Secondly the Bahamas needs to stop the outdated policy of providing permanently residency in exchange for the purchase of a house.
No developed country in the world does this nonsense. Residency should be awarded on merit. In essence you are selling residency for money which distorts and corrupts the fabric of our society.
If we fail to stop this practice we will be blacklisted again in a coupe of years which will shock our leaders who appear to be ignorant about most things.
The Bahamas government is spot on target with this RPT increase.
Bahamians need to stop aiding and abetting foreigners from avoiding income tax in the Country of thier citizenship while falsely claiming phoney residency in the Bahamas just because you own a house.
Example. A Canadian who is taxed by Canada on his residency and not citizenship buys a condo out west, does not live in it except for a couple of months in the winter and then uses his Bahamian residency to avoid income tax in Canada. It’s unfair tax competition. No wonder we are always getting black listed.
To add insult to injury this same Canadian then puts that condo on air b & b and rents it out with no hotel licenses in competition to small Bahamian hotel owners who are catching hell with higher taxes and VAT.
The government also fails to see the connection of the webshops as the primary financial activity of the poor, leading to a decline in bank branches and services and the increase in the use of cash for daily transactions leading to an increase in robberies.
Have you tried to make a bank deposit recently? It’s almost impossible. Deposit the funds at a webshops and it’s almost effortless.
The central bank is asleep at the wheel working feverishly at thier new multi million dollar building.
There just seems to be no hope. Imagine what it feels like to be a young man growing up in Bain Town with no hope, no light, no water, no education, drugs and webshops and liquor everywhere.
Crime has its roots in multiple ills including and most importantly morality. Webshops, carnival, drinking, theft, government corruption, lack of work ethic, minimal nuclear family formation amongst the other ills we discuss are to blame.
The police are simply overwhelmed and can solve nothing for whatever reason. There is no dialogue with the Bahamian people on the breakdown in the rule of law which has been going on for decades starting in the early 1970s under the PLP culture.
Minnis, or more importantly Turnquset believes that simply raising another $1 billion through VAT increases and Webshops taxes is a panacea for a dis-functional Government to resolve all our problems. At best they are spreading false hope, at worse they are distroying commerce that will escalate crime as more people become unemployed due to the enormous tax burden.
Sheeprunner12. It may employ 50 people but gambling is a non productive enterprise. Simply taking money from one group of people and giving it to another set of people provides zero value.
Look at the gambling addicts, the lives distroyed and the false hopes raised.
Long Islands population has shrunk from 6,500 to 2,400 over the past 10 years. Young people are leaving and not returning, fewer babies are being born, 50% of the population is over 65, the people are getting poorer.
Webshops have definitely contributed to the decline in the wealth of the island with over $500,000 a month of net earnings of the webshops being taken out of the community and flown to Nassau. In Nassau the government gets it cuts (almost as bad as Brutus’ betrayal of Christ) and the webshops owners taking thier winnings and investing it in affluent communities in the west and paradise island.
The regulated gaming industry won't go underground but Brave unfortunately does have a point. If the tax is too high then it spawn a lucrative unregulated industry.
The barriers to entry to the numbers business is low. A cloud server running the numbers coupled will a Cell Phone App is all that's needed for an entrepreneurial young person to get started. Without the taxes and regulations their payouts will be higher.
Also, with regulated banks closing down branches everyday Gaming patrons will soon move to electronic wallets once they see how easy it is to set up without the need of a bank account or exchange control approval or standing in any line anywhere in the Bahamas waiting for the government, the banks or the webshops to piss you off.
I think patrons will hate having to give the government 5% of their wager and then another 5% of the spinning winnings.
Also with 50% taxes the payouts are gonna get pretty lousy even for the most addicted gamblers.
Once the numbers business goes global and in the cloud then the patron will be free of the government's heavy taxes, reglations, the inability to transfer your winnings, the bahamas and listening to the webshop owners crying all day every day and they will be able to play numbers in peace with great returns.
Webshops are like a hydra, the more you try to control and regulate it in a corrupt society the more tenticals it grows. The peoples voice through the referendum should have been heeded in the first place.
The web shops appeared to be more powerful than law enforcement before their industry was legalized. The web shops were able to survive and flourish before legalization.
The web shops are more powerful than the people as witnessed by the country voting no in a nationwide referendum on web shop legalization and web shops were still legalized.
I think the web shops will now demonstrate that they are more powerful than the legislative (Parliament) and executive (cabinet) arms of government when the increased tax rates are set aside by the courts.
The web shops are already in every settlement throughout the bahama chain of islands and are now building out west in the most affluent areas of the country. Thousands of bahamians are now addicted to web shops gambling.
observer2 says...
So Bahamians paid $100 million in hurricane insurance premiums and got $13 million back.
What a rip off.
On Insurance covered just 13% of Joaquin damage
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:47 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Secondly the Bahamas needs to stop the outdated policy of providing permanently residency in exchange for the purchase of a house.
No developed country in the world does this nonsense. Residency should be awarded on merit. In essence you are selling residency for money which distorts and corrupts the fabric of our society.
If we fail to stop this practice we will be blacklisted again in a coupe of years which will shock our leaders who appear to be ignorant about most things.
On Tax change threat to Out Islands' 'survival'
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:44 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The Bahamas government is spot on target with this RPT increase.
Bahamians need to stop aiding and abetting foreigners from avoiding income tax in the Country of thier citizenship while falsely claiming phoney residency in the Bahamas just because you own a house.
Example. A Canadian who is taxed by Canada on his residency and not citizenship buys a condo out west, does not live in it except for a couple of months in the winter and then uses his Bahamian residency to avoid income tax in Canada. It’s unfair tax competition. No wonder we are always getting black listed.
To add insult to injury this same Canadian then puts that condo on air b & b and rents it out with no hotel licenses in competition to small Bahamian hotel owners who are catching hell with higher taxes and VAT.
On Tax change threat to Out Islands' 'survival'
Posted 22 June 2018, 1:24 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The government also fails to see the connection of the webshops as the primary financial activity of the poor, leading to a decline in bank branches and services and the increase in the use of cash for daily transactions leading to an increase in robberies.
Have you tried to make a bank deposit recently? It’s almost impossible. Deposit the funds at a webshops and it’s almost effortless.
The central bank is asleep at the wheel working feverishly at thier new multi million dollar building.
There just seems to be no hope. Imagine what it feels like to be a young man growing up in Bain Town with no hope, no light, no water, no education, drugs and webshops and liquor everywhere.
On Second home 'havoc' on triple-digit tax rise
Posted 18 June 2018, 3:06 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Bahamians need to stop looking to our leaders and every little stupidity they spout out of thier mouths on a daily basis.
They have no solutions for us only more pain caused by crime, sorry and ever increasing taxes.
On Two men shot dead in separate incidents
Posted 18 June 2018, 2:24 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Crime has its roots in multiple ills including and most importantly morality. Webshops, carnival, drinking, theft, government corruption, lack of work ethic, minimal nuclear family formation amongst the other ills we discuss are to blame.
The police are simply overwhelmed and can solve nothing for whatever reason. There is no dialogue with the Bahamian people on the breakdown in the rule of law which has been going on for decades starting in the early 1970s under the PLP culture.
Minnis, or more importantly Turnquset believes that simply raising another $1 billion through VAT increases and Webshops taxes is a panacea for a dis-functional Government to resolve all our problems. At best they are spreading false hope, at worse they are distroying commerce that will escalate crime as more people become unemployed due to the enormous tax burden.
I think it’s too late for the Bahamas.
On Two men shot dead in separate incidents
Posted 18 June 2018, 1:56 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Most of these foreigners are renting out their homes to Air b&b, distroying neighborhoods out west with people coming and going all the time.
I say tax them at the higher rate along with the webshops. Dese rich people need to pay more as we is broke broke.
On Second home 'havoc' on triple-digit tax rise
Posted 15 June 2018, 8:44 p.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
Sheeprunner12. It may employ 50 people but gambling is a non productive enterprise. Simply taking money from one group of people and giving it to another set of people provides zero value.
Look at the gambling addicts, the lives distroyed and the false hopes raised.
Long Islands population has shrunk from 6,500 to 2,400 over the past 10 years. Young people are leaving and not returning, fewer babies are being born, 50% of the population is over 65, the people are getting poorer.
Webshops have definitely contributed to the decline in the wealth of the island with over $500,000 a month of net earnings of the webshops being taken out of the community and flown to Nassau. In Nassau the government gets it cuts (almost as bad as Brutus’ betrayal of Christ) and the webshops owners taking thier winnings and investing it in affluent communities in the west and paradise island.
It’s the people’s time to get poorer alright.
On Gibson seeks delay in VAT rise
Posted 13 June 2018, 2:21 a.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The regulated gaming industry won't go underground but Brave unfortunately does have a point. If the tax is too high then it spawn a lucrative unregulated industry.
The barriers to entry to the numbers business is low. A cloud server running the numbers coupled will a Cell Phone App is all that's needed for an entrepreneurial young person to get started. Without the taxes and regulations their payouts will be higher.
Also, with regulated banks closing down branches everyday Gaming patrons will soon move to electronic wallets once they see how easy it is to set up without the need of a bank account or exchange control approval or standing in any line anywhere in the Bahamas waiting for the government, the banks or the webshops to piss you off.
I think patrons will hate having to give the government 5% of their wager and then another 5% of the spinning winnings.
Also with 50% taxes the payouts are gonna get pretty lousy even for the most addicted gamblers.
Once the numbers business goes global and in the cloud then the patron will be free of the government's heavy taxes, reglations, the inability to transfer your winnings, the bahamas and listening to the webshop owners crying all day every day and they will be able to play numbers in peace with great returns.
Webshops are like a hydra, the more you try to control and regulate it in a corrupt society the more tenticals it grows. The peoples voice through the referendum should have been heeded in the first place.
On Davis: Taxation will drive web shops underground
Posted 6 June 2018, 4:10 p.m. Suggest removal
observer2 says...
The web shops appeared to be more powerful than law enforcement before their industry was legalized. The web shops were able to survive and flourish before legalization.
The web shops are more powerful than the people as witnessed by the country voting no in a nationwide referendum on web shop legalization and web shops were still legalized.
I think the web shops will now demonstrate that they are more powerful than the legislative (Parliament) and executive (cabinet) arms of government when the increased tax rates are set aside by the courts.
The web shops are already in every settlement throughout the bahama chain of islands and are now building out west in the most affluent areas of the country. Thousands of bahamians are now addicted to web shops gambling.
How can you build a nation on this foundation?
You can't.
On Web shops: Tax rises attempt to seize industry
Posted 4 June 2018, 3:24 p.m. Suggest removal