From 20 to 22 August 2026, three teams from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) walked Half Way Tree street by street: Hagley Park, Eastwood Park Road, Red Hills Road, Hope Road, Constant Spring Road, Waterloo Avenue, Half Way Tree Road, Maxfield Avenue, Winchester Road and Ruthven Road. They were chasing 432 properties with up to six years of arrears worth J$162 million, plus J$48 million owed by 195 businesses in trade licence fees.
It was a well-run operation. A temporary service desk at Constant Spring Arcade saved people a trip to a central office. Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby called it "an exercise in fairness and accountability." TAJ's Deputy Commissioner General for Operations, Dave Jeffery, set a target of at least 85% compliance on the arrears by March 2027.
The method is expensive to repeat. Earlier phases in St James, Portmore and St Catherine reportedly lifted compliance from as low as 25% to 75%, each paid for in weeks of officer time. Jamaica has 14 parishes, and municipalities across the Caribbean carry the same kind of old arrears with smaller staffs.
The Half Way Tree arrears in numbers
| Category | Accounts | Amount owed |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax, business-linked properties | 151 | J$96 million |
| Property tax, other properties (likely residential or mixed use) | 281 | J$66 million |
| Trade licence fees | 195 businesses | J$48 million |
| Total | More than J$200 million |
The figures exclude the current 2026–2027 financial year. An account does not fall six years behind in one step. Each year it went unflagged, and a field drive recovers the backlog without changing whatever let it build up. Without earlier detection, next year's list will fill again.
Four AI tools revenue authorities use for property tax
1. Satellite and aerial change detection
A vision model compares current satellite or drone images with the valuation roll and flags differences: a footprint that has grown, a building that was never registered, or a shop on land still listed as vacant. It covers a whole parish in less time than a team takes to walk one street, and produces a list of addresses to check.
One Jamaican difference matters here. Property tax is charged on the unimproved value of the land, so a new extension does not raise the land tax bill. In Jamaica the imagery is most useful for finding parcels missing from the roll and commercial premises operating without a trade licence or sign approval.
2. Risk-scoring delinquent accounts
A model trained on payment history, property value, business registration and past compliance ranks accounts by amount owed and likelihood of paying once contacted. The same three teams then spend their three days at the top of the list, not working through it in street order.
3. Re-scanning between valuations
Jamaica's valuation roll, kept by the National Land Agency, underpins property tax bills. A system that re-scans imagery against the roll every year catches a change the year it happens, instead of when a field drive reaches that street.
4. Reminders before arrears start
Payment records show who tends to fall behind and when. TAJ already offers online payment; a model that flags accounts likely to lapse can trigger a text or email reminder before the due date, which costs far less than a visit.
The Core Argument
KSAMC and TAJ cannot keep a three-zone field operation running in every parish. They can build a system that tells three officers which doors in any parish to knock on first, and that notices a lapsed account in its first year.
France found 20,000 undeclared pools from satellite images
France's tax authority, working with Google and Capgemini, ran a 2021 trial in nine departments that compared aerial imagery with declared property records to find unregistered swimming pools. It found more than 20,000 and recovered an estimated 10 million euros in a year, at roughly 200 euros in annual tax per typical pool. The system was then extended nationwide and to extensions, verandas and permanent pergolas, with officials projecting up to 40 million euros a year more.
The French system used imagery and records the government already had, and a model to find where they disagreed. Jamaica has both: the NLA's valuation roll and imagery through iMapJamaica. Because Jamaica taxes unimproved land value, the target would be unlicensed businesses and missing parcels, not undeclared pools. The French pilot also had errors, flagging some structures that were not pools, which is why every flag was checked by a person before a bill went out.
The case for a regional approach
On 27 July 2026, about three weeks before the Half Way Tree operation, the Caribbean Organisation of Tax Administrators (COTA) opened its 27th General Assembly in Guyana. Guyana's Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, urged regional tax administrations to adopt AI, big data, machine learning and analytics, and cited the Guyana Revenue Authority's e-filing app, which he said had "astronomical take-up."
Most Caribbean revenue authorities share the same constraints: old cadastral records, thin field staff and manual canvassing. Smaller states cannot each build a change-detection system, so a shared one makes sense.
I cannot say how much revenue this would find in Jamaica. Satellite detection finds new or changed buildings; it does little for an owner who knows the bill and will not pay. Part of the Half Way Tree arrears is probably of that second kind, and only enforcement recovers it.
What KSAMC, TAJ and COTA should do next
- TAJ and the National Land Agency: pilot change detection in one parish before its field phase, comparing current imagery with the valuation roll, and have officers check a random sample of 100 flags to measure accuracy.
- TAJ compliance unit: rank the remaining delinquent accounts in each parish by amount and likelihood of payment before its drive starts, and record how much each team collects per day against Half Way Tree's unranked approach.
- TAJ, alongside the March 2027 target of 85% compliance: add a second target for the number of parishes with a ranked account list, so the tools are measured along with the collections.
- KSAMC and other municipal corporations: send SMS or email reminders to every property tax account 30 days before the due date, starting with accounts that lapsed in the last two years.
- COTA secretariat: commission a shared framework for satellite change detection that smaller member states can adopt, building on existing regional cooperation in customs and e-filing systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a Jamaican property owner check what property tax they owe?
Use TAJ's online services, which let you look up a property by its valuation number and pay, or visit a TAJ tax office with the valuation number from a previous bill. The valuation number is also on your title documents and on the National Land Agency's records. Check before paying through a third party, and keep the receipt, because arrears records are sometimes out of date.
Who sets the value that Jamaican property tax is based on?
The National Land Agency's Land Valuation Division prepares the valuation roll, which values land (unimproved value) for property tax purposes. TAJ bills and collects the tax, and municipal corporations such as KSAMC receive the revenue for local services. An owner who disagrees with a valuation can object through the NLA within the period set when a new roll is published.
Is satellite imagery of private property legal to use for tax purposes?
Governments generally can use lawfully obtained imagery to check declarations, as France did. In Jamaica, personal data processed in the exercise combines imagery with owners' records, so the Data Protection Act 2020 applies and TAJ should publish how it uses the data and how long it keeps it. Any flag should lead to a human review and a chance for the owner to respond before a new bill is issued.
Does unimproved-value property tax limit what satellite detection can find in Jamaica?
Yes, and it is a real limit. Because Jamaica taxes land on its unimproved value, an undeclared extension or pool does not by itself change the tax bill the way it did in France. In Jamaica the imagery is more useful for spotting unregistered commercial activity that should hold a trade licence, parcels missing from the roll, and properties to prioritise for arrears collection.
What does a change-detection pilot cost to run?
The main costs are imagery, a model and staff time to check flags. Jamaica already has national imagery through iMapJamaica, which lowers the imagery cost, and open-source building-footprint models exist. A one-parish pilot is mostly a few months of analyst and officer time. Ask vendors to price per square kilometre and include a measured error rate.