Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by Ms. Lee on June 28, 2000 regarding the Proposed Hotel Tax and Payroll Information.
- The annual revenue projected for the hotel tax is forecast to be $1,300,000.
- This is based on a total of 1180 rooms in 45 establishments. Later today, I will table the community breakdown of the location of the operators and the bed spaces in more detail.
- The average price used was $100 a room at an occupancy rate of 60 percent.
- It is expected that the ongoing administration and enforcement costs of the Hotel Room Tax Act including the salary, benefits, information collection, computer systems, office space, enforcement and incidental expenses will be $100,000.
It is also expected that there will be additional one-time implementation and start-up costs of $50,000.
- The total amount of payroll tax revenue raised by the GNWT In the last three fiscal years is $12,178,000 in 1997-98, $12,102,000 in 1998-99 and $8,876,000 in 1999-2000. The figures for 1999-2000 are on a post-Division basis.
- The budgeted cost of administering the payroll tax for 2000-2001, including the salary, benefits, information collection, computer systems, office space, enforcement and incidental expenses is $163,000.
- All employees in the Northwest Territories pay payroll tax. The Department of Finance does not maintain a database of the total number of employees from whom the tax is collected. Although employers are obliged to report information by employee, this data is kept for audit purposes only.
- The total number of employers registered to collect the payroll tax in the last three calendar years is 2,068 in 1997, 1,663 in 1998 and 1,474 in 1999. The figures for 1999 are on a post-Division basis.