Letters to The Editor
Opinion: VAT's 'Stronger Merits' are to avoid the Government's tax collection bureaucracy?
By Rick Lowe, www.weblogbahamas.com
Dec 24, 2013 - 10:36:29 AM


The Government has dismissed a draft paper of tax alternatives from the private sector tax coalition group, requested by the Prime Minister, claiming administration would be a challenge, among other "problems".

Of course the need for 100 accountants to administer VAT does not appear to be considered a challenge by or for the government.

But, we hear rumours of a an IMF report that The Bahamas collects only 26% of the taxes allowed by present laws so one has to wonder if this is the reason the government wants to bypass its own tax bureaucracy in favour of making the private sector their tax collectors.

They can't put their employees in jail or take their passports for not collecting the taxes, or enforce their confiscatory legal powers, but they will do that to private sector members that do not toe the line.

Could this non-collection of taxes by those mandated to do so be the "structural weaknesses" referred to?

It seems plausible that VAT's stronger merits are that the government will bypass its own tax bureaucracy?

Curious indeed.
Rick Lowe

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