He would have just kept the money for himself!

So if I want to open a small boutique hotel with 3 or 4 units, I need to get approval and a business lincence and pay the hotel tax and charge VAT and get commercial insurance and pay real property tax. So I play by the rules and try and make a business that helps the country and maybe pays some employees and then Bruce here is saying that AirBnB's can just do as they please without having to do any of this because they are such a big contributor. If your AirBnB brings in so much for the country then the hotels bring in far more.

We need to change our attitude of always pointing fingers and saying well they are worse, or they got more. Take some responsibility. If you want to open your house up like a hotel then you should be treated like a hotel, and if you think hotels are treated unfairly then try and get it all changed, but don't say 'well I should get special treatment'. Play by the rules or try and change them, don't try and cheat them and justify it to yourself.

You literally add nothing to the conversation. Take some responsibility for yourself. Go out and actually improve the community instead of always trying to sow negativity.

This is exactly who should be paying extra taxes. We give out residency to foreigners buying homes so that they come and live here instead of just stashing their $10 million into real estate that has minimal tax and visiting once every two years. They do this to hide money from their own government because there is no information sharing from the Bahamian government about who owns property here, unlike banking information. These places should be occupied by the owners with them spending money living in the Bahamas. It doesn't affect small vacation home in most of the out islands either as they are below or near the $500,000 cut off.

The only people I hear complaining are the real estate agents who are trying to get their 6% cut when they sell from one tax avoider to another.

Absolutely, the FAA already takes cares of controlling most of our airspace. They have the resources and experts to do this too. It will be way cheaper to pay them and there won't be any slackness or free lunches to get around the rules.

Yes, that has nothing to do with Flesh Eating Bacteria.

This tax is not going far enough.

They do amount to a hill of beans, they amount to millions, because every department in this country that handles money has the same problem. We are losing tens of millions in small transactions every year because no one will take responsibility for their actions. We think it's ok to steal if it's a small amount and then point at others if caught claiming they did worse. If you steal you are wrong no matter who has done worse. You are not absolved of your sins because there are bigger sins.

There is a very simple solution that is used in tourist heavy places already. AirBnB collects the tax and remits it to the Bahamian government. This is simple and straight forward and is already added when paying for the rental in many places. The rental owners don't need to worry about collecting the tax or having to worry about tax police and the government gets some revenue.

We need leadership that has a sense of responsibility. This is an irresponsible thing to say. Grow up Halson Moultrie. If you can't understand the gravity of the countries financial situation then move out of the way for someone who does.