The Bahamas will constantly be plagued with black listing because the country is only halfheartedly implementing fiscal and tax reforms to meet the bare minimum of a moving target.

Eg. we implimented VAT to get rid of customs duties and business licence fees to enhance free trade. We halfheartedly implemented a low VAT and left customs duties and business license fees in place. Further burdening the private sector with burdensome tax bills.

KP simply signing a letter is not going to "do the trick". Never has and never will.

As long as government follows the advice of offshore banks, trusts, foundations, lawyers, special interest, high net-worth residents and tax accountants it will never meet the evolving requirements of the global trading blocks (EU, Nafta, TTP etc.). Why? Because the Bahamas has no income tax, no corporate tax, no individual tax, no capital gains tax, no interest income tax, no dividend tax, no inheritance tax and no beneficial owner transfer taxes. Simply moving to the Bahamas can save a corporation or individual billions in taxes over decades. That's harmful to the tax base of developed countries. No wonder they are upset.

IBCs can be set up with nominee shareholders, directors, officers with the sole purpose of moving money and assets around the world without the disclosure of true beneficial interest.

Registered agents set up these corporations with no fiduciary duty (agency responsibilities only) other than knowing the customer. Knowing your customer is only the starting point. In developed countries corporations must file financial statements with the registry and prepare annual tax returns. No such requirement in the Bahamas.

Now that we appear to be embracing Bitcoin and webshops (quasi financial services) it only pours oil on the fire. In the meanwhile the international banks are bailing out of commercial banking on the jokey pretext of moving their platforms onto the web. Anyword on ACH? Every tried moving money from one Bahamian bank to another electronically? Good luck with that. Meanwhile there is silence from the government and the regulator. Sometime you can't even make a deposit in the bank...where is the regulator in all this?

"Registered agents set up these corporations with no fiduciary duty (agency responsibilities only) other than knowing the customer. Knowing your customer is only the starting point. In developed countries corporations must file financial statements with the registry and prepare annual tax returns. No such requirement in the Bahamas."

Ah, wrong! Delaware for example is much, much worse than here. Speaking from experience, registered agents in Delaware don't know how much money is in a company, and they don't care. They don't know who the shareholder of the company is (only who asked for it to be incorporated) and they don't care. They don't know who the controlling parties of the company are, and they don't care. Many development countries are MUCH more slack than us... and they don't care! They just don't want us playing on their pitch!!!

So, let's talk about the numbers.
Can the Minister of Finance give us an idea of how much money could be raised for the Treasury by implementing a nominal 7% or 10% corporate tax rate?
Bahamians should be cheering this on, as then the Government of The Bahamas could immediately eliminate Duty, reducing the cost of living for ALL Bahamians.
We could start paying down our deficit, saving hundreds of millions in interest payments alone.
Who can possibly say that this is not a fair way of helping out the mass of struggling Bahamians?
Come business community. Let's hear it.

Too reasonable Porcupine---It'll never happen!!

Why the .... should we introduce new taxes because some beaurocrat think-tank in Europe thinks we should. You can guarantee that if the Bahamas introduces a nominal 5% tax on corporate profits, the OECD will come blacklisting us again next year claiming that 5% isn't high enough. Then when we comply and raise ours, they will raise their taxes on their own people and then they will blacklist us again until we have to raise ours again.

I get that they needed to shore up the secret funding of terrorists and curb the laundering of drug money but now they are saying us not having taxes is 'harmful'. Harmful to what ? Harmful to the europeans having 8 weeks paid vacation a year ? Harmful to those governments bailing out big banks after they fleeced the entire world of everyone's life savings? Harmful to people in Europe paying less for a Banana than we do in the islands where they are grown ?

I'll tell you what will be harmful. The FNM adding a new tax and miss-managing the funds. Them getting voted out and the PLP coming in and adding new taxes and miss-managing the funds. Pretty soon then we can all move to Europe and apply for benefits for all the taxes we helped them raise, because there won't be anything at all going on around here.

To all the people who think introducing a corporation tax is "beneficial".....yes, it would be beneficial in terms of revenue but it would be almost impossible to introduce in practice.

That is because a corporation tax requires audited accounts. Auditing costs money.
Take a small business in the Bahamas...a fish fry. The owner would need to start keeping accounts, saving all invoices and paying an annual audit fee to his accountant. Can we see this happening? Do we think the average Bahamian business is ready for this?

Even if we got over this first step, someone (presumably the Ministry of Finance) would need to keep track of and audit the audited accounts. Otherwise everyone will just cheat like hell and report no income or use 1000 different ways to minimize liabilities. Are we saying that we have the human resources to do that? To me, knowing our system & resources, that is all science fiction.

Maybe that is the answer...introduce it and not police it. I don't think we could even if we wanted to.

Just because it would be challenging you think that it shouldn't be done? So back in the day you would have argued that we should stick with the horse and buggy because people would need to learn how to drive cars?

At what point do we need to move forward? The world is passing the Bahamas by.

More taxes isn't moving forward; it's falling on your knees and obeying a master who can't keep his own house in order. Anyone with a brain cell think that the U.S. or European tax system is fair and efficient?

They are both better and more efficient than the Bahamian tax system. No one said more taxes, they said to modernize the tax system.

Do you know how many pages the U.S. tax code is? Over 70,000 pages. Not efficient. The collection of tax - other than payroll tax is also not efficient. Ever had to complete a US tax return? Not easy or efficient.
Most Bahamians never even have to think about paying tax in the Bahamas. The importers do most of it for us. Bahamians usually only deal with Road traffic once a year.

No, I am not saying it SHOULDN'T be done. I am saying it CAN'T be done. Not with the human resources available to the Ministry of Finance.

I would not be surprised if there were more IBCs alone than the adult population of the Bahamas. Anyone can pass a few laws, set up a system and then...? Then what? Who is going to police it and enforce it? Our MoF? Our police? Our Courts?
It is never going to happen.

In reality when you increase the cost of doing business you might see increased unemployment, higher cost of goods and services etc. The increased cost of doing business will trickle down!

If the category of businesses taxed is confined to those doing $10 million or more with a reasonable tax rate it gives small and medium sized businesses opportunities for growth. Otherwise it will stagnate the economy, not grow it!

This isn't about a cost of doing business.
I don't mean to be petty, but a basic accounting course would help you understand this.
What stagnates the economy is low productivity, ie. people who could give a rat's ass about their job, theft, corruption, and if we were focused on the things that truly and honestly stagnate the economy we would have a sober, mature conversation about the epidemic of gambling and the web shops.
There is nothing that stagnates the economy more than the web shops. Repeat, there is nothing that stagnates the economy more than the web shops.
The government needs money to function.
The question is; where does that money come from?
Presently, the trend is for the working class and poor to bear the brunt of this taxation, such as duty, VAT, stamp tax, car licensing fees, NIB, etc. With each concession given to a business, more money MUST come from the working class to pay for government.
Don't call this a Christian country while supporting a lower standard of living for most of us while allowing the richest few to get much richer on the backs of the rest of us.
We need to shift the argument from the nonsense taught in business schools to the real truths which affect us, most all of us daily.
I am both a businessperson and a human being.
Our world is skewed towards giving business all the breaks, while driving the working person further in debt and less secure than 20 years ago.
You fine with this Joeblow?

I'll repeat your repeat because it needs repeating... I repeat, there is nothing that stagnates the economy more than the web shops.

With all due respect, companies are in business to make money. When profits are decreased because of taxes and other onerous burdens placed by governments then the business is forced to consider how to increase their profits and reduce operational costs. One way to trim the fat is to lay off unnecessary (so called redundant) workers. That increases unemployment. More unemployed people in an economy means less money is being spent in that economy as a result the local economy contracts. Government is forced to spend more on social programs etc. This is basic stuff!

Web shops are a major problem, I agree, but that is not the core discussion at this time! Legitimate business will be adversely affected by corporate taxes!

What are you talking about?