And while Munnings’ tax troubles are far from over, he now has a top tier law firm suing the government on his behalf. Courtenay Coye LLP has filed suit against the Government of Belize and the Director General of the Belize Tax Services Department. The suit claims that BTS charged Munnings for services he never performed and for revenue he never received. His attorney argues that he was also taxed on money he collected on behalf of other service providers – funds he says were passed on to those providers and never kept as his own income. The claim adds that BTS has no authority to tax a person for services they didn’t perform or for revenue they did not earn. Yet, the suit alleges, BTS enforced this tax bill as a judgment debt, which ultimately led to his imprisonment. Courtenay Coye claims the wrongful assessment and imprisonment violated his constitutional rights, including the right to liberty, the right to work, and protection from arbitrary deprivation of property. Munnings says as a result, he lost his business, his freedom, and caused his family significant distress.
The suite was filed today and no hearing date has been fixed. And it surely is not lost on us that the Courtenay Coye firm bears the names of two ranking PUP Senators. One of them, Minister of State for Finance Chris Coye is considered to be the guiding hand behind the Tax Services Department. The other is Leader of Government Business and chief litigator for the firm Eamon Courtenay. We tried to reach him for comment but up to news time had not gotten a response.