800,000 Guests, Zero Consultation

Bunting calls on Govt to withdraw new tax on short-term rental sector

The Government’s decision to impose a fifteen per cent General Consumption Tax on short-term rental revenues will punish Jamaican entrepreneurs whilst large multinational hotel corporations continue to enjoy substantial tax relief, Opposition Spokesperson on Productivity, Efficiency and Competitiveness Peter Bunting warned in Parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Bunting noted that the short-term rental sector has grown from 60,000 guests in 2017 to over 800,000 in 2024, describing it as one of Jamaica’s genuine success stories precisely because it democratised participation in tourism ownership. Property owners, maintenance workers, transportation operators, restaurants, and local suppliers all benefit from the sector’s stronger linkages to the domestic economy compared to the traditional large hotel model.

“Large hotel multinationals enjoy reduced corporate income taxes, productive input reliefs, employment tax credits, and the full weight of the Jamaica Tourist Board’s cooperative marketing. The short-term rental sector gets none of those incentives and now faces a new fifteen per cent tax imposed without a single consultation with the people it will affect. Progressive leaders in the Caribbean have warned us: do not replace the sugar plantation with a hotel plantation. Jamaica’s goal must be an economy where citizens can be owners, not merely employees,” stated Bunting.

Mr Bunting also highlighted significant administrative confusion the new tax will generate, noting that single apartment complexes often contain a mix of short-term rental, long-term rental, and owner-occupied units, and that the Government has provided no clarity on how the tax will be applied in such cases. Residential rental properties do not attract GCT, raising unresolved questions about whether liability will be determined solely by the booking platform used.

He called on the Government to immediately convene consultations with representatives of the short-term rental sector before the tax takes effect, and to reconsider a measure he described as economically counterproductive and fundamentally unjust.