New Zealand maintains a large export economy and for that reason a VAT regime actually makes some sense.

The Bahamas exports practically nothing.

VAT is an expensive, highly complex, accountancy demanding, round about way to impose a consumption tax, that makes no sense in our tourism based economy.

VAT will prove ham fisted and highly regressive. It will be a disaster for the working poor, and a haven for cheating among the sophisticated pirates as our government has demonstrated repeatedly it cannot administer fairly even the most direct and easily collected taxes.

Implementation of a VAT regime in the Bahamas will prove a serial disaster. A perfect PLP program.

So New Zealand says the way they assist the poor is through 'tax credits'...there in lies the problem...we have no income tax...people down at that line of property probably own homes that fall UNDER the RPT threshold, so they pay little to no RPT...there is no easy or effective way to issue a 'tax credit' because the tax our dear New Zealanders deal with is not there. Again, we are one of the ONLY countries in the world that is going to a complex VAT tax BEFORE having a solid income tax structure in place.

Why dont we compare ourselves with countries at our level??????? Not First World countries like New Zealand !!!!!!!!!!! Its one thing to be ambitious but another thing to be delusional...... SIGH

Seriously now, is there no way around this foolishness? How about the government try to collect all outstanding real property taxes? Investigate how all these politicians got rich so quickly and confiscate what you know they didn't get cleanly? And go back for that, way back in time cause God only knows how some of these people got to be millionaires. Confiscate all funds and assets from known and convicted drug dealers, including the wealth hidden in their lover's, family and friends names? What about stop paying double pension, bringing people out of retirement and paying them exorbitant consultancy fees, cease with wasting out national insurance funds by buying your friends derelict buildings with our money? What about making use of existent government space like the entire first floor of the deGregory building in Freeport rather than renting out of a sitting Minister's brother's building (after moving from another government building at NIB) or buying one that is settled in water whenever it rains, like the one that the gaming board in Freeport was placed in? When are you going to put country above self? We are hurting, Mr. Prime Minister! Get your act together and be fiscally responsible and lead! Why must we suffer to support the greed of a few? You always talk about your legacy. What do you think this VAT crap will do to that?

Islandgirl,

Christie's legacy will be a broke, economically stagnant country with our tourism product in the dumper and most of the population either resorting back to a subsistence farming economy or reliant on the government for food, housing, etc.

The only jobs left will be the Mom & Pop shops and the government until it finally can't borrow any more money to pay public service salaries.

Thanks all to the stupid and greedy policies of the PM and his band of idiots. I hope the PM is ready for that!!

The U.S. would never introduce such a highly regressive, unfair and costly to administer form of tax like VAT. Christie and his band of bandito cronies have sucked so heavily on the nipple of our Public Treasury that they now feel compelled to kowtow to whatever the IMF recommends even if it means economic suicide for all but the wealthiest of Bahamians and the annihilation of the PLP forever. What a tragedy!

Introducing VAT is not too different from giving a child a motorcycle before it even knows how to properly ride an ordinary bicycle... think about it.

Yeap...VAT is a LAST resort after all the other tax models have been exhausted...on top of that the Freedom of Information Act needs to be in place well before that as well.

i listened to the 1pm news
other than some bromides concerning vat it was dominated by the referendumm red herring
they mae sure to bring it on the first day so vat does not make headlines tomorrow

This will not end well!.

OK you want to charge me VAT, then you better put some of these stealing set behind bars. You people have no idea how upset you are making people. As Eddie Minnis said, "you better straiten up and fly right!". You people are putting me in the poor house and if you think I am going to just take it, think again!

Let me also ask you this. What will I get for paying VAT? A safe environment? Reliable services (Electric, communications, water)? Good roads? A clean environment? A country I can be PROUD of? Good Honest ethical governance? Me thinks NOT! So what am I paying for, what I ask you?

nope...just a bigger cookie jar...and MAYBE some beefed up social services to help those that go belly up.

VAT in The Bahamas is a JOKE......................... income tax is the way to go. 30% for millionnaires, 20% for over $250,000 and 10% over $50,000, 5% over $20,000. No tax under $20,000 personal income. And collect the taxes that are on the book. Get rid of customs duty. Set up a three year tax amnesty regime for deliquents and for God's sake no more political free-bees................ then maybe ten years down the road we may begin to see some results.

lol you will never see that