Two sentences on crime???????? Really???
There was no mention of reducing the business license taxes and this will serve to the detriment of many businesses. Without my crystal ball it might possibly cause closures, downsizing or restructuring.
The goal is taxes will equal 20% of GDP. Surely the objective should be to find ways to reduce taxes to encourage economic growth?
The push for ever more taxes does not seem to make sense.
We're told taxes are at 17.1 of GDP, and this is inadequate. Should the penny drop at some point that the government is too large requiring more and more taxes to exist?
Its worth questioning if our GDP is assessed properly? In other words shouldn't we remove the "offshore" portion of the banks and hotels contribution to get a more accurate picture of GDP? And if we did that, would the taxes on the "real" Bahamian economy already surpass 20%???
More details are required to determine the exact impact on the automotive industry that I work in.
Do we pay VAT at the port now or not?
Does VAT apply to net retail price or list prices?
The Prime Minister said growth was projected at 2.7% of GDP last year but it came in at 0.7%.
So how much faith do we put in the projections of GDP growth at 2.3% for 2014/15?
Also, a lot of noise was made about all the revenue expected from number houses once they were "legalised". The number that sticks in my head is $100 million, but I stand to be corrected.
However, if my calculations are correct they expect to get $11 million or so from web shop taxes? Seems dramatically lower than predicted.
Now for the best sentence in the speech I've read so far if it means keeping accounting records like businesses do:
"we also recognize the benefits of adopting internationally recognized and accepted accounting principles for the public finances and we are making efforts to implement the IMF Government Finance Statistics (or GFS) framework, including accrual rather than cash accounting and the proper accounting for Government assets."
Also, they show their wisdom of lower taxes by giving Freeport tax breaks to encourage economic growth, yet charge us all more. Go figure...
Overall, VAT at 7.5% might be worse than VAT at 15% and excise tax reductions if my general calculations are correct. I guess as the Minsiter of State for Finance says they will raise $3 - $400 million instead of $200 million makes that point.
Who's giving odds that VAT will be at 15% before too long?
This constant changing of the goal posts with our tax policy makes reasonable business planning a waste of time.
