See the data on Paying Taxes here...
The report estimates that 233 hours are spent a year with paying the various taxes on business houses totaling some 33.8% of net profit.
Meanwhile, some businesses like many in the automotive industry are taxed at 125% of their net profit.
The entire tax structure is inequitable.
Why?
a. VAT is harmful to the consumer and hurts sales for legitimate businesses.
b. Business is now forced to be the tax collector, and
c. Business License taxes are charged as a percentage of gross sales. Something that is not done in any other country.
The Bahamas Government has grown far too unwieldy and costly as it attempts to be all things to all people.
Government has a specific and limited role.
To quote Ludwig von Mises:
"People who do not agree with [my conception] of the functions of government may say: “This man hates the government.” Nothing could be farther from the truth. If I should say that gasoline is a very useful liquid, useful for many purposes, but that I would nevertheless not drink gasoline because I think that would not be the right use for it, I am not an enemy of gasoline, and I do not hate gasoline. I only say that gasoline is very useful for certain purposes, but not fit for other purposes. If I say it is the government’s duty to arrest murderers and other criminals, but not its duty to run the railroads or to spend money for useless things, then I do not hate the government by declaring that it is fit to do certain things but not fit to do other things."
In other words, we need government, but we do not need a bloated, ineffective behemoth that taxes the citizenry at such unconscionable rates.
When the question was put to the Acting Financial Secretary if the government was going to pay a commission to business for collecting their taxes, the silence was deafening. Now maybe it is understood why the question was so important.
