Proposed Option:

Simple sales tax at 4 - 5% rate on all sales of services or goods, eliminating from coverage, residential rent, food and medical. Areas already taxed to be exempted or a credit provided, such as real estate transfers which are already taxed at 10 - 12%.

VAT requires very sophisticated accounting and record keeping that quite frankly is not going to be possible at the current level of Bahamian business sophistication. The cost of compliance in our society and the level of consequential avoidance, will more than eliminate the fairness advantages of a VAT regime, over a straight point of sale, sales tax regime.

Of course the first effort should be the reduction of the bloated bureaucracy, but as that is politically impossible revenue is needed. However, VAT will prove an unworkable nightmare here.

this will not fly because, you cannot charge sales tax at the border. They want to charge customs and vat at the border.

then people will just ship every thing in.

You just KNEW that the botched referendum would come back and bite ya in the a**. It's all a ploy...what he is hoping now is that everyone freaks out so much about VAT that we 'legalize' (change the constitutional laws) and 'REGULARIZE' (tax it)...web shop gaming...it is a win win for the PLP and the numbers man who helped finance his campaign and he comes out smelling like roses. The referendum was a farce, the danced around what the referendum was truly going to accomplish. They never fully educated the public to the terms legalize and regularize. The question they don't want to seem to answer is how can you regulaize or tax something that isn't LEGAL in the first place. Of course they have not shut down the web shops, as they had not played their ace up their sleeve with the VAT and get people running to LEGALIZE gambling and web shops.
It's a wicked web we weave out there...they are way more devious than you give them credit for.

If the numbers shops are illegal, close them. Otherwise tax the living hell out of them.

Ahhh...but we voted not to 'regularize'...so in effect we told him we did not want to tax the web shops...so he is acting on the wish of the people and hitting us with VAT. Sneaky so and so's.

I have an idea...it's called a "voluntary tax" or state lottery. It works. It will pay the bills without the use of force.

But you can't tax the numbers bosses...it's not a legal enterprise, so you can tax it without making it legal first, otherwise in a round a bout way you are saying it is legal, as you are demanding a tax from them. They knew all this well before the referendum, and as with the VAT whitepaper, they are keeping the information on a need to know basis only and only leaking out what they want people to hear. They even said it themselves, they feel the Bahamian public do not need to know everything they just want a solution, whether they like it or not...and the PM then has the audacity to turn around and say...
"The Prime Minister added that he was not at all concerned over the level of angst being expressed by the business community regarding the proposed VAT implementation, and the potential, SHOCK it might create for their firms and the WIDER ECONOMY."
and people still follow this mind blindly and without question...scary.

Are you incapable of discourse without name-calling? Or does basic civility elude you?

Problem is, the Alternative to VAT via the IMF is devaluation,
ask Jamaica or Guyana about them apples.
Either VAT, Income, or Devaluation hurts the people, not the Politicians who ran up the debt.
Bahamians really need to wise up and stop settling for a Red or Yellow T-Shirt.

Once Again, Government taxation will cause a resurgence in what economy?
Government taxation stimulates bureaucratic growth and expansion of powers within their own ranks,
to the detriment of the economy,
To the detriment of the people.
At least he acknowledges that VAT has been in play for a long time,
but meanwhile contradicting himself!
crazy.

Poppycock. How much additional revenue is needed and how much are you certain you will receive from the web shops? IF the vote was yes, how quickly could you have put together the necessary framework for compliance? Poppycock. And you certainly couldn't have put all your eggs in this basket since you asked the people for their decision, you must have anticipated the possibility of a no vote, there was an option on the ballot after all.

So many number players i know voted no b/c they believed if it was taxed the pay out would be less ..Also a lot of people that voted no thought it would please God and he would stop sending them dreams to win if they voted yes ,,lmao ,,lets face it we have a large % of our population that are very easy to manipulate ,especially when you throw in their greed and something for nothing way of thinking ,,TAX THE WEB SHOP CASINOS

Blah blah.

All you folks whining on an internet comment thread have two options if you don't like this.

Rise up, or shut up.

This is your country. You voted for these people, and at the end of the day, they are accountable to you.

Do nothing, and YOU let this happen.

Now log off, and go make a difference.

Apathy is the root of all evil doers.

...and that there is the problem...it will directly affect you whether you voted or not, so you SHOULD give a F@CK...but I am torn...if you did not vote, then I do actually give you less credence to critizice what is going on. I DID vote..and I do give a F@CK because it is my livelyhood as well as the rest of the Bahamas that is at stake. I'm with Wyckoff...stand up and make some noise, or shut up...and don't come begging to me for cash or a loan cause you can't pay yer bills!!

Here is a challenge for PRIME Minister Perry Christie......GET LOST!

We have had enough nonsense. First Hubert Ingrahams' stupidity, now Perry Christie.

HarryWyckoff post says it best....It is time for us to rise up, take our country back from the PLP and FNM Sunshine Boys group of idiots and pirates.

Care to suggest how?

Income Tax, tax the lawyers and doctors, they will charge less for their services and the public will like it.

VAT just robs Joe Schlemiel, we pay for it all, damn businesses will pay only 100 dollars for license, and then the businesses turn around and want to mark up the VAT, a non-existent business expense.