The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

There is “absolutely no excuse” for any of the 6,000 Value-Added Tax (VAT) registrants to claim they have not been provided with the necessary information to enable them to complete accurate returns.

Edison Sumner, the VAT Education Task Force’s co-chair, said that together with the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) and others, it had “spent a vast amount of time” ensuring businesses knew how to submit timely, complete filings to the Government.

Mr Sumner told Tribune Business the Education Task Force was now focusing its efforts on small and medium-sized VAT registrants, those with annual turnovers between $400,000 to $5 million, to ensure they were “not caught out” when making their first-ever quarterly return filings come April 28.

And he warned the Ministry of Finance’s VAT Unit that the necessary systems “must be in place” to accommodate anywhere from 4,000-5,500 filers at that time - a major increase on the 550 that were anticipated for January.

Still, Mr Sumner said the extensive educational outreach efforts by both the Government and private sector meant VAT registrants would have few plausible explanations for failing to meet return deadlines and accuracy.

Apart from the workshops staged by groups such as the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA), the Task Force co-chair said the VAT Unit itself was holding two to three sessions per day on completing returns - and their filing - at its current Gladstone Road headquarters.

“There’s absolutely no excuse for anybody in this country, particularly in New Providence, to say they have no resources and no information,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business.

“We have spent a vast amount of time - the Task Force and the Chamber - providing the information the private sector needs.”

Mr Sumner said the upcoming Wednesday seminar at the Melia Nassau Beach resort would reinforce the work done on filing preparation by focusing on how VAT registrants could set up bank accounts to facilitate the payment of due taxes to the Government.

He added that Customs’ deputy comptroller would also attend to deal with the numerous concerns being expressed by brokers, and their importer clients, that VAT was acting as ‘a tax upon a tax’ by being levied on top of Customs duties.

“We’re focusing our attention on the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the quarterly filers, who may not have access to the resources of larger companies,” Mr Sumner said, “to assist them in getting their filings done.

“That’s where the bulk of the companies are. This is to ensure they are not caught in a position, come April 28, where they can’t get their filings done.”

Mr Sumner told Tribune Business that this date would be “the big test” for both the private sector and the Government on VAT compliance and administration.

“The Government’s systems must be in place to accommodate that number of filers,” he warned. “We’re hoping that some of the [quarterly] companies may also choose to exercise the option to file monthly.”