Budget Related Legislation

The Government tabled a number of Bills with the official Budget Communication. These Bills will provide the legal framework to support all of the Government Budget plans, particularly with regard to tax relief and revenue enhancement initiatives. 

• The Business License (Amendments) Regulations, 2019 seeks to add the definition of turnover and eliminates export services revenue from B/L tax calculations.
• The Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to amend the First Schedule to the Excise Act to allow for the new 10 percent duty rate on new or used hybrid or electrical vehicles not exceeding 50,000, and to provide for consequential amendments to the Schedule of the Tariff Act, and the insertion of a new tariff code and subheadings to effect other budget changes.
• Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2019, seeks to effect changes in policy from the payment of stamp tax on real property to the payment of VAT on real property.
• Customs Management (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to require the registration of individuals, businesses, companies, customs brokers and authorized couriers with the Customs Department who import into or export goods from within the Customs territory on their own behalf or on the behalf of others.  
• Spirits and Beer Manufacturer (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to repeal section 5 of the Act, which limited licensees whose distillery had the capacity of 400 bushels of grain or more, and to provide an exception that microbreweries are not required to have a bonded warehouse. The clause further seeks to provide for a definition of a microbrewery.
• Value-Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to amend a myriad of definitional changes and typographical errors, to include for the registration of persons in e-commerce conducting vacation home rentals on marketplaces, to make the zero-rating on water utility  and electricity bills permanent, and to make all realty transactions subject to VAT as opposed to stamp tax, among other administrative changes. 
• Real Property Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to alter the definition of “owner-occupied property” to change from “resides in such property exclusively as a dwelling house on a permanent basis that is six months or longer” to “resides in such property exclusively as a dwelling house on a permanent or seasonal basis”;  to delete the definition of the term “market value” and to substitute the term “value”, to create a new category referred to as commercial property; to increase the maximum annual ceiling for owner-occupied property from $50,000.00 to $60,000.00; and to delete subsection (3) which is no longer relevant because the exception in subsection (2) no longer distinguishes between a Bahamian or non-Bahamian.
• City of Nassau Revitalization (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to amend the City of Nassau Revitalization Act to extend the duration of the Act to 2024.
• The Family Islands Development Encouragement (Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to extend the duration of the Act to 2024.