Rick Lowe
Yours truly, wearing my Nassau Institute hat, participated in a "debate" about tax policy Thursday evening at COB.
I attempted to make four points:
- Government spending is the problem, not lack of income.
- The present tax policy is not a bad one.
- If we must change our system, what do we change it to? And,
- Restraints on the growth of the tax system and hence the size of government are crucial.
You can read my presentation here…
I wish I was in the country to attend. Hope there was a good turnout.
Lets be real here.Income tax ? ! ? ! We can’t deal with the customs duties we have now, who would handle the Income tax ? Seems to me like each customs officer has a different duty for the same item now,can you even imagine them dealing with an Income tax ? Maybe some sort of flat tax with minimum license fees but dear God please no Income tax.Think about it, we can’t even get the street lights to work,Income tax ?????????
“Keep it simple stupid” should be the government’s guide to establishing fiscal policy.. An income tax would be a complex initiative resulting in additional layers of more government bureaucracy.. Enforcement would become a major issue as probably fewer that a couple hundred Bahamians would endeavor to file.. Lets face it our math skills as reflected by testing scores are pitiful at best.. We therefore might need a whole new cadre of financial technicians in the Ministry of Finance providing technical support and assistance to those poor Bahamians who attempt to file an income tax return.. Perhaps the cost of filing and collection might even exceed the marginal revenue gained..
Sometimes an idea may seen constructive, but in reality it may just turn out to be a disaster.. Clearly our problem is wasteful spending and not finding new ways to extract more taxes from the Bahamian people.. Our present course of deficit spending is creating a disaster just waiting to happen..