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MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2025
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Foreign yacht VAT end ‘not big enough carrot’ t (PW U NFSHJOH DIBSUFS 7"5 JOUP POF GFF ELIMINATING VAT on foreign yacht charters t .BSJOBT DIJFG TBZT A*U by combining it into one XPO U NPWF UIF OFFEMF 14 percent all-in fee is “not enough of a carrot” to reclaim The Bahamas’ lost t 6OMJLFMZ UP SFDPWFS 40 percent market share, a marina chief is warning. #BIBNBT MPTU TIBSF Peter Maury, the AssociBy NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
ation of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president, told Tribune Business that the move was unlikely to “move the needle” after it was confirmed on Friday that 10 percent VAT will no longer be due on foreign yacht charters once the 2025-2026 fiscal year begins on July 1. The Port Department, in a Friday Zoom call with boating and yachting stakeholders, said reforms accompanying the Budget will now require charter captains, and their
Bahamas-based representatives, to pay a combined, single 14 percent fee to the Port Department and no longer have to deal with the Department of Inland Revenue. Previously, besides the 10 percent VAT, foreign yacht charters had to also pay a 4 percent fee to the Port Department on the contract’s value, but now the latter will collect all these funds at the consolidated 14 percent rate. This leaves the
effective combined tax rate unchanged from what it was previously, meaning the Government in reality is conceding nothing on the revenue front. The move appears to be designed to reduce the bureaucracy, red tape and inconvenience that foreign yacht charter captains and their Bahamian representatives were encountering in having to deal with two separate agencies, the Port Department and the Department of Inland
PETER MAURY Revenue, and obtain the likes of Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs), compliance certificates plus file returns with the latter. However, Mr Maury told this newspaper that, with the effective tax rate remaining the same, The Bahamas was still likely to be less attractive than other jurisdictions including its lower-cost
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‘Beef up brand Bahamas’ via yacht registry tax cuts By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A YACHT broker has urged this nation to “beef up brand Bahamas” by cutting charter fees for vessels that register under this country’s flag, as he asserted: “Everybody wins.” Travis Delva, director of yacht services at Windermere Yacht Services, told a maritime industry seminar discussing legal reforms accompanying the 2025-2026 Budget that such incentives could spark “a domino effect” where both the private sector and
government earn more revenue by driving vessels to The Bahamas yacht registry. He argued that driving more business to this nation, as opposed to the Government seeking all its revenue upfront via the new 14 percent charter fee that incorporates the former VAT, would likely be more profitable for all while enabling the Public Treasury to earn more tax income at the back end from the increased economic activity. Speaking after Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) officials confirmed
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MP’s ‘zero confidence’ on real estate VAT reversal By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN Opposition MP says he has “zero confidence” that the Government is going to make last-minute changes to proposed legal reforms that threaten to throw real estate sales “on their head”. Adrian White, the St Anne’s MP and an attorney who specialises in conveyancing, told Tribune Business that based on his conversation with Wayne Munroe, minister of national security and the Government’s leader of business in the House of Assembly, it appears the Davis administration will not back down on measures
ADRIAN WHITE to crack down on suspected tax evasion worth $100m. He warned that the proposed amendments to the VAT and Conveyancing and Law of Property Acts, if passed as is, will result in parties to a real estate deal having to “take steps in reverse” to confirm the title
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Pilot shortage fear eased from exam dispute settlement By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN airmen and this nation’s aviation regulator have settled their dispute over the newlymandated ‘air law’ exam that some feared would spark a pilot shortage and damage the local industry. The terms of the agreement between the Civil Aviation Authority of The Bahamas (CAAB) and the Bahamas Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (BAOPA) are set out in a May 29, 2025, ‘consent Order’ that was approved by Supreme Court justice, Leif Farquharson KC, and their respective attorneys. The Order, which has been obtained by Tribune Business, appears to give the Association - and its estimated 100 pilot and aircraft owner members much of what it was seeking without compromising the Authority’s position that all Bahamian aviators must take the ‘air law’ exam in order for their licences to be validated.
In return for the Association withdrawing its Judicial Review challenge, which named the Civil Aviation Authority of The Bahamas, the Attorney General and minister of tourism, investments and aviation as defendants, the Authority has pledged to issue a “new notice to airmen” detailing the revised air law exam requirements. The Order stipulates that all Bahamian pilots and Civil Aviation Authority of The Bahamas “licence/ validation holders, who have not sat and passed the air law exam at the time of expiration of their licence/ validation”, will now have their licences extended until year-end December 31, 2025, once they apply for this to the regulator. The previous deadline to take and pass the exam had been June 1. This will give them more time to study for, and pass, the exam, and the settlement also requires pilots to “attend a mandatory seminar” on civil aviation
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