GraceKennedy Limited’s remittance subsidiary in Guyana has received its third disputed tax assessment from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), based on a company reclassification that GraceKennedy said contradicts more than two decades of accepted filings.
The GRA raised the assessment covering two years in a letter dated January 2026 against GraceKennedy Remittance Services (GKRS) Guyana.
“GKRS Guyana’s tax liability for the period 2022 to 2024 was assessed by the GRA to be the equivalent of J$402.6 million, excluding penalties and interest if applicable,” GraceKennedy stated in its annual report. “GKRS Guyana lodged an objection to the GRA’s assessment on the basis that the GRA wrongly assessed GKRS Guyana as a commercial company and that GKRS Guyana had filed (and the GRA had accepted), returns for a period of over 20 years as a non-commercial company.”
No provision was made against the assessment, signalling that management considers its objection likely to succeed.
The current dispute is the third time the GRA has moved against GKRS Guyana on the same classification question. In 2018, the authority assessed GKRS Guyana’s tax liability at J$253.7 million for the period 2010 to 2016. GraceKennedy challenged that assessment in court and won, but Guyana’s Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in 2020. GKRS Guyana is awaiting a hearing date for its further appeal.
A second assessment followed in September 2022, covering the period 2017 to 2021, with the GRA placing the liability at J$653 million, excluding penalties and interest. GKRS Guyana secured a bond for the assessed amount, filed objections, and brought an appeal before the High Court, which granted a stay pending the Court of Appeal’s determination of the substantive matter. GraceKennedy made no provision against that assessment either.
If the GRA’s current position is upheld, penalties and interest would push the total liability above the assessed figure.
GKRS Guyana has operated in Georgetown since 1993, running more than 50 locations offering Western Union remittance and bill payment services.
The dispute adds to pressures on GraceKennedy’s money-services division, which reported a 20 per cent decline in pre-tax profit in 2025, citing reduced transaction volumes and tightening margins. At the group level, revenue rose 6.4 per cent to $177.8 billion for the year ended December 2025, while profit before taxation fell 16.7 per cent to $10.3 billion, weighed down by Hurricane Melissa, elevated insurance claims, and higher credit-loss provisions.
business@gleanerjm.com
