The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN companies will have to improve their record-keeping and accounting procedures with a new tax structure set to be introduced within the next 10 years, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation's (BCCEC) president said yesterday. Telling Tribune Business that the private sector needed to start preparing for eventual change tax reform would bring, Winston Rolle highlighted comments made recently by state minister of finance, Zhivargo Laing, in Tribune Business. The Chamber chief said: "We as a country have signed on to a number of different agreements, and a lot of pressure from around the world is coming for us to reduce or eliminate our Customs duties, so where is the revenue going to come from? "The Government will have to look at restructuring our tax system. That is going to mean, from a business owner's perspective, that more onus is going to be put on business owners to keep proper records." Mr Laing recently told Tribune Business that the next Government cannot "ignore the need" for tax reform, and moving towards a sales/Value Added (VAT) tax regime. In response, Mr Rolle told Tribune Business: "From a business community perspective, governments have been doing the business community a disservice. As it stands now there is nothing being done to prepare the business community for what is to come as it relates to tax reform. "I don't think we have the luxury of thinking that we don't have to consider tax reform for the next 10, 15 or 20 years." He added: "I think within the next 10 years, at the maximum, we are going to have to look at a new tax structure. Businesses need to start to prepare for the fact that we are going to be changing. Both governments seem to be leaning to some kind of value added tax, and so it's going to have a lot more reporting and regulatory requirements for the business community that they need to prepare for." Mr Rolle said the proposed Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Development Act, and agency to facilitate growth of such businesses in the Bahamas, were moving forward. He explained: "The Bahamas government had looked at implementing SME legislation for some time now. They have worked with the Chamber on that for about a year-and-a-half, and looked at securing funding from the IDB. "I think we are at the stage with moving ahead with it now. I think very soon you are going to see that being played out in the public domain, and then we are going to start to go through consultation with businesses to try and understand what constitutes a small business, what are their needs and how do we fill the needs of small businesses."