tax due and payable—
1. (i) by a deceased person at the date of his or her death, the executor of the estate of that deceased person, or
1. (ii) at the commencement of liquidation by a company which is being wound up, the liquidator of that company;

“resident in Saint Lucia”, in relation to a year of income means—

(a) in the case of an individual, that—
1. (i) his or her permanent place of abode is in Saint Lucia and that he or she is physically present therein for some period of time in the income year, unless the Comptroller is satisfied that his or her absence throughout the whole of the income year was for the purpose of education, medical treatment, the performance of duties on behalf of the Government or for any other purposes which, in the opinion of the Comptroller, is reasonable,
1. (ii) he or she is physically present in Saint Lucia for not less than 183 days in the year of income, or
1. (iii) he or she is physically present in Saint Lucia for some period of time in that year of income and such period is continuous with a period of physical presence in the year of income for the immediately preceding or succeeding year of income of such duration as to qualify him or her for the status of a resident for such preceding or succeeding year under subparagraph (ii);

(b) in the case of an estate of a deceased person, that immediately prior to his or her death the deceased person qualified for the status of a resident under paragraph (a);

(d) in the case of a company, that such company was—
1. (i) incorporated in Saint Lucia, or
1. (ii) if incorporated outside Saint Lucia, was managed and controlled in Saint Lucia,

and the terms “resident” and “non-resident” in relation to a person, mean that such person is resident or non-resident in Saint Lucia as the case may be;

“royalties” means amounts paid as consideration, however described—

(a) for the use of, or the right to use—
1. (i) copyrights, artistic or scientific works, patents, trade marks, designs, plans, secret processes or formulae, motion picture films, tape or films for radio or television broadcasting, or
1. (ii) information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific knowledge; or

(b) in respect of the operation of a mine, quarry or other place of extraction of natural resources;

“separated” in relation to the marital status of an individual, means a person who is living apart from his or her spouse under—

(a) an order of a court of competent jurisdiction; or

(b) any other circumstances where there is sufficient evidence for the Comptroller to conclude that the separation is permanent;

“small scale business enterprise” means an enterprise incorporated during the year of income and—

(a) is wholly owned by citizens of Saint Lucia who have not been owners of previously incorporated businesses in Saint Lucia;

(b) employs not more than 50 persons;

(d) engages in an activity on the listing of preferred business activity as approved by the Minister of Commerce in accordance with the provisions of any law in respect of micro or small scale business;

(e) satisfies the provisions of any law in force in respect of micro or small scale business;

“tax” means the tax charged under this Act and for the purposes of recovery of tax includes any penalty, interest or other charge imposed under this Act but does not include any fine imposed by a court; and any reference to tax payable under the laws of another country means a tax of a substantially similar nature to the tax charged under this Act;

“trade” means any trade, manufacture, business and any adventure or concern in the nature of trade and includes farming, fishing, market gardening, husbandry and the occupation of land for any commercial purpose;

“trading stock”, in relation to any business, means anything produced, manufactured, purchased or otherwise acquired for the purposes of manufacture, sale or exchange including uncompleted work on hand or in progress, or the proceeds from the disposal of which form, or will form, part of the assessable income of such business;

“trustee” means a person appointed or constituted trustee by act of parties, by order or declaration of a court or by operation of law and includes any person having or taking upon himself or herself the administration or control of any property subject to a trust;

“withholding tax” means any tax deducted or deductible under sections 53(5), 63(13) or 76;

“year of income” and “income year” mean—

(a) the period of 12 months commencing on 1 January in each year; or

(b) in the case of a company or any unincorporated business or partnership whose financial year does not begin in January, its financial year is its year of income.

(2) Any reference in this Act to “any person employed in carrying out the provisions of this Act” includes a person whose services under agreement with the Government are provided by any other Government or international agency to assist with the administration of this Act.

(3) Where gains or profits are ascertainable only by reference to the year of income and for the purpose of the charge to or exemption from tax, apportionment of such gains or profits to different periods of time is necessary, then such apportionment may be made on a time basis according to the respective lengths of those periods of time.