By FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE BUSINESS REPORTER

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

OPPOSITION leader Michael Pintard has called for the Government to pause its One Tax Bahamas rollout, arguing that the new tax administration system represents a major public policy change that requires greater consultation, transparency and safeguards before it takes effect on September 1.

Mr Pintard said the initiative was being presented as a routine modernisation exercise when, in his view, it represents a significant expansion of the Government's ability to identify, track and enforce against taxpayers through a new Bahamas Identification Number (BIN).

“This is a sweeping and unprecedented expansion of the Government’s tax administration apparatus that will ultimately require every Bahamian taxpayer to obtain a unique government-issued tax identification number as a condition of accessing tax services,” he said.

“That is a major public policy change, not an administrative update.”

Mr Pintard also questioned the absence of Minister of Finance Michael Halkitis from the public rollout of the initiative, arguing that the minister responsible should be explaining and defending a major change to the country's tax administration system.

“The first question is simple: Where is the Minister of Finance?” said Mr Pintard.

“When a government fundamentally changes how citizens are identified and tracked in the tax system, the elected Minister responsible should announce and defend the change.”

He also criticised the implementation timetable, arguing that a system of this scale should be subjected to extensive public education, consultation and testing before being imposed on taxpayers and businesses.

Mr Pintard further raised concerns about the security of the information that will be consolidated through One Tax Bahamas, questioning who will have access to taxpayer information, whether government agencies will be able to share information and what safeguards will exist against misuse or cyber breaches.

He called for the Government to explain what privacy protections are in place, what consultations were undertaken and what remedies taxpayers will have if information in the system is incorrect.

“The rollout should be paused,” said Mr Pintard. “The Minister of Finance should come before the Bahamian people and explain why this universal tax identification system is necessary, what laws govern its use, how privacy will be protected, who will have access to taxpayer information, what consultations were undertaken, and why such a profound change is being rushed forward with so little notice.”

Those concerns are also being raised from within the business community, with one Bahamian businessman who asked not to be identified warning that the system could create serious problems for companies if taxpayer information is inaccurate or enforcement decisions are triggered before disputes are resolved.

The businessman said he supports the modernisation of tax administration but questioned whether the system and its supporting legal framework are sufficiently developed for the September 1 launch.

“I don't have a problem with them becoming more efficient in what they're trying to do. I have a problem with them creating more bureaucracy and it does not appear as if all of these things were completely thought out,” he said.

“Because now you're telling us you're now developing the functions and things to go with this, as opposed to let's develop these things first and see how this thing fits in, modify these things before we put it out to the public on September 1. This ain't complete. This ain't ready. That's the problem that I have with it.”

One of his central concerns is the potential impact of errors in the new system on businesses that depend on government-issued compliance documentation to operate.

He pointed to the existing requirement for businesses to obtain a tax compliance certificate when conducting business with the Government, arguing that an incorrect compliance flag under One Tax Bahamas could have immediate economic consequences while a taxpayer attempts to resolve the problem.

“You know, if you don't get a letter of compliance, you can't do business with the government,” he said. “They just lock you out.”

That, he argued, could create a potentially damaging situation for small businesses if a taxpayer is forced to challenge an error after enforcement action has already been taken.

“I can't fight a dispute with you. You shut my business down. I win the dispute six months later. I'm out of business,” he said. “It just ain't right. Something's wrong.”

He also questioned how the BIN system will operate where individuals have both personal and business interests, particularly sole proprietors, shareholders and partners.

He said the potential ability to link corporate and personal tax information raises questions about how far the Government's view of an individual's financial affairs could extend.

“If one partner is delinquent on something, then that affects the other partner because now you can go in and say, ‘Oh, well, partner A ain't doing what he's supposed to do. Let me see what partner B doing,’ and all right, we need to get partner A straight so we gonna hold partner B hostage,” he said.

“There's a fine line between the ethical concerns that everybody needs to have when it comes to that.”

He also questioned how widely information collected through One Tax Bahamas could ultimately be accessed across government.

“We need to know where is this information going to live? How many government agencies are going to have access to it?” he said.

“Because if Customs got access to it, I'm trying to do business. They're going over here seeing something else. They're seeing what else I'm doing. I mean, I could get screwed 20 ways from something.”

He said taxpayers need to know not only which agencies can access their information but also what safeguards will prevent information from being improperly accessed or used.

He questioned whether the Government has given businesses sufficient time to prepare for a system that is expected to become increasingly central to tax reporting and business licence renewals.

“I have no confidence in that because they couldn't do business licence as it was in the past,” he said.

“They couldn't get it done in time, right? And people were still operating after January 1 until February, March, April, not getting their business licence. So if you couldn't do what you had in place before, what makes you think between now and January 1 you're going to be ready with something as complex as this should be?”

He said the Government should publicly answer the outstanding questions before the system becomes operational rather than attempting to address problems after businesses and taxpayers have become dependent on it.

Mr Pintard similarly argued that digitisation alone should not be treated as evidence of progress without corresponding protections for taxpayers.

“The Government appears to believe that digitization automatically equals progress. It does not,” he said.

“A centralized database, a new identification number, and a slick website are not substitutes for accountability, consultation, privacy protections, or public trust.”

The One Tax Bahamas portal is scheduled to launch on September 1, with the Government promoting it as a modernised platform through which individuals and businesses will be able to register, file and pay taxes.

The system is expected to bring major tax streams, including VAT, Business Licence Tax, Real Property Tax and Stamp Tax, into a more integrated tax administration framework.

Mr Pintard said the Government has the burden of demonstrating that the system is necessary, properly governed and adequately protected before asking Bahamians to entrust it with their financial information.

The businessman agreed that modernisation itself was not the problem, but argued that the safeguards, legal framework and remedies for taxpayers must be established before the system is rolled out.

“I don't have a problem with them becoming more efficient,” he said. “I have a problem with them creating more bureaucracy.”

He warned that any failure would likely have its greatest impact on smaller businesses that lack the financial resources to absorb prolonged disputes with government.

“If they can't answer all of those questions, then they got a problem,” he said.

“This ain't a good thing to do, because people will get hurt, and unfortunately, it won't be the higher-up or one or two percent at the top. It'll be everybody below that: the small man.”

“All of those people are going to be the ones hurt by this if it's not done correctly, because they don't have a $100,000 war chest that they can sit on and fight them while they try to shut me down because they made a mistake.”