Of Course!

He is VAT Exempt under the PLP.

No VAT, no NIB, no BEC, on License fees..

No Moral compass!

They want the noise to stop so they can just merrily go about and roll out VAT without serious or harsh criticism and publicity...or transparency. They know VAT is BAD news and once the harsh reality hits the end consumer there will be hell to pay, but if they get it going past the point of no return they can just keep trying to plug holes and make it look like they are fixing it. The sooner the final end user/consumer realizes that his personal living expenses will shoot up, the better, so no, the private sector and others need to make as much noise and plublicize the true effects of VAT that the government does not want you to know. Force them to come clean and be open to the average minimum wage employee about how he or she may not be able to put food on the table, how they may not be able to afford rent anymore, etc, etc. But hey...the government will skim from some of the money created with VAT to give back to those who were adversely effected by VAT...pure genius!!

The private sector won't bring the economy into recession. That's the government's job and they are doing a fantastic job.

He's lying about the competitive tax advantage with Barbados. You can get a business licence, bank account, work permits and corporation quicker and cheaper in Barbados without going through the wringer of the Bahamian civil service. They have one stop shopping for all of that. On top it all, there is a definite tax advantage. Once the corporate tax of about 4% is paid, profits can be repatriated to Canada tax free. AND, they have a much cleaner more efficient banking system that clears international cheques in a matter of hours (24-48), not days and weeks. And energy costs are lower and not prone to the island wide blackouts that the amateurs at BEC pull off.

Everyone else is eating our lunch. And on top of that, we are exporting tech jobs to Jamaica. The government sees incoming businesses as a source of revenue, and not as a job creator and economy builder. Hence, they cut steaks off the race horse, so to speak. Not one damn cabinet minister knows about businesses, except for the Bahamian kind where you have friends and colleagues to grease the wheels.

Quite simply the Bahamas cannot compete, and with the new economic zone, the Cayman Islands is attracting world-wide businesses that are clean, and knowledge-based which generates a lot of money and uplifts the population.

Hmmm...reminds me of a conversation I had with someone before the election. They were adamant that there was no recession, that it was all made up by the opposition. Their reasoning? The people in the straw market were making money.

We've had 40 yrs of ignoring reality and hoping God will save us from our own recklessness.

The reason the straw vendors were making money was they were not paying their national insurance, business licenses or rent!! Heck, I'd be rolling in dough and able to retire if I didn't have to pay my bills!!

Can we trust anything that a Pingdomite turn Christie crony says?????????????

PLP insiders and generals dont give a damn about taxes or VAT!!!!!!

As far as they are concerned, thats for the Bay Street Boys and Eastern White Knights to pay.............

Go figger............

This guy Wilson aka Snake never ceases looking for foreigners to prey on......Canadians watch out!!!

What a stupid statement from Wilson. Everyone with an ounce of understanding of economics knows that the imposition of a 15% VAT will cause a severe recession in the Bahamian economy. We don't need to talk ourselves into it Frankie, all we have to do is look at what has happened in other Caribbean jurisdictions. VAT is NOT the fiscal reform solution for the Bahamas. It has not worked in other Caribbean islands and it will most certainly not work here. Government has a small window left in which to implement alternative tax reforms but it seems hell bent on pushing ahead with VAT. This will be the final nail in the PLP's coffin.

I recently had a discussion about VAT with a lady who works in her company's IT department. Not only did she not know how VAT works, other than being aware that "some things will be more expensive", she was also adamant that nobody in her company had mentioned that their software needed to be updated sometime this year, once details of the tax have been finalised.

I am by no means saying that this lady is ignorant, or not good at her job, but Mr Wilson, I AM saying that the general public (not, I hasten to add, the readers of the Tribune online) seem to not have had the whole new tax system adequately explained to them. So we will continue to talk, shout, harangue and generally carry on bad until everyone in our Bahamas is aware of just how disastrous this evil tax will be for us.

yep, the other day i spoke to a clerk at the business licence office, and said vat will make things more expensive.

she asked: are we going to pay it once a year like in the US? (obviously thinking about income tax)

i said, no. you will pay everytime you buy something.

so, not even government employees who may need to require vat certificates or other proofs from the public have been instructed.

No Customs officer I've spoken to has had any training or information either.
Seems they do not know what to tell them until they finalize it all.
July will probably bring border paralysis, via total confusion.
Our Governmental problem ever present is no logistical capability.
Edicts from on high are always mis-directed / unsupported through the rank and file in Government.