The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The government yesterday inserted flexibility into the Business Licence regime by allowing companies to pick which quarter they file their returns and pay the fee.

KP Turnquest, deputy prime minister, in unveiling the reform in yesterday’s budget, said it was something the private sector had been seeking for some time in a bid to better align payment with cash flows and a company’s financial year-end.

Suggesting it would aid the “ease of doing business”, Mr Turnquest said the changes “will allow for flexible dates for the submission and issuance of business licences”.

He explained: “Thus, as opposed to being restricted to an application deadline of January 31, and a payment deadline of March 31 for renewals and new applications, there will now be four periods in the calendar year when businesses can now select a time designation as their payment date so as to better correspond to their respective fiscal years.

“They can choose either March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31. This revision is something that the business community has been requesting for some time, given that their fiscal years do not always coincide with the calendar year. The amended legislation also makes provision for a transitional phase to allow for the necessary adjustments to be made by the business community.”

Many in the private sector would have been hoping for more fundamental, far-reaching reforms to a business licence structure that is based upon gross turnover and creates several potential distortions for Bahamian businesses.

Mr Turnquest, though, lauded other reforms that have cut the time for processing business licence renewals from three weeks to 48 hours, with the Department of Inland Revenue (DIR) ultimately aiming to shrink this further to 24 hours.

The government also unveiled legislative changes making it mandatory for companies to register with Customs’ Electronic Single Window (ESW) clearance platform, while is also plans to consolidate the various taxation appeal boards into one Tax Commission that will be staffed by the current VAT Commissioners.