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Ex-minister sounds alarm as Superwash in $400k VAT hit • Tax exemption bid for $4m East Street project denied AN ex-Cabinet minister is warning that construc- • DIR: Reclaiming construction tion-related expansion costs for all Bahamian VAT ‘explicitly prohibited’ businesses have just increased by 10 percent after his bid to obtain • Will ‘eat’ extra costs but VAT deductions/refunds ‘deterrent’ to business growth for his own near-$4m proBy NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
ject was rejected by the tax authorities. Dionisio D’Aguilar, now Superwash’s president, was told by Shunda Strachan, the Department of Inland Revenue’s controller, that he had “misinterpreted” reforms to the VAT Act in applying for an exemption that would have allowed the laundromat chain to regain the tax paid on building materials purchased for its planned East Street South facility and attached retail complex. The former minister of tourism and aviation told this newspaper that he believed the VAT Act changes, which accompanied the 2025-2026 Budget passed by Parliament in late June, would allow
A 45-year Bahamian attorney is asserting he would “never, ever give evidence that is a lie” after a Supreme Court judge branded him “barely credible” in finding that a will he witnessed was “not executed by the deceased” and prepared in “circumstances of grave suspicion”. Michael Horton, of Michael W. Horton Chambers, told Tribune Business he was “shocked” by Justice Darron Ellis’s verdict which ruled that a will signed by his late brother-in-law,
Bahamian companies undertaking legitimate physical expansion of their premises to apply to the tax authorities for an exemption from the new requirements. The reforms stipulate that tax deductions on VAT inputs “shall not be allowed in respect of any goods or services acquired for use in, or connection with” property construction, reconstruction or renovations deemed to be a “major” project - meaning the work is valued at $1m or more - “unless the comptroller otherwise prescribes”.
Mr D’Aguilar said he had taken the latter phrase to mean that companies could seek exemptions from having to pay VAT on building materials acquired for bona fide construction projects designed to expand their core activities. As a result, he applied to the Department of Inland Revenue for approval to reclaim, or deduct, the VAT paid on Superwash’s construction material inputs. However, Mrs Strachan quickly disabused him of this expectation, asserting that the amendments “explicitly prohibit” VAT deductions on construction
Edmund Knowles, should not stand after a US-based handwriting expert testified it was not the latter’s signature on the December 24, 2019, document. The attorney signalled that there will likely be an appeal of the Supreme Court’s November 25, 2025, verdict which highlighted conflicts and contradictions between the evidence given by himself and his brother, Gerald Horton, who was also alleged to have witnessed Mr Knowles signing the will. Justice Ellis argued that “the case is replete with
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Union chief backs judge on unfair dismissal ‘gaps’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Trades Union Congress (TUC) president has backed a Supreme Court judge’s concerns over “gaps” in The Bahamas’ unfair dismissal protections for workers, asserting: “The clearer the law is, the better it is for both employer and employee.” Obie Ferguson KC, who represented the ex-Family Guardian district manager in the case where Justice Loren Klein made his observations, told
Gov’t intervenes in 61year battle on ownership of Marsh Harbour DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
Attorney’s shock over will: ‘I’ll never lie before judge’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
242-ACRE “KEY TRACT”
OBIE FERGUSON Tribune Business he backed reforming the Employment Act to bring it more into line with UK legal
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projects that fall within the $1m-plus “major” category defined in the Act. And she asserted that the “unless the comptroller otherwise prescribes” phrase is not providing a gateway for the Department of Inland Revenue to grant exemptions from this legal mandate but, instead, gives the tax authority the ability to issue rules and regulations identifying activities “that do not constitute major construction”. Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business that, based on the tax authorities’
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ABACO businesses are voicing hope that the Government’s bid to compulsorily acquire much of downtown Marsh Harbour’s commercial district means a 61-year dispute that has prevented property owners from obtaining clear ownership is “finally coming to an end”. The Davis administration has moved to cut through the “quagmire” created by the inability to resolve a court battle, initially launched in January 1964 some nine years before The Bahamas became independent, which has been
unable to resolve who has superior title to the 242acre “Key tract” - an area at the centre of Marsh Harbour where many of Abaco’s most prominent businesses reside. The Government’s ‘declaration of intended acquisition’, published in the newspapers last Friday, took Marsh Harbour residents and Abaconians by surprise, with some asserting that it had “come out of left field”. However, the Davis administration later clarified that the Government’s goal is to sideline and/or eliminate the ongoing court battle through its acquisition of the disputed
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