Thank you very much Mr. Carson.

Understood...

That’s why Real Property Tax should “be kept ‘low’” on owner occupied dwellings.

Reform in this sector also means having everyone register their property and pay at least a nominal fee. This would mean having a built-in mechanism to reduced the fraud that leads to many of our less advantaged citizens having their properties stolen from them by unscrupulous thugs. Once a person’s property is properly registered at the Real Property Tax office/ IT system, it should be less likely that someone can ‘claim’ their real estate.

Real property tax is a very serious (and sensitive) issue and it reality ‘hits home’ when one is on a fixed income, like what happens to elderly retirees.

It is one of the easiest and most efficient taxes for governments to collect (your residence is easily found and documented). As such It makes home-owners especially vulnerable to “the big cudgel” of governments’ tax collectors. All the more reason to have progressive and sensible methods and rates, taking into consideration much of what Mr. Maycock states regarding improvements and investments. After all a well maintained structure and property benefits us all (see the delapidation in many of our NP neighborhoods and otherwise beautiful Family Islands). Additionally other factors, like not bankrupting the poor or our retirees who built our country, have to be factored into tax policy. In this scenario real property taxes on owner-occupied homes should be kept ‘low’ (these are not income generators), while income generating properties or once sold (and now subject to Stamp Tax) can be somewhat ‘higher’.

It should not matter ‘where’ a property is located, what is a “rich area” today may not have been when your grandparents built or bought their home...

The Minnis Administration needs to take a good look at our Customs processes. There are many policies that are contradictory to the VAT agreements including many of which that are not equally applied. Additionally there are arbitrary charges and unnecessary Red Tape that inhibit business efficiency and development.

A Cabinet White Paper to improve Customs would be a good idea. They should evaluate what Customs does? What is better left to the Tax collectors at Ministry of Finance? What could be abolished? What would make us more competitive as a nation? They should revise the Customs Duty ‘book’ of duty items, which is nearly one thousand pages to a much simpler document. They should aim to reduce the Custums Duty Rates on most of the products listed. Trust me, this would be desired by All! The higher rates could remain for items we may not want imported into the country, like guns, environmental toxins or other non biodegradable or recyclable products (like plastics and styrofoam)🤔

There is much to fix at Custums.

This is great news...the Bahamas is “the canary in the coal mine” when it comes to waste disposal & the environment. Go to any Family Island and examine their landfill: the amount of non-degradable plastics, styrofoam, tires and appliances speak to the problem in microcosm. The introduction of the $50 appliance tax is a start (although one wonders if government has been collecting and using this income for its intended purpose?). Others have opined to ways this fund could create a nascent recyclable/ scrap industry locally...a discussion for another day.

Using our Customs’ policy (100% importation of these products) to limit these environmentally harmful products, while encouraging the use of reusable and biodegradable ones, is exemplary. These folks should be congratulated!

A logical next step would be to limit imports of water, and other libations, to glass bottles/containers that can be locally recycled.👍🏽

What may seem like a ‘good deal’ is not always so and oftentimes results in substantial financial losses to the very folks (“the poor”) who can ill afford it. Government is supposed to protect the people, sometimes from themselves! Government also is supposed to protect our environment and no one can argue that “used cars”, no matter how good a deal, are more likely to be short lived and end up in our already crowded landfills (and bushes etc.), so ensuring that we get the best quality used cars before they are transported to the Bahamas is a win-win, regardless of what the ‘conspiracy theorists’ shout from the top of their I’ll-informed lungs😡

Think people...think!

The Bahamas, land of the pirates then and now: That goes for this story, the previous articles as well as the happenings in our government and courts 🙄

Great points "Observer2"!

Well said "John".

Hopefully the new Cabinet will study our VAT objectively and fix those things that need to be adjusted, while strengthening those aspects that are working. If necessary we could have independent evaluators assess our VAT performance. This could include experts from New Zealand, who undoubtedly have the best performing vat (gst).

Otherwise Minnis would be wise to follow the advice of many astute economic observers: "leave well enough alone"...

Mr. Gowon Bowe, who is a very successful accountant and financial expert, has gotten his facts exactly right. His succinct arguments make perfect sense and is backed up by empirical evidence from the IMF paper and more importantly from our own Bahamian experience: VAT is a good idea and has been successful for what it was intended to do: collect taxes in a fair and honest way. It seems to me that VAT is victim of its own efficiency and success?!

Now that is not to say the there aren't things that need to be tweaked. Any policy put into practice needs to "adjust on the fly", and for it to be truly successful, needs to correct itself once put into action. The authorities need to make those adjustments to our VAT for it to be even fairer and better.

Those blaming the irrational excessive spending habits of "government" on VAT have misplaced their understandable anger. It would be like blaming your boss because you got drunk and crashed the car celebrating a huge raise. Our frustration needs to be directed at our politicians and those in government doing the spending (and stealing).

Dr. Minnis needs to get the cold facts on VAT and Mr. Bowe is someone without political affiliation who can give it to him. Although one wonders how much influence his very well informed candidates have on him on this point? D'Aguilar, Symonette, Lloyd, Sands et al?!