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TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2023
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Realtors voice fears on tax ‘inconsistency’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net REALTORS yesterday voiced concern over “the optics” and “inconsistency” of tax policy as the Government moves to adjust the VAT paid on real estate sales to ensure foreign buyers pay a 10 percent rate across-the-board. The VAT (Amendment) Bill 2023, which accompanies the 2023-2024 Budget, contains another previously-undisclosed tweak that is consistent with the Davis administration’s stated policy of placing the burden of increased taxes
• VAT rising to 10% on foreign buys below $1m • Concern about ‘optics’ of two different tax rates • Gov’t targeting over $300m from property sales almost entirely on nonBahamians via the likes of raised cruise passenger departure taxes and marina docking levies. The legislation, which is due to be passed into law after the Budget debate ends and take effect from
July 1, 2023, quietly amends the VAT Act’s Third Schedule to ensure that “every deed of conveyance, assignment or transfer of real property to a foreign person” attracts a 10 percent VAT rate.
Given that all property purchases of $1m or more already attract 10 percent VAT on the acquisition price, only transactions involving foreign buyers for less than this amount will be impacted. The Davis administration, besides targeting a higher VAT rate on real estate purchases by foreigners worth less than $1m, has also hit the same segment with the 25 percent ($30,000) increase in the annual real property tax cap from $120,000 to $150,000. However, the VAT adjustment, which the Bill’s “objects and reasons” confirms was “inserted to
Atlantis will ‘certainly’ submit more Royal Caribbean queries By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A SENIOR Atlantis executive yesterday said Royal Caribbean has “addressed some of our concerns” about the impact its project will have on Paradise Island’s coastline but the mega resort will “certainly” be submitting more questions. Vaughn Roberts, Atlantis’ senior vice-president of government affairs and special projects, told Tribune Business that the cruise giant’s $100m Royal Beach Club development is “clearly taking shape” after taking several of the issues raised by the resort and other observers into account. Describing last week’s second public consultation as “just a step in the process” that Royal Caribbean has to follow to obtain the necessary environmental approvals, he declined to comment when asked by this newspaper if the cruise line had adequately satisfied all Atlantis’ concerns
ROYAL CARIBBEAN’S ROYAL BEACH CLUB
• Cruise line 'addresses some concerns' on PI coastline • 'Unfair' to release updated EIA two days before meet • Environment advocate: 'Ball now in court' of cruise line with respect to the beach destination it plans to develop on western Paradise Island in the vicinity of Colonial Beach.
Mr Roberts said Royal Caribbean still appeared to be “working through their plans, and working through the details of what they want to do”,
so elements of the proposed Royal Beach Club remain unclear to both the cruise line and those pressing for answers on key environmental and socioeconomic issues raised by the project. Atlantis has been especially vocal with its concerns to the clear irritation of the Davis administration, which has approved the Royal Beach Club in principle provided it satisfies all environmental concerns. Mr Roberts noted that Royal Caribbean is now “sharing more information” as to its intentions and plan details with the Bahamian public, which will aid betterinformed public feedback and questions. “Clearly they’re sharing more information, clearly the project is taking shape having considered some of the concerns we have raised,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business. “Obviously we have continued to follow it very closely. I think their revised plan
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Protest pressure builds on North Andros banking woe By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE MP for North Andros and the Berry Islands yesterday issued a “plea” for intervention to resolve his constituency’s banking crisis with pensioners now forced to fly to Nassau to access funds and
conduct financial services business. Leonardo Lightbourne, addressing the House of Assembly during the 20232024 Budget debate, said: “I would like to plead on behalf of the people of North Andros and the Berry Islands for an intervention and the presence of a local bank. An ATM (automatic teller) machine
cannot meet the needs of the people. The North and Central Andros community needs a physical presence desperately. “This is indeed a pressing issue that must be looked into urgently. Additionally, this is important to economic building and attracting investments in these islands. The people
have suffered long enough and we need a bank now.” Mr Lightbourne said the absence of a physical bank branch in his constituency has forced some pensioners to travel to Nassau to conduct transactions, slicing their fixed income in half. Residents also frequently spend hours commuting to
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Minister confirms civil service pension reform By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net
PIA GLOVER-ROLLE
A CABINET minister yesterday confirmed that draft legislation for a new civil service pension plan will son be presented to the public sector unions
to obtain their views and feedback. Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of state for the public service, told the House of Assembly during the 2023-2024 Budget debate: “The Government, led by the Ministry of Finance, is exploring ways that a contributory pension plan
can be feasibly introduced. The draft legislation will soon be presented to public sector unions for feedback.” She explained that the benefits under the new pension plan, a defined contribution scheme that
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provide a rate of 10 percent where there is a transfer of real property to a nonBahamian”, comes just a year after the Government changed the rates for all purchasers - Bahamian and foreign - for deals valued at less than $1m by inserting a so-called ‘sliding scale’. While all purchases worth $100,000 or less remained attracted 2.5 percent VAT on the purchase price, the Davis administration in the 2022-2023 Budget lowered the rate on transactions worth between $100,000 and $300,000 from 10 percent to just 4 percent. Similarly,
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DAVID MORLEY
MIKE LIGHTBOURN
Total shutdown: Just 1% of firms able to survive Dorian-type blow By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN businesses have warned that commerce on islands hit by future Dorian-type natural disasters will almost completely shutdown with this nation forecast to be the worst-impacted of major Caribbean territories. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in its latest Caribbean quarterly bulletin, revealed that just 1 percent of Bahamian business owners believe they will be able to “remain open for business” if they cannot access their customer markets, primary physical location and basic utility services following a natural disaster such as a major hurricane. Together with Barbados, The Bahamas ranked joint bottom among major Caribbean nations in terms
of the proportion of businesses able to continue operating during and after such an event. The finding further exposes the need to enhance private sector resiliency, and that of key infrastructure such as electricity and communications, given that rival territories appear more confident about their ability to bounce back from major storms. Some 5 percent of Jamaican businesses, and 10 percent of those in Trinidad & Tobago, voiced confidence about their ability to keep operating during and in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, while for Guyana and Suriname the percentages were 23 percent and 10 percent, respectively. “The last five years have been challenging for Bahamian businesses,” the IDB report said, with deft
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