The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and The Grand Bahama
Port Authority, Limited’s Value Added Tax along with The Small Business Sector
conducted a seminar on the topic of “Value Added Tax & The Small Business
Sector” on January 22, 2015.
The first session was held on Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
commencing with remarks by President of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce
Mr. Kevin Seymour, followed by the President of The Grand Bahama Port
Authority, Limited, Mr. Ian Rolle.
Both sessions were conducted by Mr. Christopher Baker,
F.C.A., Senior Manager, Freeport Office HLB Galanis & Co. which was held in
the Conference Room of the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Baker explained how and why businesses need to register
for VAT noting that it is a consumption tax applied to most goods and services,
that are paid by the final customer, collected by businesses and remitted to
the government.
He noted that if the small businesses were not registered
and did not have the TIN numbers then they would be considered the final
customer and not able to reclaim funds they paid out in taxes.
He said that most places have already included the 7.5% tax
in their bills while others seem to have it placed on during purchase.
For those persons unaware, he said that the registration for
VAT is online and then he proceeded to explain how to sign up.
Valuable information was provided and each session ended
with numerous questions and concerns voiced by the attendees.