February 12, 2024
The Leader of the Opposition, Michael Pintard, along with former Minister of State for Finance Kwasi Thompson and Former Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest, met with a technical team from the IMF as well as MoF staff today to discuss the practical design and impact of a Corporate Minimum Tax on multi-national entities operating in the Bahamas.
The previous FNM administration signed on to the Corporate Minimum Tax in 2020 as part of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative to combat tax avoidance by such entities.
The Government has indicated its preference for Pillar 2 as outlined in the taxation green paper circulated last year, which requires that all multi-national firms operating in the Bahamas with revenues over $750M Euros annually, submit to a 15% Corporate Minimum income tax on income generated in the jurisdiction.
Discussions covered possible implementation timeliness, estimated revenue yields, and risks and rewards from such a system.
The Opposition expressed support for the overall objective; however, it raised a few questions over multi-national tax treatments, complementary implementation dates among all agreed nations to avoid issues of tax arbitrage, and proposed rules and regulations to be implemented to ensure full compliance by subject entities.