The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

MANY Family Island businesses are unaware of the steps required to operate legally and maintain good business practices, according to Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) officials.

A compliant business must have the necessary documentation, a valid business license, and other required certifications.

The DIR hosted a financial symposium yesterday at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium to address this. The event aimed to educate entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small business owners on compliance requirements in The Bahamas.

DIR’s communications and training manager, Beaumont Todd, said the department has noticed a growing number of people eager to start businesses but frustrated by unclear requirements. 

The symposium featured officials from the Bahamas Customs Department, Bank of The Bahamas, Ministry of Works, Colina Insurance, the National Insurance Board (NIB), and other agencies to assist business owners.

Mr Todd said a common concern is understanding the documents needed to start a business. The first step is obtaining a passport to register the trade name. Alternatively, a voter’s card and birth certificate can be used for registration.

DIR has been hosting pop-up events nationwide to educate business owners on compliance. While Mr Todd did not specify which Family Island businesses are frequently non-compliant, he noted that some cookout vendors often lack the necessary documentation.

“What we do find with a lot of businesses, sometimes on the Family islands, is persons are not familiar with the process of what they need for them to be compliant. So, this is a part of why we’re going through this process to assist persons,” he said.

In the past, some business owners have also expressed frustration over delays in renewing business licences. Mr Todd acknowledged that the department has a backlog to a “certain extent” but is working to reduce it.

“If you take consideration, there’s about 60,000 plus businesses throughout the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and that is growing every day,” he said.“We are in the process of trying the best of our ability to cut that down, but we are a small department, but we’re still determined to make sure that these persons not just get their business license renewed, but new businesses come in.”

In February, Department of Inland Revenue operations manager Dexter Fernander told Tribune Business he hoped that 80-85 percent of Bahamian businesses met the business licence filing deadline to minimise financial penalties.

He noted that many companies waited until the last minute to submit their 2024 turnover figures and 2025 estimates.

“It’s been a typical pace, including coming at the last minute and changing their representatives. A lot of people are switching the representatives they have in their system; a combination of accountants and lawyers, and asking for them to get access to the system themselves,” he said.