Crackdown on tax cheats ‘most co-ordinated’ ever

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Government is launching its “most co-ordinated effort” ever to crackdown on tax cheats with its success in collecting hundreds of millions in outstanding revenue critical to avoiding “increased tax rates”.

Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, speaking after the authorities last week warned they will exercise the “power of sale” against “extreme” real property tax delinquents, said the Government has “hit an iceberg” when it comes to enforcement and cannot - and will not - ignore blatant failures by taxpayers to meet their obligations.

Asserting that “a lot of fiscal pressures are alleviated” if all pay what is due to the Public Treasury, he told Tribune Business that the drive to collect up to $600m in outstanding real property taxes plus significant VAT and Business Licence fee liabilities is “very important” to the Davis administration’s ambitions of

• Success critical to avoid ‘increased tax rates’

• ‘Fiscal pressure alleviated’ if millions realised

• Realtors back property tax drive if ‘done right’ imposing no new and/or increased taxes on Bahamian citizens and businesses.

“We don’t want to raise tax rates,” Mr Wilson said. “We have to be more efficient in our collection process. We have to. We should collect as much as we can before we consider raising tax rates. We always have a choice from a large range of options, but by far