Well written article.

The 15% corporate income tax will lead to a further flight of offshore businesses especially holding company IBCs, hedge funds, family offices, international booking centers, shipping and will lower the price for businesses already clamoring to leave the Bahamas like CIBC and Atlantis.

I would be shocked if the amount collected would surpasses $10 million but $140 million is pure fantasy. Everyone will now be jurisdiction shopping.

Competitors like the BVI are widely consulting all industry partners and have concluded that "one size does not fit all".

I hope Brave isn't depending on this to balance an already terribly unbalanced budget.

I truly doubt Atlantis makes any money to begin with. It is a capital play...always being sold on the basis of real estate values and inflation .... higher and higher until the bubble pops.

Think of it this way. If you had a spare $2 billion would you buy Atlantis and have to deal with BPL, Water and Sewerage, competition of a new cruise port on Paradise Island disrupting your beach, trade unions, staff with basic skill deficiencies, Cable/BTC, annually changing tax regimes, crime and traffic jams?

Major multi-nationals will be even more reluctant to do business in the Bahamas for fear of having to divulge their global finances to the Bahamas government. Once they see the financials of these mutli billion dollar global businesses they are gonna want to tax them like locals.

Stop the tens of thousands work permits and we will be forced to be more efficient and hire Bahamian.

Continue issuing work permits and the crime will not stop...as detailed in the article.

No amount of prisons or resolve to stamp out crime can hold back generation after generation being born into poverty and hopelessness..

Correct ….

There is zero political or economic benefit for the government to implement this.

The electorate is so uneducated they don’t even know what it is.

The Bahamas Govt Benchmark US$ 2032 8.95% bond is almost back to trading on par and the international markets will soon be giving us more money.

Bahamian B$ are trapped in the Bahamas proving a cheap source of government financing.

The IMF, World Bank are bending over backwards to “lend us money”.

Foreign investors don’t careless about the FOIA.

Foreigners are overjoyed that taxes are going up rapidly on Bahamians to repay them in US$.

Canadian banks are making record profits while paying Bahamians 0% interest with horrific survive and dividending all profits out of the country.

Our foreign reserves at US$2.6 billion are really comfortable to pay all foreign obligations.

Late the deals continue

Great point John.

When I was in business the Big 4 accounting firm asked us if we could change our year end to June 30 so we don’t collide with the financial institutions December 31 year end. The auditors called it their “busy season”.

We also need to align our year end with our foreign partners.

The choice of year end was driven be business considerations. Not taxes.

Suggest you shut down and stop loosing money.

Too much money from the imf, oecd and World Bank propping up our $11.5 billion debt … these global foreign beaurocrats and thier local counterparts traveling around the world first class and living in the best hotels wouldn’t know the living hell running a small business in the 242 if it hit them in the face.

They think small business can be soaked to pay off the $11.5 debt and that they are hiding billions of dollars which the audits will discover.

By the time the Bahamas defaults in 10 years they all will be long retired and the ppl will blame the FNM.

Its difficult for anyone who is currently licensed and regulated to speak out against annual audits for fear they will be landed with "enhanced compliance procedures".

I was an auditor with a Big 4 firm back in the 1980s for 5 years and a Trust Company financial controller and Manager for 20 years and in the 10 years before retirement I was the accountant for a large investment firm.

Throughout my 35 year career in auditing, banking and trust the firms were always subject to completion of audits within 4 months. We had teams of qualified and trained accounts.

My thoughts:

We seldom were able to complete the audits in 4 months due to all sorts of financial issues including going concerns, material matters for enhanced disclosure, computer system conversions, lack of qualified staff, auditors not understanding the business, head office sign offs, mergers and acquisitions, consolidations and breakups, inventory issues, property valuations etc etc.

OK, so now I am running a food store with $5 million in revenue and no qualified accountants. How am I supposed to all of a sudden (1) find $50,000 to $100,000 for an initial audit and (2) find qualified accountants for $150,000 to prepare the accounts?

I ask the government if auditing is so simple why are the audited accounts for public corporations presented to Parliament years late?

Does this 4 month audit apply to government corporations? If so then what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

If not, please stop harassing the business.

Honestly I don't know how ppl do business in the Bahamas.

I looked at the legislation, regulations and the Micky mouse looking Excel spread sheet for reconciliation of audited revenue to business licensee revenue. Are you kidding guys for a government with $2.5 billion in revenue to come up with such amateurish reports.

Please take a look at IRS and Revenue Canada tax reports and try to get some qualified ppl in government to create user friendly legislation.

If the IRS or Revenue Canada want an audit...trust me, they will come in and do it themselves and not overburden small business (and yes $5m in revenue is small) with an audit.

Spot on Oracle. 3 generations the roots are so deep all we mere mortals can do is run and hide.

No public tender, no competitive bids, no meetings with public steakholders, no disclosures on beneficial ownership, no financial statements, no disclosure on drastic increase in air freight import bills, no advance notice of Jan 1 , 24 start date, no real address, no audited financial statements on the operator. Gotta love my New Day PLP, same as the Old Day PLP …. Ping school dem good in tiefin.

Pintard needs to get serious and stop this hot air.

Why would the government approve an FTX Select Committee to investigate themselves?

If government officials acted with the “appearance” of impropriety but not a possible criminal act why would Public Prosecution prosecute a non criminal act?

Also FTX has nothing to do with the Public Accounts because public funds were not wasted.

An independent and public facing Commission of Enquiry would be useful but why would the government approve such an investigation into themselves. MPs are puppets of the 2 party system an incapable of independent thought else their salaries are cut. Ever tried to buy food with no money?

What does amaze me is the lack of editorial by the Forth Estate calling out bad governance … but if generations of Bahamians have graduated who can’t read or had any basic civics lessons there is no one to read, much less comprehend the subtle issues at play here.

This is why corruption and foreign domination of our economy flourishes. We as a people, on balance are far to illiterate.

Move along now. Nothing more to see here.

My experience is that an account goes "inactive" after 6 months of no activity.

At that time the account "disappears" off the online banking system.

This is frightening because the banks don't send out statements due to non functional postal system.

So we she as time progresses more and more accounts will be in essence "confiscated" because no one will know they existed especially if the account owners pass away.

Bahamianson, my condolences to the family.

May I humbly speculate that with the recent incident of a school roof which did NOT collapse according the politicians we maybe advised that the tank did not collapse either, that the contractor had self insured and may have been given a verbal contract and there are no structural engineering reports or approvals.

Having been without water for years after the hurricane it may have been in the greater good to rush this project to bring portable water to the people.

Of course in a day or two this story will scroll down the page and we will move on to the next horror in da 242.

Honestly I wake up every morning to look at the 242 news to see what new unbelievable thing has befallen my country.