By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The Central Bank’s governor says introducing an income tax will make it easier for the Government to focus investment incentives on target industries and direct social assistance to those most in need.
John Rolle, speaking at an Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG) panel discussion, said Bahamian policymakers must concentrate on making the “difficult decisions” and executing reforms that benefit this nation “voluntarily” as opposed to having them forced upon the country by international bodies.
“One of the things that makes the Government’s efforts so much easier is having a tax system where you can give incentives to businesses in a very targeted way if you need to stimulate investments in particular sectors and activities,” he said.
“If you have the system designed correctly, and I’m speaking, frankly, about how we approach income taxation, it also makes it easier for government to provide the very direct and targeted assistance to families, as well as to be able to exempt at certain income thresholds.”
The Bahamas has long remained resistance to any calls for the imposition of an income tax despite the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calling for a more “equitable” taxation system. Yet the consumption-driven nature of this nation’s VAT and Customs duty-reliant tax structure means those on lower incomes continue pay disproportionately more of their income in taxes compared to their wealthier counterparts.
Most nations rely on income tax, both personal and corporate, as their government’s primary source of revenue since it is viewed as a progressive levy directly linked to ability to pay. Those earning more pay more in tax compared to those on lower incomes, thereby upholding the system’s perceived equity and fairness.
But The Bahamas, which has long cherished its tax neutral platform and the absence of any form of income tax, has bucked this world trend. While income tax was one of the alternative options to VAT, the last Christie government ultimately rejected it due to the fact it has no history here and, more importantly, the extra costs and bureaucracy involved in setting up and administering such a system.
Some cynics, though, suggested that income tax was also turned down because it would force all Bahamians to declare their annual income - thereby exposing all those seemingly living above their means. The Government’s just-released Fiscal Strategy Report 2022 acknowledged the equity concerns by saying the “fairness” of taxes is kept under constant review, although no specific reform measures were detailed.
Among the proposed legal and administrative work, the report said, is a “review of existing laws to determine opportunities for modernisation and simplification of tax legislation, having regard to efficiency, fairness and stability of taxes, and to achieve conformity with best practices”.
Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, also confirmed recently that the Government is hoping to release a so-called “green paper” consultation document by the 2023 first quarter’s end outlining options for addressing the global push for a minimum 15 percent corporate tax rate.
The Bahamas is among the 133 nations that have agreed to implement this, although its introduction has been pushed back by at least a year until 2024. The initiative is designed to ensure the profits and revenues generated by multinational enterprises (MNEs) with global turnover exceeding 750m euros are taxed in the nations where they are generated, rather than being artificially shifted to low-tax countries as part of avoidance and evasion strategies.
This has potentially important implications for taxes such as the existing Business Licence fee, with the Government having hired the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm to assess the consequences.
Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said The Bahamas must also balance affordable home ownership with hurricane resilience. He said: “Insurance is an issue when we speak to resilience, meaning that as we move ahead, we are not going to get away with just saying, well, if it’s very expensive to insure our homes, etc, because we live in a hurricane belt....
“We cannot shy away from the fact that the cost of insurance is a part of the cost of home ownership and affordability, and we have to think about in the future how do we right size the homes that we construct and occupy so that they can be affordable and be resilient in a hurricane belt. And that we were not entirely at the mercy of public assistance whenever there is a setback.
“But resilience also means that we have to get the Government in a healthy position so that it can invest more in hardening our infrastructure so that we can address the increasing violent storms, as well as the threats that are ahead of us in terms of the sea level rise,” Mr Rolle continued.
“The Bahamas has to be one where we’re growing faster on average than between 1.5 percent and 2 percent. That is how we’re going to get the average unemployment rate below where it presently is.”
The lowest unemployment rate The Bahamas has enjoyed in the past 20 years was in 2001 when the rate was below 7 percent. “I think it means that we have to make the lasting changes so that the economy can grow faster,” Mr Rolle added.
“We have to invest in upskilling the population. The model of the Bahamas during the 1980s and the 1990s was we provide a scholarship to Bahamians to get undergraduate degrees. Now that we have a university, put more money into higher education graduate level and above so that we can train even more and more of our undergraduates at home.
“I think, in terms of competitiveness, we cannot shy away from the difficult issues around Immigration policies, because I think some of the transitional momentum we need to be competitive and to develop certain sectors means that we have to be more receptive to skilled labour coming in for a while in some of our sectors so that we can work alongside them.”
Comments
moncurcool 1 year, 9 months ago
The government cannot get the present tax system right and here comes this talking head about income tax?
I really wonder about our central bank governors.
Reality_Check 1 year, 9 months ago
John Rolle is incapable of running the financial affairs of a small business let alone the monetary policy of a small country. As a career bureaucrat, he does whatever the finance minister (PM) tells him he must to do to continue getting his supper.
ohdrap4 1 year, 9 months ago
Not to worry. the doctors and lawyers mps do not even make their financial disclosure. they will not tax themselves.
I fear tho, they are going after the little people with a payroll tax. Lawyers are not on payroll. Ridiculous.
JokeyJack 1 year, 9 months ago
That is just stupid. You can see how much people make by their NIB contributions. Those who don't pay NIB now will not pay income tax later. Yall just wanna create more PLP voting jobs, and more importantly to fool the people AGAIN by not increasing NIB contribution rate - but simply add a new tax on them - just like VAT. Most Bahamians can't add - so they won't notice and they will vote PLP or FNM again. With a dumb population - yall got nothing to worry about. Call the learjet, tell it wait on the runway to take you to the Hilton in Miami. You good.
Emilio26 1 year, 9 months ago
I agree with 💯 besides if the government cannot even properly collect VAT then what makes them believe they'll be successful in collecting income tax whether it be from businesses or individuals.
longgone 1 year, 9 months ago
How about you try collecting at least 50% of the arreas of Real Property taxes, then come to take to me about income tax.
Lil242 1 year, 9 months ago
Income tax my foot. These clowns need to go sit down and drink some water. When VAT was introduce , the public was promise VAT will be used to pay the national debt and end budget deficits. Neither of the things has happen, governments have continued to borrow an run budget deficits due to bad management of public monies. The borrowing nor deficits will never end even if the government was taxing 51% of the countries GDP an collecting it annually.
ThisIsOurs 1 year, 9 months ago
Has either govt responsibly handled any tax increase? They will collect more and find more nice things to spend it on
ohdrap4 1 year, 9 months ago
I commented previously without reading the whole article. The income tax was a red herring.
There we go again, they tlked about before making hurricane insurance mandatory. It is really not affordable man. Plus, let's not forget the bamsi fire that had no insurance.
In Germany, they are preparing laws to allow govt to repossess homes if they are not insulated to current standards in a couple of years. I suppose they will fill the respossed homes with illegal migrants.
This is downright scary.
pileit 1 year, 9 months ago
Watch them introduce income tax, KEEP VAT, and KEEP duty. as the saying goes, when you find an arse, you ride it!
ExposedU2C 1 year, 9 months ago
Corrupt roly-poly Davis and lime-green Fwreddy Boy Mitchell are only too happy to shaft Bahamians with more taxes in order to give more social welfare benefits to the Haitian invaders they love so much.
LastManStanding 1 year, 9 months ago
Ahhh yes, let's help the poor by taxing their already meagre income even more. It really kills me how these people continue to pretend that VAT and duty will just magically disappear by adding yet another tax on an already struggling populace.
You have to be a real smoothbrained idiot to believe this hogwash.
LastManStanding 1 year, 9 months ago
I am expecting that they will put in a corporate tax for domestic companies while also keeping the existing business license fee structure as well.
All aboard the train to economic collapse.
DWW 1 year, 9 months ago
100% BS, nice.
DWW 1 year, 9 months ago
"Most nations rely on income tax, both personal and corporate, as their government’s primary source of revenue since it is viewed as a progressive levy directly linked to ability to pay. Those earning more pay more in tax compared to those on lower incomes, thereby upholding the system’s perceived equity and fairness." This statement is 100% bull snot. If I make more money then I spend more money. if I spend more money I pay more tax. If i have extra income I buy a house, pay house insurance and pay tax on all of it. and guess what? in this country the top tier income earners still don't have much in savings because the cost of living is so high in this country. Lets make it even worse, John Rolle, lets go for it.
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