19/09/17

Bahamas Should 'Look To Income Tax to Balance Books,' IMF Says

The Bahamas should consider introducing a low-rate income tax in the not-too-distant future, to counterbalance revenues lost from lowering import duties, reports lowtax.net.

The IMF said an income tax would make the territory's tax system more progressive and help protect infrastructure and social spending.

The IMF recommended against introducing exemptions from value-added tax, saying targeted transfers to low-income houses would be more effective.

The IMF called on the Bahamas to work closely with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, as well as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to swiftly address deficiencies in the territory's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime, which were identified in the recent mutual evaluation report by the FATF. It also said the Bahamas should take steps to comply with international standards, including the OECD's Common Reporting Standard, the single global standard for exchanging financial account information on foreign tax residents on an automatic basis.