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After the Certificate
Free guide from Brand Bloc
You registered the business. Here’s what comes next.
Tax, banking, branding and customers, explained for Jamaican business owners, with tools that do the sums for you.
- 5 short animated lessons
- 15 calculators, checklists and planners
- A 90-day plan built around your business
Free. No sign-up.
Tap the cover to open the guide.
After the Certificate
You have the certificate. Now run the business.
Registration is the first piece of paper, and the easy one. This guide covers the first 90 days after it: what you registered, what TAJ expects, where the money goes, and how people find you. Tell it about your business and every folder adjusts to fit.
What you registered
What you sell
Do you pay staff?
The short list
Built from your answers above. Tick things off as you go. The same list lives in the last folder.
Week one
Know what you registered
Most new owners can’t say whether they registered a business name or a company. The answer decides who pays if something goes wrong, what you file, and when your registration runs out.
Two kinds of registration
The Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) registers two different things, under two different laws.
A business name is what sole traders and partnerships register. It gives you the right to trade under that name. It does not create anything separate from you. The business’s debts are your debts, its income is your income, and it uses your TRN.
A limited company is a legal person of its own. It has its own TRN, signs its own contracts, and owes its own debts. You own shares in it, and normally the most you can lose is what you put in.
Who pays if you’re sued?
Try itA company’s protection has limits. If you personally guarantee a loan, or a court finds a director acted dishonestly, you can still be made to pay.
Is it time to become a company?
Starting as a business name is fine for low-risk work. Tick whatever is true for you today.
What a company costs you
- It costs more to set up and more to keep in good standing.
- It files an annual return with COJ every year, and must keep its beneficial ownership details up to date.
- It pays 25% income tax on its profit. When it pays that profit out to you as a dividend, 15% is withheld again. Plan this with an accountant before you switch.
- Banks and TAJ expect proper accounts from a company.
Brand Bloc prepares and files limited company registrations for you.
Company registrationKeep the registration alive
Your renewal date
From your answersThree rules owners forget
- Business names expire. The certificate is valid for three years, and renewal opens 14 days before the expiry date. Renew late and COJ adds a late fee for every year outstanding.
- Changes must be reported. A new address, a new owner or partner, a change of name or of what the business does all have to go on the COJ register. Your bank and TAJ will ask for a certificate that matches reality.
- Closing is a filing too. If you stop trading, the business has to be closed at COJ and with TAJ. A business you walked away from keeps collecting tax obligations and late fees.
Brand Bloc files renewals, changes and closures for you. Ask us for a quote.
Business servicesWeeks two to four
Get straight with TAJ
The form you registered with also signed you up with Tax Administration Jamaica, NIS, NHT and HEART. From that day you are expected to file, even in a month when you earn nothing.
What TAJ expects from you
Four things are expected from the day you registered, whether or not you’ve made a sale.
- An estimate every yearYou declare what you expect to earn in the year ahead. Your payments for the year are based on it.
- A return every yearYou report what you actually earned last year, and any difference is settled.
- Payments in four parts15 March, 15 June, 15 September and 15 December.
- A return even at zeroNo sales and no profit still means a return. Missing returns bring penalties and block your tax compliance certificate.
Brand Bloc sets up your tax accounts and files your estimates and returns for you.
Tax servicesKnow your number
Self-employed tax estimator
Estimate onlyTotal for the year
Paid in four parts
How it’s worked out
- You are taxed on profit. Profit is sales minus the genuine costs of running the business.
- NIS is 6% of profit, on earnings up to J$5 million a year.
- NHT is 3% of profit for the self-employed.
- Education tax is 2.25% of profit after NIS.
- Income tax is 25% of what’s left above the tax-free threshold, and 30% on anything over J$6 million.
- The threshold rose to J$1,902,360 on 1 April 2026 and is set to reach J$2,003,496 on 1 April 2027. For a calendar year that spans a change, the estimator blends the two.
This is a planning figure for sole traders and partners, checked against published rates in October 2026. It leaves out capital allowances, losses brought forward and other reliefs. The figure on your return is what counts.
Brand Bloc works out the final figures and files the return for you.
Tax servicesYour tax year on one page
When a date falls on a weekend or public holiday, TAJ normally moves it to the next working day. TAJ also announces changes to deadlines, so check its notices each year.
TCC, GCT and hiring
Tax Compliance Certificate
A TCC is TAJ’s proof that your filings and payments are up to date. You’ll be asked for one when you open a business bank account, bid on contracts, apply for many licences, clear goods at customs, or apply for a loan or grant. If a return is missing or a balance is owing, it won’t be issued, which is one more reason to keep filings current even when the figure is zero. Brand Bloc obtains TCCs for clients.
Do you need to register for GCT?
Threshold checkWhat one employee really costs
Employer viewOnce you pay staff you are an employer. You deduct their contributions and PAYE, add your own, and file form S01 by the 14th of the following month. The annual employer return, S02, is due by 31 March.
Month one
Give the money its own home
A business that runs through your personal account can’t show a bank what it earns, can’t show TAJ what it spent, and can’t tell you whether it’s making a profit.
Documents to have ready for the bank
Each bank has its own list, but these are the documents that come up again and again. Tick what you already have, so the application isn’t held up.
Choosing the bank
- Go where your customers bank. Transfers within the same bank usually land at once. That alone can fix a cash-flow problem.
- Read the fee sheet. Monthly charges, per-transfer fees and minimum balances add up quickly on a small account.
- Test the support. Call the business line before you open. If nobody answers now, nobody will when a payment goes missing.
- Ask about online payments on day one. Even if you’re not ready, find out what the bank needs before it will let you take cards.
Brand Bloc prepares the bank account application and the supporting documents for you.
Bank account applicationHow will customers pay you?
Pick everywhere you sell. Every extra step between “I want it” and “I’ve paid” loses you customers.
| Set this up | Why | Watch for |
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Twenty minutes of books a week
You don’t need to be an accountant. You need one place where every dollar in and every dollar out is written down, and a fixed time each week when you do it.
- Pick the place. Brand Desk, our all-in-one business workspace, keeps your invoices, sales, expenses and accounts together. Whatever you choose, use one place only.
- Log sales as they happen. Send every customer a receipt or invoice from the system, so the sale records itself.
- Log spending every week. Photograph each receipt the day you get it. Paper receipts fade.
- Match it to the bank once a month. If the books and the statement disagree, find out why while you still remember.
Keep every record for at least seven years. If TAJ ever queries a return, your records are your only answer.
Brand Desk is the one place. It is Brand Bloc’s all-in-one workspace: send invoices, record every sale and expense, and keep your accounts in order without juggling apps.
Explore Brand DeskBusiness or personal?
Price for profit
Sales are what comes in. Profit is what’s left. Many owners price by copying a competitor and never learn that each sale loses money.
Price one product or job
Example figuresCharge at least
Overheads are what you pay whether or not you sell anything: rent, data, software, transport, bank fees. Paying yourself for your time is a cost, and what’s left after it is the profit.
Month two
Build a brand, then lock it down
A brand is what a customer expects before they open the bag. Decide that on purpose, give it a consistent look, and make sure nobody else can trade on the name you built.
Your brand board
Four decisions. Make them once and use them everywhere: packaging, posts, price list, the way you answer the phone.
How you sound: pick three
Colours
Lettering
Like the direction? Brand Bloc designs logos, flyers, business cards and thank-you cards to match.
Design servicesProtect the name
Registering a business name at COJ lets you trade under it. It does not stop someone else from putting the same name on their products. That protection comes from a trademark, registered at the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO).
A trademark can be a name, a logo, a slogan, even a colour or a shape, as long as it sets your goods or services apart. Registration lasts ten years and can be renewed every ten years for as long as you keep using it.
- It is registered by classA mark covers the kinds of goods or services you name. One registered for clothing doesn’t cover a restaurant.
- A search comes firstThe register is checked for marks like yours in your line of business, so a clash is found before you invest in the name.
- Others get a chance to objectThe mark is published before it is registered. If nobody objects successfully, it becomes yours.
- Use it or risk itProtection is for marks in real use. Keep trading under the name and renew every ten years.
What would your mark need to cover?
Tap all that applyWhat you sell under the name
Brand Bloc handles the search and the trademark application for you. Ask us for a quote.
Contact Brand BlocMonth three
Get found, then get trusted
Followers don’t pay the light bill. Customers do. Set your page up so a stranger can work out what you sell, what it costs and how to order within ten seconds.
The ten-second profile check
Open your Instagram or WhatsApp Business profile on someone else’s phone and tick what a stranger can find without messaging you.
Thirty days of posts
Posting whenever you feel like it doesn’t work, and no trick beats the algorithm. What works is a steady mix of three kinds of post: proof that you deliver, something useful, and a clear offer.
Posts a week
Paying for reach
- Fix the profile and the offer before you spend a dollar. An ad sends people to your page, and a confusing page wastes them.
- Promote one clear offer to one kind of customer in one area. “Everybody in Jamaica” is not an audience.
- Start small, run it for a week, and count messages and sales. Likes don’t count.
Your customers’ details are not yours to use freely
Names, phone numbers, addresses, ID copies and payment details are personal data. Jamaica’s Data Protection Act has applied to businesses since December 2023, and it covers a one-person business as much as a bank.
- Collect only what the job needs. A delivery needs an address. It doesn’t need a date of birth.
- Use it for the reason you were given it. A number given for a delivery is not permission for weekly promotions. Ask first.
- Keep it locked. Password on the phone, no customer lists in shared group chats, no ID photos left in your gallery.
- Delete what you no longer need.
- Own up fast. If customer data is lost or exposed, the law expects a report to the Information Commissioner within 72 hours.
Businesses that handle personal data are expected to register with the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC). Registration has been rolled out in phases, so check oic.gov.jm for what applies to a business of your size this year.
Your file
Your plan, on one page
Everything from the five folders, in the order to do it.
Run the whole business from one place
Brand Desk is Brand Bloc’s all-in-one workspace for small businesses. Instead of one app for invoices, a notebook for expenses and a spreadsheet for customers, everything sits together.
- InvoicingCreate and send professional invoices from the same place you track your sales.
- AccountingRecord income and expenses as you go, so your books are ready when tax time comes.
- CustomersKeep customer details and history together, where the whole team can find them.
- Team and projectsManage staff, tasks and projects as the business grows.
See what Brand Desk can do for your business at branddeskja.com.
Visit Brand DeskHand the paperwork to us
Brand Bloc is a one-stop business hub in Kingston. Send us your details and we prepare and submit the application for you.
Business registrationSole trader and partnership business names.Company registrationLimited liability companies, start to finish.Business bank accountApplication and supporting documents prepared.Tax filing and TCCReturns filed and compliance certificates obtained.Renewals and closuresKeep the registration current, or close it properly.LicencesTrade, spirit, import and export, and more.DesignLogos, flyers, business cards, thank-you cards.Stamps, seals and ID cardsCompany stamps, seals and team IDs.
Talk to a personsupport@brandblocja.com1876-890-9914Kingston, Jamaica · brandblocja.com
- Income tax threshold and rates: Tax Administration Jamaica announcement reported 13 April 2026; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Jamaica, reviewed 29 September 2026.
- NIS, education tax, GCT threshold, employer payroll rates, corporate and dividend tax: PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Jamaica.
- NHT self-employed rate, quarterly dates and S04 / S04A filing: National Housing Trust, self-employed contributions.
- Business name validity and renewal window: Companies Office of Jamaica renewal guidance.
- Trademark term and scope: Jamaica Intellectual Property Office trademark brochure.
- Data protection duties: Office of the Information Commissioner; Data Protection Act, 2020.
This guide gives general information for Jamaican small businesses. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice. Rates and deadlines change. Government fees and Brand Bloc service prices are not shown here. Contact Brand Bloc for a current quote.
This guide is made to be read online at brandblocja.com.