Tough Approach on Tax Arrears Pays Off For Bahamas Government – Caribbean360.com (subscription)

NASSAU, The Bahamas, Monday February 20, 2017 A brute force approach in The Bahamas by the Perry Christie administration to rake in millions of dollars owed from outstanding tax revenue is paying off $15 million every month to be exact, says Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Simon Wilson.

But he says that is just the tip of the iceberg, as the Government goes after delinquent taxpayers to recover arrears in excess of $600 million.

On average, this effort has yielded $15 million a month. Our target is $400 millionin two yearsin incremental revenue without adjusting [tax] rates. We believe thats quite achievable, Wilson said.

Weve listened to our advisers who suggested taking a more aggressive stance. Their target is two times that. And that $15 million is only on New Providence, he continued, adding that the crackdown would soon extend to businesses in Abaco, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera.

The initiative launched last November pressures businesses to pay up arrears in four key areas Value Added Tax (VAT), Business Licence fees, Real Property Tax and Customs duties.

Wilson told the recent State of the Economy 2017 forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce that theDepartment of Inland Revenuehadzeroed in on 800 entities importing/selling more than $30,000 worth of goods per year without businesses licenses.

He pointed to 24,000 properties in New Providence whose owners had not placed them on the roll for Real Property Tax increases.

In addition, the Government has also netted a significant number of shippers allowing goods to come in without proper business licences and names.

Acknowledging there was some resistance from some quarters, Wilson said the crackdown was the best approach to avert new or increased taxes as the Government attempts to boost its annual revenues by around four to five percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP).

The obvious way to get there is increasing tax rates or finding new taxes, he said. Weve taken a new approach because the system is sufficient to achieve this by being more aggressive on tax compliance.

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Tough Approach on Tax Arrears Pays Off For Bahamas Government - Caribbean360.com (subscription)