WINNIPEG – Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has produced evidence that he has now paid a luxury tax he owed on his vacation home in Costa Rica.
The move comes one year after the premier faced questions about whether he had ducked the tax, and eight months after he admitted he owed money.
Pallister showed The Canadian Press this week a document from a treasury department worker in the Costa Rica province where his vacation home is located.
The one-page document is signed and stamped, and says Pallister’s holding company is fully up to date on paying the luxury tax.
Last August, Pallister admitted he had failed to update his property assessment as required by Costa Rica law.
A new assessment showed his home should have been subject to the country’s national tax on luxury homes, and Pallister said he owed eight-thousand dollars in back taxes and penalties.
Pallister says he instructed his lawyer late last summer to file the required paperwork and pay any outstanding money. He says a general strike by Costa Rica civil servants last fall slowed down the process.
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