By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Chamber of Commerce’s chairman yesterday urged the Government to “simplify the tax code” and ease of doing business as he identified discrepancies in Business Licence filing requirements.

Timothy Ingraham, confirming that Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) members and the wider private sector are hoping tomorrow’s Budget excludes new and/or increased taxes, disclosed that some companies were asked to produce approvals from other government agencies that others did not have to in obtaining their Business Licences.

He added that there is still some confusion as to whether businesses are required to obtain a letter of good standing from the National Insurance Board (NIB), as some were able to obtain a Business Licence via the Department of Inland Revenue’s online portal without uploading this document while others could not.

Others still had to obtain a letter of good standing from the Registrar General’s Department, which the Chamber chairman said can be a “tedious” process.

Mr Ingraham said: “It’s a bit unclear on that because some members report that they’re still required to get a letter of good standing from National Insurance, and some say they aren’t, and then it was a point when they weren’t.

“So we’re trying to confirm exactly what’s going on there [and if] a National Insurance letter is required at some point. National Insurance and Inland Revenue had set up back channels to sort of work all this out to make it much more efficient for businesses, so we’re making inquiries into that.

“A lot of members report that when they need a letter of good standing from the Registrar General’s office, that’s a very tedious process, and we’ve seen some issues from that office recently. So hopefully there’s something in the Budget to move that process forward so that members aren’t held up by what’s happening there.”

Mr Ingraham added that many businesses were required to obtain audits due to their annual gross revenue being over $5m, but he argued that the policy should be “rethought” as audits can cost up to $15,000 and some firms that meet this threshold do not have a high net revenue.

He said: “Last year, certain businesses were required to have audits. We’d like to see that rethought because audits are not cheap. So what it does is if your business has revenue over $5m, you’re now spending another $10,000 or $15,000 to get an audit.

“We hope that maybe that can be relaxed a bit. Maybe the number is lifted. It’s not $5m, maybe $10m or $20m. Remember that’s on the gross, and the gross may have nothing to do with the net. You may be grossing $5m, but netting very little. And so it’s about the cost that that businesses incurs.”

Mr Ingraham said the Bahamian private sector would like to see The Bahamas’ tax regime simplified so that reporting and paying taxes will be less difficult.

He said: “I think our members want, first of all, no new taxes and a possible reduction in taxes. We’d like to see the ease of doing business improved. It is still difficult, for instance, to open bank accounts if you’re doing business in this country.

“It’s still difficult to do get your Business Licenses sorted out in many instances, to get certificates of good standing and all of these other kinds of things. And so a lot of our members would like to see the process to do business in this country simplified.

“We’d like to see the tax code even simplified a bit. We think, in recent years, there’s some things that have made it a little more difficult for businesses to report. If you’re a government, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to pay their taxes. You don’t want to make it difficult and so we also want to ease doing business.”

Mr Ingraham revealed that some Chamber members are still having issues with obtaining their Business Licence through the new Department of Inland Revenue portal, but the private sector body has been in contact with the tax authority and will assist firms in working through the process.

He said: “We still have members with complaints about the process. Up until recently there were still some members who have done as much as they think was required of them but they still don’t have a Business Licence.

“I understand some of those challenges are down to the new system that was implemented, and it’s causing some issues with issuing the Business Licence that will probably last through the cycle of renewal.

“But, in speaking with Inland Revenue, they think that once they get through one cycle, it becomes a lot easier to do it because the new system just demands a lot more information than the old system did and so that’s what’s causing some of the issues.

“But we’ve encouraged our members, if they have an issue with it, to shoot us a note at the Chamber and we will do what we can to try and help them work through those issues.”