{"id":31696,"date":"2013-02-15T09:47:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T14:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=31696"},"modified":"2013-02-15T09:47:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T14:47:18","slug":"bahamas-to-introduce-value-added-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/02\/bahamas-to-introduce-value-added-tax","title":{"rendered":"Bahamas To Introduce Value Added Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/02\/bahamas-to-introduce-value-added-tax-31696.html\/vat\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-31699\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-31699\" title=\"vat\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/vat.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/vat.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/vat-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>In its budget for 2012\/13, the Bahamas Government has announced that it will introduce a value-added tax (VAT), to broaden the tax base, from July 1, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The Government explained that VAT is to be introduced to offset the eventual reductions to import duty rates that will accompany the Bahamas&#8217; accession to the World Trade Organization, and to begin to consolidate the territory&#8217;s finances.<\/p>\n<p>From July 1, 2014, the Bahamas will apply a 15% VAT to a broad range of goods and services &#8211; the median rate in other Caribbean territories that have implemented VAT.<\/p>\n<p>VAT will replace the Hotel Occupancy Tax, but a concessionary rate of 10% will apply to the business of hotels, including food and drink sold on their premises.<\/p>\n<p>Excise duties will fall by around 15% on goods that will be subject to VAT when the regime is introduced.<\/p>\n<p>A zero rate will apply to exports and the international transport of goods and passengers. Exempt goods and services will include:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Food and agricultural products that benefit from duty-free status \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0under the Tariff Act;<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Other imports that benefit from the same, aforementioned status;<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Health and education services;<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Transfers of leases of land and residential buildings;<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Financial services;<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Social and community services.<\/p>\n<p>VAT filing and payment will be required on a monthly basis, and the VAT threshold will be set at USD50,000 &#8211; requiring 3,800 local businesses to register to collect and remit VAT revenues to the Government.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">By Phillip Morton<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Investors Offshore.com<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government explained that Value Added Tax is to be introduced to offset the eventual reductions to import duty rates that will accompany the Bahamas&#8217; accession to the World Trade Organization. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1178],"class_list":["post-31696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-value-added-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}