'Tis a good thing Government listens to the protestations of the wealthy, if not to those of its own electorate.

All second homeowners should be registered as such, including the detail as to whether their property will be rented out. If in the affirmative, they should then sign up to pay renters/tourist tax. If they fail to comply they should be fined as a first measure. Put your civil servants to work and deal with it Mr. Deputy PM. There are models out their to be followed.

After observing the changes to the bread basket list of items after much talk - the elimination of the word "sugar" and the amalgamation of the two former categories into one list instead of two, makes me fully understand that organizing second home owners to pay a hotel fee for their rentals may take a little more effort the Government is used to, but IT CAN BE DONE! THINK OF THE MONEY IT WILL BRING, LOOK AT IS AS MORE VAT!! That should be all the incentive ya need.

It is more reasonable to expect that the Bahamas will put men on Mars next week than to expect civil servants to do a proper job.
For a start, all this was completely untenable. Who was supposed to keep a register of who resides here for 6 months or not? Secondly, everyone would just have re-registered their homes in a company name. A company is permanently resident.

This is the kind of crap you get when you have civil servants dictate policy. Bunch of imbeciles, the lot of them. All they do is harm.

They are paid enough for doing little enough, it is past time they work for a living! Some do work conscientiously, but they are few and far between,

Which ever way it is done, some form of tax really should be collected on these units rented to tourists through-out the Bahamas. It was done before and has been done all these years by the hotel industry....

I can't see what the problem is. Technology is here to solve the problem: online registration prior to embarkation, as in the USA. If your destination is not registered for tourism (hotel, registered guest house, etc...) slap an entry tax to be paid before aircraft embarkation. No pay, no fly.

A register is already kept (now are people reviewing said register...?) at the OPM, inclusive of proposed time domiciled in the Bahamas.
You can re-register your home, but the beneficial owner on record is still required to be a "natural person". Changing from John Doe to XYC company does not shield you.
I agree, sadly, with your first sentence.

Amused that you would think a company can both own and occupy a home. Ownership okay. But a company as an occupant of a home that it owns? Really?! To my knowledge the Act concerned has only ever spoken to the warm blooded individual kind of occupant ;-)

Level of complication = ZERO. You get a tame Bahamian, bung him a grand and he is the occupier. Where is the problem?

What part of the term "owner-occupied" do you not understand? Are you planning on giving away your home to a Bahamian for the paltry sum of $1,000. You certainly would have no difficulty finding a Bahamian willing to take the title to your home for such a generous price so that you can legally avoid paying real property tax. Heck, I feel like giving you my phone number. LOL

A 10% Hotel Tax WAS a regulation for rentals by second home owners to tourists prior to VAT. The tax was paid into the local property tax office by the homeowners. It was not enforced by Tourism or the Treasury. 10% IS reasonable and should be collected. Mr. Turnquest and his staff can figure out the method with the VRBO and AIRBNB people.

who knows this group may be among those who make undisclosed donations to the FNM
Government , so they listen to them. The poor and web shop owners have no say.

It does appear as if the FNM intention is to close down the Bahamas,

If they reverse these amounts their budget will have a deficit . Will they tax the poor more
to make up the shortages.

There is a big misconception that wealthy people are generous. Oh no, the generosity is "conditional" on how much influence it brings. President Trump just gave a huge tax break to billionaires.....cause they greedy and never satisfied!

Don't wait no time during Imperial red shirts mandate ma comrades for KP be doin the Jerico march around the gated to "ungate" the gated.... there will be no brungin' down the gates by this bunch elected privileged RedUbpism elites. The reds have now merged political philosophies with the elite PLP's.... impossible tell the two parties differences cause if they let you in take Sunday drive around Lyford Cay - virtually impossible tell what is a castle's red moat from a PLP's moat.

Henry Cabot Lodge III, the Association's chairman

Isn't that Veronica's dad in the Archie Comic books?

With a name like that he can't help but be a real prude. LOL

The Cabot Lodge are members of a prominent republican family in the US.

Yep, the biggest kind of prude.....from Nahant, Massachusetts.

Wowee they jump for the Rich White folk out west but a bloody hard working Bahamian needs something and you left on da hard ......

Sealice--You expected something different??

I would have thought the wealthy residents of Lyford Cay, Albany and Old Fort would be much more concerned about the dangers and environmental impact of the large scale LNG bunkering, refueling and transshipment facility that our government is proposing to allow Shell North America to put in very close proximity to their residential properties. Once this has been done, these wealthy homeowners will not have to worry about property tax at all because the value of their properties will quickly become essentially worthless.

Who do you think is going to run Shell? Yes, white people. Where are they going to live? Yes, Lyford. Where are their children going to go to school? Lyford. Where are their wives going to play tennis? Yes, Lyford. So the very idea that they are going to shit on their own doorstep is ludicrous. Don't worry, the pollution here is going to be ZERO. Far less than what we have now with Clifton. It will be MUCH better.

Dream on my friend. You sound like someone who would be willing to live in the centre of a smelly public dump/waste site as long as it is owned and operated by white people. That's very telling about you. Perhaps you would be much happier living in another country composed in the main of people of your preferred colour. Give it some thought.

Since you want to bring colour into it ,,go take a stroll around Hope town ,Green turtle cay ,Spanish wells ,,then go stroll around George town Exuma and get back to me about which one is a dump

"*Turnquest, deputy prime minister, yesterday told Tribune Business that the Government was "actively reviewing" recent Real Property Tax Act reforms that could have a "devastating effect" on Lyford Cay and its annual $215m economic impact.*"

What a comedy show. By the end of the year I fully expect them to repeal all the adjustments made in the budget, food items, medicine, real estate, insurance, construction. This is unbelievable. Exactly what kind of impact analysis did Turnquest and Johnson complete? If Dr Minnis can't see that neither is qualified for their position, I'm not sure what to say. I understand Johnson's replacement isn't much better. There seems to be a big confusion over the qualifications and experience required to create effective monetary policy.

This budget plan is a disaster. And I'm not talking about whether or not the rich people should pay more taxes, I'm talking about Turnquest not running the numbers to see how things would change and who would be affected. I don't think they did any kind of analysis, it's just not possible for them to have and then crumble like this after someone points out the obvious.

This year's budget was prepared by someone who does not understand economics or tax policy.That was said by someone in a tweet to a local talk show.PM Minnis should have kept Wilson as FS.He is an honest ,capable technocrat.An FNM businessman told me that.Also a chamber of commerce official said when the vat was introduced. Rolle and Wilson came and meet with us.They had a frank discussion with us.They took our suggestions in account with the vat and that is why we had a smooth transition when the vat was first implemented.

I een know if I'll go out on a limb vouching for anyone's character from the last slush fund administration. Numbers don't lie. One billion gone. But I do have it on good authority that Wilson at least understood something about economics. Did he do the best job with his knowledge? Probably not

Wilson's job I heard was with the revenue side.Mainly he dealt with the tax administration. I also heard he got the job because of merit. He got the position after John Rolle went to central bank. Nobody says nothing about John Rolle's performance .I was told why certain FNMs are trying to discredit and slander him.

Wilson should have been appointed Financial Secretary.

And Peter Turnquest should have never been appointed Minister of Finance - he's nothing but a myopic bean counter!

I won't argue that Wilson understood economics, but the results were something else. I haven't forgotten what happened between 2012-2017. Asking for Wilson's return is like the children of Israel pining for "Merciful" Pharoah after they spent a couple days in the desert. I have reason to believe he was moved for cause beyond just politics. I also understand that he was not very nice to staff to put it very very mildly.

Here's my take on John Rolle, he's quite competent and I like him, from the outside he's not someone who pushes against the grain, (and that's from the outside because I don't know what happens in the meetings and you won't see a central bank governing openly opposing govt policy) politicians in this town like people like that, intelligent but they won't oppose you. It's a two edge sword, your competence gets mixed up with the things you "go along" with. Think Wendy Craig had the same issue

Wilson only became FS in 2016.The previous FS the bulk of this last Christie administration was Rolle and Ehurd Cunningham for a bit.Most of these problems predate Wilson being made FS in 2016.

Have you ever managed a volcano? It never cooperates, erupts at inconvenient times, doesn't go along with the plan and is only satisfied when it's in charge. You end up spending needless time defending against the volcano and its attempts to upset the entire operation because it wants to do what it wants to do

A very simplistic view you have.Just like many politicians of the PLP and FNM

Possibly. I'm no expert, I just have my experiences to fall back on. I once worked with an absolutely brilliant man. There was nothing he could not do as far as I was concerned. It turned out he had the "Power Bug" and was EXTREMELLY good at hiding it. When it came into the light, I was shocked to find that he'd been undermining everybody, reporting everybody to head office, sabotaging other people's work, deliberately not assisting where he could, giving misleading information. He wanted to be in charge. In the end his machinations destroyed a few careers and his own. Another thing I've learned is there are only so many types of people, you live long enough and youll see their patterns repeated over and over again

You or somebody else has an axe to grind against this man.I am only saying what I have been told by persons.Maybe they were misleading me. But I was also told without a shadow of the doubt,that two former senior FNM cabinet ministers have defended this man.Also a former senior civil servant and a current one I highly respect.There is a saying there are three sides to a story,your side,my side and the truth.

Indeed .......... Its the Peoples' Time ............ such a joke.
But KPT better be careful with tinkering with taxes .......... now that 80% of food is VAT-free, there is NO way that the Government can raise $1.5 billion from VAT each fiscal year.......... Bahamians spend big on food, gas and drinks........... and they expect the Government to take care of the rest.

Lol. We must be the "shady" cabinet, cuz the shadow one taken.

This whole issue came about because these jackwagons decided out of the blue to abruptly increase taxes with no proper consultation and extraordinarily poor planning.

Bravo, just when ya thought we couldn’t be anymore incompetent.

I think that should be labelled "CRMINAL".

country run by baboons as usual. Look at the reality, Lyford Cay residents pay more in property taxes than almost all Bahamians. ALL of the outstanding property taxes are owed BY BAHAMIANS who duck taxes.

This country went downhill right after the PLP won, now look at it. Run by Baboons! SAD!

Our country is not run by monkeys captain "coon". Just because you're paying taxes does not mean you're paying your fair share. So that argument can be had. Taking someone's taxes up 500% though seems completely insane

It's fine to pay a fair share, we can bot agree that raising it by 500% is ridiculous. This is where proper planning and consultation is to take place, which clearly these baboons didn't do.

I read the letter from the Lyford Cay Association in its entirety and I do agree that the move to take away the word ‘seasonal’ from the Real Property Tax Act was not well thought out. The removal of the word allows a foreigner to be taxed at the full rate even if he’s only in occupation of his home for less than 3 months in a year. We all know that most of these persons are indeed ‘snowbirds’ and only in occupation of their homies for about 3 months or less (usually during the winter season) in any year. How do you now proceed to imply that they are in occupation for 6 months and then tax them at the full rate for multimillion dollar homes, when the act defines the home as a ‘second home’ which clearly means that they are residing elsewhere and this is not their main home.

In its haste to tax everything and everyone into oblivion Turnquest and his team clearly did not think this through and with the singlet stroke of the pen were seeking to kill the ‘second home market’ which attracts the wealthy to our shores.

Glad to see somebody woke up and reversed this.

True that whilst Comrade Lyford Cay property owners does lives behind gates keep rift raft citizens out compound - why should they expect keep property Tax Man's on other side gates? Rather than KP offering Lyford Cay property owners a Property Tax Holiday - he should dispatch empty Armored Car through gates collect all cash owed taxes.