business@tribunemedia.net
MONDAY, MAY 15, 2023
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Crackdown on tax cheats ‘most co-ordinated’ ever By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government is launching its “most co-ordinated effort” ever to crackdown on tax cheats with its success in collecting hundreds of millions in outstanding revenue critical to avoiding “increased tax rates”. Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, speaking after the authorities last week warned they will exercise the “power of sale” against “extreme” real property tax delinquents, said the Government has “hit an iceberg” when it comes to enforcement and cannot - and will not - ignore blatant failures by taxpayers to meet their obligations. Asserting that “a lot of fiscal pressures are alleviated” if all pay what is due to the Public Treasury, he told Tribune Business that the drive to collect up to $600m in outstanding real property taxes plus significant VAT and Business Licence fee liabilities is “very important” to the Davis administration’s ambitions of
• Success critical to avoid ‘increased tax rates’ • ‘Fiscal pressure alleviated’ if millions realised • Realtors back property tax drive if ‘done right’ imposing no new and/or increased taxes on Bahamian citizens and businesses. “We don’t want to raise tax rates,” Mr Wilson said. “We have to be more efficient in our collection process. We have to. We should collect as much as we can before we consider raising tax rates. We always have a choice from a large range of options, but by far
the most palatable option we have is improving our compliance.” Shunda Strachan, the Department of Inland Revenue’s SIMON WILSON acting controller, last month estimated that taxpayers owe a combined $875m in unpaid VAT, real property tax and Business Licence fees that are past due. Mr Wilson told this newspaper he believes tax compliance can be “substantially” improved, and added: “I think we have hit an iceberg with respect to this thing about compliance. “When we focus more on compliance it alleviates a lot of fiscal pressures. It’s very important. We don’t want to be in a situation where we have to use other measures to increase revenues, such as new taxes
Gov’ts support for BPL jumps $110m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GOVERNMENT loans to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and agencies neartripled during the first nine months of the current fiscal year to enable Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) to pay off its fuel bill arrears. Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, yesterday confirmed the $80m increase in such “bilateral loans” during the three months to end-March 2023, which took the nine-month jump to $110m, represented financial support to the state-owned electrical utility to enable it to pay-off
KWASI THOMPSON past due and outstanding debts. “You’re correct. That’s BPL,” he replied, when asked about the figures, which were contained in the Ministry of Finance’s latest quarterly public debt statistical bulletin for the
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Ombudsman Bill ‘can’t pass and sit’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net GOVERNANCE reformers yesterday said the Attorney General’s ability to restrict the powers of the proposed ombudsman is “too vague” and should be reformed as they urged Bahamians to ensure this is not a Bill that “passes and sits”. Matt Aubry, the Organisation for Responsible Governance’s (ORG) executive director, nevertheless told Tribune Business that the revised Ombudsman Bill “in many instances marks an improvement” on
MATT AUBRY the previous version that was brought to Parliament by the Minnis administration but never debated or passed. Besides providing more specifics on when the
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FTX Bahamas charges US broke ‘every single’ pledge By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s Bahamian liquidators have accused their US adversaries of “breaching every single” co-operation pledge in just four short months as they urged the Supreme Court to “sort it out” with Delaware. Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo, Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, in their May 12, 2023, court filings argued that Sir Ian Winder and Judge John Dorsey, his Delaware Bankruptcy Court counterpart, needed to take over relations between the two jurisdictions as the prospect of improved cooperation from FTX US chief, John Ray, and his team was “a dim one at best”. Responding to Mr Ray’s objections that they gain relief from the worldwide asset freeze imposed after 134 FTX entities were placed under US
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Supreme Court must ‘sort it out’ with Delaware Over 45,000 creditors submit Bahamas claims Ray accused of blocking $243m property sale
BRIAN SIMMS KC Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under his control, the Bahamian joint provisional liquidators warned there was “a very high risk of duplicative, neverending litigation” unless the two courts - and their
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