NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Opposition Leader Michael Pintard yesterday pledged that his government would reverse the 10 percent fee imposed on yacht charters, which he said has driven away nearly 50 percent of that business from the country.
Pintard, during his contribution to the debate on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (Amendment) Bill, 2025, emphasized that his administration would work to improve the ease of doing business in the Bahamas.
“The FNM is committed to improving the ease of doing business in the Bahamas. We recognize that both local and international investors face unnecessary frustrations due to excessive bureaucracy, inconsistent regulations, and outdated systems,” said Pintard.
He continued: “In government, we will implement sweeping reforms to streamline business registration. We’ll put an end to the nonsense of paying your business license for the year and then having to estimate what you’ll owe for the following year. Not every company needs an audit. A full audit can often be replaced with a simple review, and that doesn’t affect the government’s revenue collection in a negative way. We will reverse that as well. We will cut the red tape and make it easier for entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses without unnecessary delays.”
Pintard added: “And, of course, we will reverse the 10 percent fee imposed on yacht charters, which has driven away nearly 49 percent of that business south of us. Turks and Caicos must have sent the Bahamian government a thank-you card, and St. Martin is surely thanking us for increasing their revenue generation from an industry that poor policies have nearly destroyed here in the Bahamas.”
Marina operators have voiced serious concerns over the yacht charter fee and its impact on the industry. Bahamian marinas now face “a fight to get back market share” that will take years, as a study revealed that the more-than-tripling of tax rates has cost the country $90 million through a 40 percent slump in foreign yacht charters.
An industry position paper, ‘Yachting in The Bahamas’, written by Marcel Amann, the founder of Yacht Services Bahamas, and released in 2024, reiterated that recent tax hikes and regulatory interventions “have dampened activity” in a sector estimated to generate half a billion dollars annually for the Bahamian economy.
The paper singled out the imposition of the 10 percent VAT on foreign yacht charter fees as especially harmful to The Bahamas’ competitiveness, noting that it tripled the overall tax rate to 14 percent when added to the already-existing 4 percent Port Department levy.
Asserting that this taxation burden was much higher than that of Caribbean rivals it was noted the ease and convenience of conducting business in The Bahamas has also been made more costly, time-consuming, and bureaucratic for visiting boaters. This is due to the introduction of additional requirements, such as obtaining a VAT taxpayer identification (TIN) number.
