NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The business community is still hopeful that the government will revisit the business license verification process and possibly lift the threshold for firms required to comply with full audit requirements.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the Central Bank’s digital campaign, Tim Ingraham, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer’s Confederation’s (BCCEC) Chairman noted that the business community is hopeful that Wednesday’s budget communication will bring no new taxes.
“We would like to see no new taxes. We would like to see the taxes even simplified. We think that in recent years, some things have made it a little more difficult for businesses. If you’re the government you want to make it as easy as possible for people to pay you taxes. You don’t want to make it difficult. We also want to see an improvement in the ease of doing business. A lot of our members report that when they need a letter of good standing, for instance, from the Registrar General’s Office, that is a very tedious process. We have seen some issues at the office recently and we’re looking for some things in the budget to move that process forward so our members aren’t held up by what’s happening there,” said Ingraham.
Back in June 2023, Prime Philip Davis noted that the government was introducing an enhanced business license reporting regime. Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with annual turnovers below $250,000 will be exempt from maintaining electronic records and having an independent accountant certify their turnover for Business Licence renewals. This threshold was raised from $100,000 to ease the burden on more such firms, who will submit management accounts as verification of their turnover sums.
However, businesses with annual revenue between $250,000 and $499,000 will require accounting certification by an independent accountant. Businesses with turnover between $500,000 and $2.499 million are required to provide a compilation report by an independent accountant. Businesses with revenue between $2.5 million and $4.999 million are required to produce a review statement by an independent accountant. Large taxpayers, namely businesses with turnover above $5 million are required to produce audited financial statements produced by an independent accountant
“Certain businesses are required to have audits. We would like to see that rethought because audits aren’t cheap, so what it does is if you are a business with revenue over $5 million, you’re now spending another $10,000-$15,000 to get an audit. Having gone through that process,s we hope that maybe that can be relaxed a bit and maybe the number is lifted,d so maybe it’s not $5 million but $10 million or $20 million. Remember that it’s on the gross. A business may see a gross of $5 million but netting very little so it’s a lot of cost that businesses incur,” said Ingraham.
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