You pretty much hit the nail on the head their John...and the price increases that everyone is seeing and complaining about at the moment is a direct result of increased customs processing fees and increased business license fees that have come on line in the past 12-18 months, just to name a few...VAT will just compound these already major cost increases.
We will also be the first country in the world to try to implement VAT that does not already have a well established income tax and revenue agency in place...so moving into the more complex VAT was not such a major undertaking...but NOOOO...we can do it so much better here in the Bahamas, we can bypass one of the primary tax structures that governments depend on, income tax and sales tax, which are relatively simple, to the most complex of VAT...forget baby steps, let's just whack people over the head with a 2x4.
"running out"...try 'RUN OUT'...there is absolutely ZERO chance that the people who are going to bear the brunt of trying to come to terms with this, get all their systems in place, figure out the accounting and reporting side of things to do this effectively without getting whacked by this new enforcement agency is ZILCH. This is not something that you can turn around on July 1st and say to people who are not ready...oh that's OK...we will overlook it for a short period of time until you figure it out. NO...this has to be fully documented and fully explained, and fully tested before a go live takes place...every single business that will fall into the VAT scheme must be up to speed and ready...they haven't even given us any rock hard information on it yet so we can in turn hand that off to our software vendors to make things happen...and that's just for businesses that run a full blown accounting software in conjunction with their point of sales...all the people out there still running manual cash registers are in deep crap!! Not ready, no where near!!
Govt couldn't negotiate their way out of the sewer, let alone negotiate to have BTC do anything they don't want to do. It is what it is until some solid competition comes on stream to compete against them. The whole buy back fiasco just proves that.
Yeap...double whammy all around, with nearly a $30K monthly BEC bill and about $10K in BTC bills...whack me with another 15% VAT charges on my utilities and that is going straight onto the markup we need to charge on our merchandise...business licenses fees have also quadrupled under the PLP...so guess what...our margins are going up even more.
I'm paying my fair share trust me...but when my business license fees go from around the 200K mark to just shy of a million...a YEAR...I'm starting to have a hard time justifying it. I could close up shop, sell off all the assets and retire to some other country...sure as heck am not going to stay in Nassau where you run the risk of getting shot killed raped or robbed at any given point in the day.
Nothing will change in this respect. We have no where near the infrastructure or man power to handle the load that the FAA currently does on our behalf. Heck, even as it is, we have underpaid and understaffed air traffic controllers who are VERY unhappy, all of a sudden we are going to push to do what needs to be done to provide cover, which will cost millions...then you need to staff to man it, which will cost you another small fortune...that is assuming you pay them what they are worth...it will be YEARS before the revenues gained, pay for the outlay that will be needed for that slice of the pie in the sky...maybe...they may not even break even years down the road.
Are you serious?? Did not see that. All of our stuff is 100% local, and 100% Bahamian, but if I decide I wanted to start outsourcing stuff in a more economically favourable location...I'm a private company...not some government run agency, I'll do what I dang well please and if you don't like it, I'll just shut it down altogether. Idiots.
B_I_D___ says...
You pretty much hit the nail on the head their John...and the price increases that everyone is seeing and complaining about at the moment is a direct result of increased customs processing fees and increased business license fees that have come on line in the past 12-18 months, just to name a few...VAT will just compound these already major cost increases.
On MP says time is running out to explain VAT to residents
Posted 20 February 2014, 7:35 a.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
ROTFL...but crying at the same time...
On Union backs hotline - but wants protection for bus drivers
Posted 19 February 2014, 1:59 p.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
We will also be the first country in the world to try to implement VAT that does not already have a well established income tax and revenue agency in place...so moving into the more complex VAT was not such a major undertaking...but NOOOO...we can do it so much better here in the Bahamas, we can bypass one of the primary tax structures that governments depend on, income tax and sales tax, which are relatively simple, to the most complex of VAT...forget baby steps, let's just whack people over the head with a 2x4.
On MP says time is running out to explain VAT to residents
Posted 19 February 2014, 12:50 p.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
"running out"...try 'RUN OUT'...there is absolutely ZERO chance that the people who are going to bear the brunt of trying to come to terms with this, get all their systems in place, figure out the accounting and reporting side of things to do this effectively without getting whacked by this new enforcement agency is ZILCH. This is not something that you can turn around on July 1st and say to people who are not ready...oh that's OK...we will overlook it for a short period of time until you figure it out. NO...this has to be fully documented and fully explained, and fully tested before a go live takes place...every single business that will fall into the VAT scheme must be up to speed and ready...they haven't even given us any rock hard information on it yet so we can in turn hand that off to our software vendors to make things happen...and that's just for businesses that run a full blown accounting software in conjunction with their point of sales...all the people out there still running manual cash registers are in deep crap!! Not ready, no where near!!
On MP says time is running out to explain VAT to residents
Posted 19 February 2014, 12:28 p.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
Govt couldn't negotiate their way out of the sewer, let alone negotiate to have BTC do anything they don't want to do. It is what it is until some solid competition comes on stream to compete against them. The whole buy back fiasco just proves that.
On CIBC: ‘No choice’ but to cut 66 jobs
Posted 19 February 2014, 11:18 a.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
Yeap...double whammy all around, with nearly a $30K monthly BEC bill and about $10K in BTC bills...whack me with another 15% VAT charges on my utilities and that is going straight onto the markup we need to charge on our merchandise...business licenses fees have also quadrupled under the PLP...so guess what...our margins are going up even more.
On Family Islanders feeling left in the dark over VAT
Posted 19 February 2014, 9:02 a.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
I'm paying my fair share trust me...but when my business license fees go from around the 200K mark to just shy of a million...a YEAR...I'm starting to have a hard time justifying it. I could close up shop, sell off all the assets and retire to some other country...sure as heck am not going to stay in Nassau where you run the risk of getting shot killed raped or robbed at any given point in the day.
On CIBC: ‘No choice’ but to cut 66 jobs
Posted 19 February 2014, 8:14 a.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
Nothing will change in this respect. We have no where near the infrastructure or man power to handle the load that the FAA currently does on our behalf. Heck, even as it is, we have underpaid and understaffed air traffic controllers who are VERY unhappy, all of a sudden we are going to push to do what needs to be done to provide cover, which will cost millions...then you need to staff to man it, which will cost you another small fortune...that is assuming you pay them what they are worth...it will be YEARS before the revenues gained, pay for the outlay that will be needed for that slice of the pie in the sky...maybe...they may not even break even years down the road.
On Christie calls for airspace millions for Bahamas
Posted 19 February 2014, 8:10 a.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
Are you serious?? Did not see that. All of our stuff is 100% local, and 100% Bahamian, but if I decide I wanted to start outsourcing stuff in a more economically favourable location...I'm a private company...not some government run agency, I'll do what I dang well please and if you don't like it, I'll just shut it down altogether. Idiots.
On CIBC: ‘No choice’ but to cut 66 jobs
Posted 18 February 2014, 2:53 p.m. Suggest removal
B_I_D___ says...
No one bothers to answer 919...so why a Jitney hotline?
On Union backs hotline - but wants protection for bus drivers
Posted 18 February 2014, 2:30 p.m. Suggest removal