EDITOR, The Tribune.
Permanent residents with the right to work and contributing to The Bahamas for 50 plus years are receiving valuations on their land some 400% more than what they are worth. Even with appraisals Real Property Tax is being completely unreasonable yet again.
Middle and lower income Bahamians are having the same issues with tax bills in excess of $2,000-$3,000 for homes worth $375,000-$550,000 (some .60% tax rate) if owner occupied, tying up approximately 4plus/- weeks of the average Bahamians salary.
Homes in certain gated communities selling for $32,000,000, $35,000,000, $44,000,000 and so on and what whopping penalty do they pay to Real Property Tax? $60,000 (a mere .17% tax rate) or 70% less than the poor and middle class pay. I'll catch holy hell from my colleagues for this stance, but this should be physically sickening to all. There's a word used for situations like this when big elitists money and government are in bed together,...Fascism!
Any home worth over $2.5 million dollars, double the tax rate immediately and all properties under $950,000 Bahamian or Permanent Residency (with the right to work) owned lowered by 20% now.
It's a mere $120,000 (which these people make an hour) on these luxury properties and would still be 50% less than the many countries around the world where some of these same elites have similar valued homes (and numerous ones at that). Again the freebie for the obscene wealthy should be over at this point and to use their very own language and narrative... "start paying your fair share!" And don't get me started on the "secondary unofficial" ports of entry for the very same "Communities.", makes certain areas of Bimini look like a walk in the park. Monopolies for certain MP's (or their families) on PCR tests; Government cronies going from $80,000 per year to $120,000 during a nation shutdown, etc.
All properties under $950,000 Bahamian or Permanent Residency (with the right to work) Owned lower by 20% immediately.
I suggest Bahamas Government (another group of elites) study how the French Revolution started and nip these economic injustices now!
CHRISTOPHER ARMALY
Nassau,
May 11, 2021.
Comments
tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago
Couldn't agree more with Mr. Armaly's sentiments on our country's highly regressive property tax structure that favours the wealthy and enslaves the poor.
tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago
P.S.: My use of the word "poor" is within relative context to the much wealthier among us. Tax exempt value should be immediately increased from the first $250,000 of assessed value to the first $500,000 of assessed value.
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