We have had clown show governments for a good portion of the past 50 years. Instead of having the carnival in town, the circus needs to pay a visit. The government stooges will fit right in.

Buddy, you are free to give the government a portion of your salary at any time. Nobody is stopping you.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who has not paid income tax before has no room to speak on the topic. I am a Bahamian that has lived abroad, and understands how the system works. Since you brought up Canada, I will leave the link below :

https://www.taxtips.ca/personaltax/resi…

Income tax is 100% based on residency in literally every jurisdiction, except the US (that has an exemption up to 100k if a taxpayer is not living in the country), despite what this author claims. Unless we have taxation treaties, it is very possible that expats could end up being double taxed both here and in their home countries (depends on the particular circumstances). Furthermore, it should be noted that income does not only comprise what you earn from your job. Collect NIB or other government assistance? You will pay a tax on that. Collect alimony or child support? You will pay a portion of that in tax. Own your own business or are self employed? Get ready to be audited down to the very last penny. "income" literally means every dollar that you get from any source. People who have never had to pay simply don't know what they are signing up for.

Can you image our childlike, petty politicians staffing the Bahamian IRS with their lackeys and running audits on anyone that they don't like? You have to be insane to think that this is a good idea. Al Capone, big bad gangster as he was, didn't die in prison for murder, smuggling, or anything of that nature. No, he died in prison for "tax evasion". Let the reader understand the implications of that story.

I haven't even discussed the fact that the informal economy is still huge here, and would not be subject to taxation at all.

Since all of the pro-income tax crew care so much about the consumers, surely they will support scrapping VAT in it's entirety if they could theoretically get their wish of an income tax, right?

Minnis is going to get himself kicked out of the FNM at some point, which will only open another chapter in the saga of the FNMs implosion. The best thing that he could have done is resigned from the House entirely, it is extremely rare for a former leader to accept backbencher (is he even in the shadow cabinet?) status without making a mess of things. It really wouldn't have mattered if the PLP won a by-election in Killarney, they have 32 other seats already. Incumbency is a disadvantage in modern Bahamian politics anyways.

A corporate tax structure, properly designed and implemented, would be far superior to the current system that does not take low margin businesses, or years where a loss is recorded, into consideration. My opposition to a corporate tax rate lies in the fact that we will paying more than likely another 15% to the government on top of the current business license fees. Remember how duties were supposedly going to disappear after VAT was implemented? You would have to be a complete fool or imbecile to think that the government is going to pass up the opportunity to juice people for even more money.

Another election is going to come and we will still be waiting on this "sale" to close.

I cannot understand how anyone can reasonably expect our politicians to draft and implement campaign finance legislation that will do nothing but bring skeletons out of the closet for the Bahamian public to see. Neither the FNM/PLP are willingly going to shoot themselves in the foot, they will only do so if forced by an outside entity.

This is not a new problem either, we have been a pirate's republic since our founding. Whether it was mafia casino money, the Escobars and their coke money, or numbers houses in modern times, Bahamian politicians have repeatedly shown that they are open for business in exchange for a kickback. Like it or not, it is part of our culture and it is highly unlikely that it ever changes.

Exactly what I thought following this story. Sounds like someone needs a "full belly" in order to grant the approval. There is no way that they shipped rides here without having approval, those shipping fees were probably in the six figure range.

Can someone please give me one benefit of becoming a republic? I don't see a single one, but what I do see is a bunch of money and time wasted for no appreciable gain.

It is worth noting that Mia Mottley did not allow the public of Barbados to vote on the matter. I thought that it was a low class move, and no nation committed to democratic government should applaud it. It really makes one appreciate the foresight of our Founding Fathers to require a referendum with public approval to alter ours.

I whole-heartedly agree that we are all just playing pretend with our modern economic system, as no nation is ever going to pay their debt off, but the key difference between us and the first world countries with regards to debt is why it is taken on. First world countries will assume debt to invest into public infrastructure, development programmes, and such areas that will produce a benefit for them. The Bahamas takes on debt to pay government worker salaries. We literally get no benefit from the debt that we take on.

We are like an unemployed single mother that pays all her bills with a credit card (and somehow gets the limit upped regularly), while the first world countries are the responsible adult that takes out a loan to buy a home or invest into a business.

What percentage of our GDP is made up of offshore banking/financial services anymore? The industry has only been in decline since the early 2000s and surely cannot be worth further destroying our economy over.

What is the income tax rate in the Caymans? As a far superior offshore center than us, will they be adding an income tax? I cringe every time I see some IMF or OECD talking head/report compare us to Jamaica, Barbados, or anywhere in the Caribbean really. We are not even located Caribbean, and none of those countries are examples of what we should be aspiring to become. They are third world crap holes to be rather frank. The Bahamas is the third wealthiest nation in the Americas, but would be fifth if the Caymans and Bermuda were independent nations. Those are who we should be looking to for guidance and inspiration.

The Bahamian economy was explicitly designed around being a no tax jurisdiction. What else is going to attract permanent residents here? Income taxation is done on the basis of residency in most parts of the world, excluding the United States (who does give an exemption of up to 100k for non-resident citizens though), so how many economic PR holders are going to remain when we jack an income tax on them for living here? Why do you think Sean Connery lived in the Bahamas before he passed (among many other well known individuals). Furthermore, over half of the Bahamian population makes less than 20k a year, how can you expect them to pay out of their meager earnings? You will drive the Bahamian working class further into poverty by doing so. Not to mention that the informal economy is still huge here.

My God, I can already see the horror of having audits used as a tool of political persecution. The Shane Gibson fiasco(s) will look like child's play. Income tax is an absolutely horrible idea all around, and anyone proposing it needs to realize that we just can't do it. Our economy was explicitly structured around being a no to low tax jurisdiction, and any attempts to change that will horrifically break it.