OMG, there is no need for the fisherman, construction work and other marginal people to declare and pay income tax, these guys don't do VAT returns either. The PLP is not after the small men, they are after the elite Bahamian business class and the foreign residents to pay the income tax.

I agree with you on devaluation, everything that is imported will go up but the number one cost of our tourism product is labor and this will go down in comparison to the hotels taking in US dollars. So the poor man will get squeezed just like he did with VAT. But the PLP will simply say the elite business man increased prices and is making a killing off of them after the devaluation. Ya just can't win wit dese negros.

Also, I don't expect them to manage income tax any better than the terrible management of the $600 million in VAT taxes already collected or the $100 million of gambling taxes already received. The almost $1 billion in extra taxes received so far has not made a dent in the government debt and I don't expect the income taxes received to make a dent either. The tax money collected is poring out through a big hole at the bottom of the bucket.

Most of our leaders are in their seventies so the sustainability of the Bahamian economy is not really their first priority. Christie says over and over that the rest of the world thinks we are rich, secretly he knows there is a lot of rich people around. The secret of the PLP is to part the rich from their money and blame them when the poor man gets screwed with higher prices.

Hi Viewersmatters, your recommendations I believe are not too far off of the mark of where the PLP and the Cabinet are going. The hurricane disaster provides a good excuse/rationale for the implementation of income tax.

If VAT revenues generated twice what was anticipated at $600 million, income tax and asset based duties on bank accounts could generate twice that at over $1 billion. This is especially true of offshore bank accounts of foreign residents are also taxed globally.

Also, with the implementation of income tax the PLP can eliminate customs duties which would put them in the good books of international free trade organization who seem to be all powerful.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to suddenly devalue the Bahamian dollar at the same time to make the Bahamian tourist product more competitive. It doesn't matter to the PLP because the poor people don't have any money in the banks to begin. Have you seen the long lines for food stamps recently?

I sense a populist change in the PLP philosophy where they will support the poorer/votes at the expense of the elite, who never supported them anyhow.

Government is being run as a big $2 billion business from the top straight down to the electrical linesmen who will only turn on your lights if he is paid a fee of $500. If you want your lights on, please don't call BEC, they will not answer your phone. Stop an electrical worker in the street. It doesn't matter what the politicians and electrical management say...watch the price of the fish in the market.

Honestman, "minimal impact on people" is a coded message/dog whistle meaning that the PLP will tax businesses. This can be done by increases in business license fees, employer NI tax rates etc. However, these will be too slow to raise funds.

I feel they will increase the VAT rate from 7.5% to 10.0% and say that the difference will go towards hurricane relief. Then the funds will be posted to the General Fund like the VAT and gambling taxes and will be buried in abuse to fund BoB, Resolve, Bamsi, BEC, Water and Sewerage, BahamasAir, lavish trips to China and NY for PLP cronies, the bloated governement payrol and many other government entities which should all be closed down and let private businesses perform these services.

Besides the horrible BEC customer service I am paying between my generator, high power costs, work disruption and ruined electrical equipment my business is suffering over $50,000 in cost. Compare this with my Florida Power and Light bill of under $2,000 per annum.

Have made the decision to stop working in Nassau as electrical costs are killing small businesses. Will sell out if there are any buyers and move.

John, obviously the people do not believe the government. The gas station lines are extremely long and only 20% of the houses have electricity.

Some recommendations to BPL/BEC based on how Florida Power and Light operates.

1. Please insert detailed power outage and hurricane information on your website.

2. Hire 20 to 30 customer service agents to answer your phone. It is deplorable in this day and age for a monopoly never to answer the phone.

3. Hire more linesmen to fix the overhead lines faster. It is not acceptable that 48 hours after the hurricane that there are wires in the MAIN roads. I hardly see any BEC trucks on the road. In years gone by they were up and down the streets. Please pay your staff overtime so they will get the country up and running faster.

4. Bring in a contingent of linesmen from the US to get the ditribution up faster.

As a Bahamain I feel terrible that after paying $600 million in VAT, $100 million in webshop taxes, higher national insurance rates and higher business licence fees that we can't get the lights on faster.

I hope they have the satellite radios working in the family islands.

And, please, please stop making these poor island folk store keepers from having to do VAT.

Another devastation in our southern islands will cause everyone to just give up.

3 reasons in why I'm so over joyed that the incompetent PLP and FNM took so long to approve oil drilling in the Bahamas. Well done PLP and FNM, keep dragging your feet on oil drilling!

1. The Bahamas has the most beautiful waters in the world. The incompetent BPC would probably spill the oil and destroy our oceans and islands.

2. The price of crude has dropped 50% in the last 5 years from over $100 to less than $50. Who is BPC trying to fool that us that you drill for oil profitably for less than $75 per barrel. If they had started drilling the operation would have been halted long ago and the equipment left in the Bahamas as an eye sore and destroy our coastlines.

3. Go see the movie Deepwater Horizon this weekend. Click on trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yASbM8…

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2016…

news flash to the clueless PLP, FNM and DNA leadership and bone headed bankers lamenting the demise of last centuries Bahamian tax haven business.
You are wasting your time with "unilateral" tax treaties. The world has moved into trading blocks (eu, nafta, asean, Pacific Trade Agreement, G20 etc.). Individual developed world countries don't want to negotiate 40 plus tax treaties with each banana republic that asks for one. This is because in today's day and age of global trade unilateral treaties are useless in tracking international money laundering.
Example. If they is a rogue with an African passport transferring the proceeds of crime using the international financial system how is an automatic tax exchange treaty with the UK going to help? It wont because its not a tax issue and the individual is not a UK citizen so the tax treaty is worthless.
A "multilateral" exchange of information treaty is far more useful. In this instance the EU, UK or the US can automatically and quickly get information from all banks and corporate registered agents in the Bahamas on this rogues dealings in the Bahamas without having to figure out if they have a tax treaty with us and exactly what types of information the treaty covers. The tax treaty may not cover matters outside of tax evasion.
So I would advise Hope to stop beating her chest about how unfairly the Bahamas is being treated. The global powers don't have time to waste about what you think about the treatment of the Bahamas. They want to stop international proceeds of crime from being hidden in the Bahamas. Either we comply or we continue to loose more and more access to the global correspondent banking system.
Read what happened in Belize as correspondent banking relationships are systematically terminated in that country (link below). Our leaders are still under the impression that this can't happen in the Bahamas. But why risk it? Who's interest are they protecting? Why negotiate 40+ TIAs when one can do the trick. Who is getting rich off of this nonsensical negotiation? What is the cost of all those trips abroad to negotiate 40+ treaties? This is certainly not in the interest of average Bahamians who doesn't even know what a correspondent bank is. Maybe the perceptions in the recently released Poll that our leaders are more concerned with foreign interests is true?

http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstor…

Obviously this drivel is for local consumption or our financial leaders don't have a clue of the global program. Let me tell you one more time "unilateral" automated tax exchange treaties will not work. The Bahamas needs a "multilateral" automated tax exchange treaty, period.

This is not a negotiation, this is a demand from the eu, g20, fatf etc.

So, the PLP and FNM can continue to talk nonsense and get black listed again and have all the correspondent banks pull out of thee country or we can start to co-operate with western civilization.

Also, could you please update the corporate database and make accessing it more easy and less costly and more useful...dese G20 people look like dey ain playin doll house wit yinna.