business@tribunemedia.net
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
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‘Windfall’ hopes over Shell’s $248m Bahamas tax liability • Multinational giant declares ‘accrued’ corporate tax • Generated by $1.65bn profit, tied to 15% DMTT levy • But suggestions Bahamas only likely to get ‘portion’
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net HOPES were voiced last night that The Bahamas will benefit from a revenue “windfall” after Shell’s locally-domiciled subsidiary revealed it has a $248m corporate income tax liability “accrued” on its books - likely due to this nation’s Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax implementation. The multinational energy giant, in its recently-released report
‘A year of curve balls’: Realtor head warns on attorney fee hike By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday warned the imminent hike in legal fees for property transactions will make home purchases increasingly unaffordable for persons already “struggling” to buy, and added: “This has been a year of curve balls.” Carla Sweeting told Tribune Business that the Bahamas Bar Association’s proposed minimum fee schedule, which is set to take effect on New Year’s Day, could potentially double legal fees associated with “99 percent” of real estate transactions and further add to already-high closing costs that many Bahamians are presently unable to meet. Suggesting that the proposed fees, equivalent to 5 percent of the purchase price for “unregistered” land and 3.5 percent for “registered land”, will likely be “unsustainable” due to ‘sole practitioner’ attorneys under-cutting them to maintain client relationships, she
CARLA SWEETING also voiced concern that the extra cost will make it more difficult for families to afford to probate a deceased relative’s estate. This, Ms Sweeting warned, could lead to a further increase in the already-numerous abandoned and derelict buildings on New Providence and other urban areas. And she also rejected attorney arguments that their fees need to be brought into line with the 6 percent commission earned by Bahamian realtors, which rises to 10 percent for undeveloped land. Attorney fees are normally equal to 2.5 percent
PROPERTY - See Page B4
Bahamas First’s $5.8m swing into profitability By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS First enjoyed a positive $5.8m swing into profitability for the first nine months of 2025 driven by flat net claims and a 19.6 percent improvement in insurance revenue. Allison Treco, the BISXlisted property and casualty insurer’s executive chairman, told shareholders in the report for the 2025 third quarter and nine months to end-September that its performance stemmed largely from a strong showing by its Bahamian operations which more than offset some softness in the Cayman Islands subsidiary.
“For the nine months ended September 30 2025, the group reported total comprehensive income of $4.7m - a $5.8m improvement over the total comprehensive loss of $1.1m in the comparative period for 2024,” Ms Treco wrote. “This positive result was driven by a strong performance from our Bahamas property and casualty segment reflecting higher insurance revenue, lower operating expenses and revaluation gains on property.” She added: “In the Bahamas property and casualty segment, insurance revenue
COVER - See Page B5
on 2024 global tax contributions, revealed that its Bahamian subsidiary generated another $1.654bn in profits last year from $32.705bn in revenues. Some $10.867bn of the latter was paid by so-called “third parties”, while the $21.838bn balance originated from third parties. However, Shell Western Supply & Trading was shown for the first time to have “accrued” $247.503m in corporate tax liabilities on its balance sheet. The report indicated that this is related to The
Bahamas’ implementation of a 15 percent corporate income tax to comply with the global G-7/Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) initiative, with this levy taking effect from January 1, 2024. The corporate tax liability also corresponds to 15 percent of Shell Western’s $1.654bn annual profit. “As of 2018, Shell's principal business in The Bahamas is Shell Western Supply and Trading (SWST),” Shell’s 2024 global tax report said.
“Shell Western Supply & Trading sources crude oil from West Africa and Latin America, and is active in trading and transporting crude oil globally.” Further highlighting a lucrative source of revenue that The Bahamas has potentially been missing out on, Shell added that its local subsidiary - which employs 45 persons - had also paid several million dollars worth of corporate income tax outside this jurisdiction in 2024. “The corporate income tax figure reflects $2.2m paid by an entity in The Bahamas outside of The Bahamas. This was on income earned from the transportation of goods,” Shell said. “In November 2024, the Government enacted legislation, in line with the OECD's pillar two framework, which introduces a 15 percent corporate income tax rate on multinational enterprises active in The Bahamas. The tax
Cheque printers: ‘They’re just nicking us to death’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN cheque suppliers yesterday warned they will be forced out of business if the Central Bank and its licensees succeed in “significantly reducing” or eliminating use of this payment mechanism, with one asserting: “They’re trying to kill us one nick at a time.” Leslie Fraser, president of Bahamas Cheque Services, told Tribune Business that her company will “close down if it gets much worse than it is now” as it is presently doing “maybe 25 percent of the business we did five years ago” due to the Central Bank’s cheque elimination drive. She added that the firm, which specialises in printing cheques and deposit books, has cut its workforce by “three-quarters”
- from 12 staff to four workers and a manager amid the Bahamian commercial banking industry’s drive to push consumers towards digital transactions and away from paper-based and cash payments. Pierre Dupuch, the former MP and Cabinet minister, who heads Executive Printers, another cheque supplier to the banks, told this newspaper that business volumes have declined by “about 75 percent” since the switch towards digital and electronic banking - and away from cheques as a payment mechanism - began. He warned that the company, too, will have to close unless it can find new, replacement revenue and business streams. Both Mr Dupuch and Ms Fraser argued that the rush to “significantly reduce”, or eliminate, cheque usage by Bahamian businesses and
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choice “makes no sense” and is seemingly anti-consumer choice if it prevents persons from using their preferred mechanism. Cheque payments accounted for some $3.8bn worth of Bahamas-based payment transactions in 2024, numbering 823.1m in the volume processed, although this represented a decline in volume and value by 14.5 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. However, they each argued that fears over the vulnerability of cheques to fraud and use in other financial crimes was overblown to justify their elimination. Both Mr Dupuch and Ms Fraser said the cheques their respective firms print for the banks, as well as corporate clients, contain no less than 12 different security features - far in excess of what they said are the four features incorporated into US and
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• Two suppliers fear closure on elimination drive • Each reports 75% business drop since it begun • Ex-MP and minister: ‘I’ve fought it long enough’ Canadian cheques. And Mr Dupuch, in particular, argued that there is far more fraud associated with credit and debit card use than cheques. Ms Fraser, arguing that Bahamians “should have the option to pay [by cheque] if they want”, added that the legal reforms proposed by the Central Bank to numerous laws - which would remove cheques as the mandatory or sole form of payment, and provide more flexibility by permitting
PAYMENT - See Page B5
DPM pledges continued Bahamian beach access By ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net THE Deputy Prime Minister yesterday reaffirmed “the Government's acknowledgement and support of the right of beach access for Bahamians” after it was challenged over whether a Mosko Group development on New Providence’s north coast will create a barrier. Chester Cooper, also minister of tourism, investments and aviation, spoke up after Adrian White, the St Anne’s MP, questioned whether a land swap between the Government and Mosko Group’s Vakis Ltd, and the realignment of West Bay Street to facilitate the developer’s Rock Point “day trip” destination, would prohibit beach access to the public. “The point that I was making, Madam Speaker, is that there is a space between two parcels on
CHESTER COOPER the sea which, as a real estate attorney with some familiarity with property plans, would indicate to me that this is likely a beach access, Madam Speaker, and it would be interesting to know whether the Government had considered whether that beach access there is open and accessible to members of the public, and whether, once they access that beach access, whether they can go east and west along the beach, up to the high water mark,
DEVELOP - See Page B4