TNC Agrees to Pay $18.2M in Land Taxes

Christopher Coye

According to Minister of State Chris Coye, the initial agreement that was struck in October 2020 waived the stamp duty and land taxes; however, they have managed to agree on a sum of eighteen million dollars over a fifty-year period.

Christopher Coye, P.U.P. Senator

“There was an original agreement in each instance for TNC and ReWild, respectively.   That was signed off in October of last year and that provided for complete exemptions for stamp duty and land taxes and purported to assign all the carbon credits to the respective parties in association with the conservation lands.  When we became aware of those agreements, we went about to renegotiate the terms of that to try and get a better deal for the government and people of Belize.  So it is in that context that we renegotiated that supplemental agreement to TNC and ReWild.  These supplemental agreements were signed off last week, both parties expressing their appreciation and partnership with what we had mutually agreed on.  In the case of the TNC agreement, the renegotiated terms included: one, the acceptance of an obligation to pay land tax.  So that meant that whereas under the prior arrangement there would have been no land taxes payable for fifty years under the renegotiated terms, land taxes would be paid every year roughly around three hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars a year.  Over the fifty year period that would amount to a little over eighteen point two million dollars.”