By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
EXEMPTING web shops from taxation was yesterday branded a “big mistake”, a leading businessman telling Tribune Business that the industry could generate $200 million or half the revenue the Government hopes to collect from Value-Added Tax (VAT). Ethric Bowe, head of the Carmichael Business League, and president of Advanced Technical Enterprises, said: “The people are operating an enterprise and they’re making lots of money. Some estimates go as high as $400 million a year.
“They have no issue with being taxed. They are inviting the Government to tax them.”
Draft VAT legislation seen by Tribune Business shows the problems created by the Government’s failure to legalise, regulate and tax the webshop industry.
While “games of chance, gambling and lotteries” are designated VAT ‘exempt’, the legislation makes clear this only applies to casino gaming or activities licensed under the Lotteries and Gaming Act. This, once again, leaves web shops outside the tax and regulatory loop.
“The way I see it, if we get $0.24 cents off every $1 that goes across the table, we should have taken in over $100 million already. That’s half of what they’re trying to raise with VAT, with money that’s already in the system,” Mr Bowe said.
“Plus, when you look at them being able to put their moneys in the bank and do business with their money, the whole economy would become a lot more vibrant. I believe it’s a big mistake for us to just ignore that. I would take advantage of that right away because it’s the easy one to do, and it will buy us time in order to consider what else we need to do.”
In January 2013, the Government held an ‘opinion poll’ on whether to regulate the numbers industry. That was rejected, and Prime Minister Perry Christie subsequently announced that all webshops must close with immediate effect.
Webshop owners, however, filed an injunction to block any move by the Government from interfering with its operations. The substantive case has not yet been heard.
Comments
Reality_Check 10 years, 11 months ago
Forget subjecting the revenues of the Numbers Houses to VAT....to do this would be tantamount to legitimizing their illegal gambling activities. A much better approach (consistent with the wishes of the vast majority of Bahamians other than the few employed in the illicit activities of the Numbers Houses) is to enforce the existing law and shutdown the illegal gaming activities of the highly prosperous Numbers Bosses, who are lamed brain criminals, and establish as suggested by Michael Hepburn and others a National Lottery whereby all the revenues (net of winning payouts) would go to paying down our National Debt. Problem is, Christie and his political cohorts are so indebted to the Numbers Bosses, that these criminals now feel emboldened to go on our State taxpayer subsidized TV extolling themselves as virtuous Christian faring pillars of our society when nothing could be further from the truth. Why should any Bahamian worry about complying with the laws of our land or paying VAT when Christie himself in unwilling to shutdown once and for all the illegal Numbers Houses and put their Bosses where they belong!
BahamasGamingAssociation 10 years, 4 months ago
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bahamas-…
WHICH ON OF THE BELOW REIGNS SUPREME IN THE BAHAMAS?
The Bahamas Lottery and Gaming Act Chapter 387 Section 50 Persons prohibited from Gaming
Or
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas Chapter III – Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedom of the Individual. Section 26 Protection from Discrimination on grounds of Race, Place of Origin etc.
The Bahamas Gaming Association stands by the Ideology that all human beings who are 18 years or older should be treated equally in all sectors of the Bahamian Economy which is enshrined in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
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