People are afraid that if the government does not own BEC anymore they can't get their friends to do them favours and keep their power on even though they don't pay their bills. When in actuality, if it is privatized and allows for competition; prices will be so competitive if your bills aren't being paid you need to change your priorities!

I have no evidence on this but I would assume that the reason that income tax/payroll came before VAT is because VAT is a new tax started in the mid 20th century. After a few of the European countries saw it wonders, the world started to adopt the VAT and its hard to remove taxes once they are implemented probably why they still have both. So the best outcome would be to reduce the rates on both not to tax us out the country.

On a side note, taxes aren't bad if they are well spent which I think we all agree on. I need these roads fix and kept maintain so i can comfortably drive my little car on the road without my small self bouncing in the car cuz the potholes too deep.

I am just saying I prefer to be taxed indirectly. For example, I make $400 a week at 5% proposed payroll tax. I now have $380 ($400- (5% of $400=20)). Now I go and spend the remainder and buy $200 worth of weekly expenses. I now have $180 ($380- $200).

Under a vat/gst/Sales tax
I make $400. I buy $200 worth of groceries at 15%(Additional $30 tax from at 15%) That is $400 -$230 = $170. I would have saved $10 under payroll/income.

Then I say hey this VAT taking too much of my money so I reduced my weekly bill to $180. I pay $27 in VAT from 15% of $180. $180+ $27 =$207. $400-$207 = $193. Therefore, I now save $13 more than from under payroll scheme.

Hence the moral of these calculations is to show that I have control over what I spend. I do not have control over my salary and why would I want a pay cut anyway?

Furthermore, this is under the assumption that employees pay the entire 5% and if the employers pay half then, we must hope new workers do not take a pay cut cause that would reduce the governments forecast of revenue

New Zealand Income Rates

Top rate: 33% from $70,000
30% - $48,001 to $70,000
17.5% -$14,001 to $48,000
10.5% - $0 to $14,000

The Median being 24% (rounded up to the nearest percent)

New Zealand GST rate 15%

With the income tax being direct and the GST being indirect. The direct tax takes more revenue for the government but the indirect tax allows the citizen to decide to spend and pay 15% rather than automatically having 10.5% scaling upwards taking from your paycheck.

For a payroll tax to generate $190 million based on 5% tax, the average Bahamian payroll based on those figures would be to be $400 a week. If we are going to go with a direct tax might as well broaden it and make it a progressive income tax.

Most might think that $190 million at 5% is better than $200 million at 15% but if I am correct, the net means that they are taking into account the revenue gained after the revenue loss from reducing custom duties by 17%. Correct me if I am wrong, please.

In addition, spending cuts need to be made but over a 3-8 year period; so to not to distort the economy as well.

All did need to do is say from 2015 onward information is readily available to the public. Documents prior will have to requested and approved. That way we get the act, the mps have not to worry about their past(truth be told, probably can't do anything about it), this way it gets passed faster!

For anyone who believes that they were not aware. The Genting Group in Bimini is a Malaysian company. The reference should have not been made anyway!

Well one may assume that since tourist consume and VAT is a consumption tax and a payroll tax does not extract wages from tourist. Furthermore, payroll is different from an income tax; so one may conclude that payroll tax percentages would need to be higher than VAT.

Goods made in the Bahamas are not subject to customs duty tax because they are imported. However foreign goods are taxed because they are imported. The VAT for example with no custom duty would mean that they both are now duty free and when u go to the final goods counter at Solomon's both the foreign good and domestic good are taxed equally.

We actually do export several things, and we may export even more if we were to engage in research and development to discover these assets. For example, calcium carbonate is used in many industrial activities, we live on it, tell me why we can't utilize it? Also, who is to say we won't find and drill oil!

The United States accounts for approximately 20% of global trade. So regardless of the U.S. dollar depreciating against other major world currencies everyone would be affected. The United States also has natural resources, so in the event the dollar drops; it may export more because labor is cheaper relative, which allows the U.S. dollar to appreciate.

I see where you are coming from with pegging to another major country who is not going down but we must remember that the U.S. is our major trading partner and to peg to the Euro for example, would mean that American tourist have to now get Euros or prices have to priced in Euros and American Dollars.