The rate
The standard rate in Trinidad and Tobago is 12.5%. Some goods and services carry reduced or zero rates and others are exempt. The difference matters: zero-rated sales still let you reclaim the tax on your purchases, exempt sales do not.
Who must register
TT$600,000 of commercial supplies in any twelve-month period, since 1 January 2023, when the Finance Act 2022 substituted the figure in sections 21 and 22 of the VAT Act. You must register if you exceeded it in the preceding twelve months, or hold evidence that you will in the coming twelve. Be careful with the official paperwork: the Ministry of Finance's VAT page, the IRD's own sole trader, small business and corporations pages, and line 18 of Form IA-001 itself all still print the old TT$500,000. The statute and the IRD's VAT pages say $600,000, and that is the figure that binds. Voluntary registration below the threshold is possible but not a right — section 25 says the Board shall register an applicant who will trade above the threshold and may register one who will not. Trading above it unregistered is an offence carrying a $15,000 fine and a year's imprisonment.
How to register
A sole proprietor applies on Form IA-001 with identification and acceptable evidence of trading; a company or partnership uses Form AOI-002 and Form DP-003 with identification for every director and documentary evidence of income above the threshold. Registration is with the VAT Administration Centre of the Inland Revenue Division.
Where the applicant will supply above the threshold, the VAT Act (section 25) requires the Board to register the applicant within one working day of an application supported by the approved documents. Below the threshold the Board may register but does not have to. The Board then issues a certificate of registration bearing an identifying number and the date registration takes effect (section 27).
After registering, tell the Board in writing within 21 days of any change to the particulars given in the application, or of closing the business (section 28). Display the certificate at every place from which the business trades; failure carries a fine of TT$6,000 plus TT$100 for each day it continues.
Filing and paying
Registered and filed with Inland Revenue Division.
The tax period is two months, and every registered person files and pays for each one, nil periods included. The Board puts you in Category A, whose periods end on the last day of January, March, May, July, September and November, or Category B, ending in the even months, and tells you which. Return and payment are both due within 25 days of the period's end, so January–February is due 25 March. File on e-Tax with a ttconnect ID, or on paper at the cashier. Do not attach invoices, but keep them: records must be kept in English, in TT dollars, at the principal place of business, for six years or three years from filing, whichever is later.
Penalties for getting it wrong
Section 54: 8% of any amount unpaid at the due date, plus interest at 2% a month or part month until it is paid. The Board may reduce or waive either. Filing late is a separate offence under section 31(5) — $1,000 on summary conviction, or a $500 modified penalty under an infringement notice. Failing to issue a tax invoice costs $6,000 on conviction or $3,000 under an infringement notice, as does failing to display the registration certificate, which adds $100 for each day it continues.