big mistake ALP to eliminate PIT.

Your argument does not hold water paying personal income tax does not reduce the middle class, paying your fair share of taxes can only help the country. True you might collect more from your abst but that can only take you so far so when there is a short fall where are you going to get it from, the only place you can get it is from higher fees or throuhg borrowing at high interest rates and because your tax base is poor you cant pay your bills and that is a recipe for desaster. that's all I am saying that policy is a bad policy it did'nt work before and it wont work now and that's a fact.

You are so ill informed about our taxes that its not funny. Do you have a clue how much our PIT brings in. Well that is certainly not enough by far to run the government. ABST brings in far more. And there are many other taxes on the books. Just study that and you will see. PIT was introduced to be a stabilization funds. But now we know that was just a trick. And now they have convinced us that it need to be permanent. No study was done to see what the impact would have been. Now we know. It has erase the middle class and has make people poorer. many has lost their disposable income. Some had to sell their homes and go in to smaller homes or rent. But you I guess either don't live here and envy the way the middle class was living. The ripple effect was that businesses got less business and less money was to go around in the economy. You really need to read more and educate yourself.

Ladies and gentlemen we have been down this road before and people it did not work what we had was a mirage a make believe system that tells us that we are doing better than we actually are. First and foremost your pit is the foundation of any tax system it's your jump off point to paying your civil servants, provide security, proper infrastructure, roads and the like. So when you come to providing these services you are starting from a deficit so how are we suppose to make up the difference, that can only come through higher fees and tariffs so although this sounds good to working people the system is flaud. Why would I loan money to a people who pays no taxes when the money comes from people who pays PIT. think about it.

Avid reader you are misinformed or you read the wrong stuff. Elimination of income tax in 1977 contributed to a rapid expansion in the Antiguan and Barbudan economy. The present situation has to do with management of the finances and not the policy. UPP just cut taxes just in December to try and stimulate the economy. The multiplier effect that can be expected from the elimination of PIT=1/(1-MPC). the increase in revenue is likely to be a factor greater than 1; in order words Government revenue because of the multiplier effect is likely to increase by more that the value that is given in PIT. You can expect increase in ABST and customs duty because of the increase consumption.

Oftend you here people say you have to pay your taxes. Cause when you live if the US you will pay what unlce sam tell you. If you see the present US debate about taxes you can see that the Republicans are hell bend on not to increase any taxes. And even people on the whole are not keen on paying taxes to any government. The Rich have always find ways to get off paying their fair share of taxes. And that is PIT or Gains on Assets. They pay other taxes through business and purchases of goods. The collection system is to costly for us and the enforcement of it is almost impossible. It also create avenues for fraud, theft and dishonesty. Cause even rightfull law abiding individuals seem to get carried away of deliberately filing incorrect incomes. Some leave out overseas income others understate their income. Therefore we need an easier more workable system then PIT. And less expensive or the majority of taxes collected would be spent on officers to execute and those to oversea the officers as well

Tenman, this conversation about where naturalized high net worth individuals would be paying PIT I have long ago addressed. Let us take for example Mr. Stanford. He was and probably is a naturalized Citizen of Antigua and Barbuda. Where is he bound to pay his taxes? In Antigua or in the US? We all know he paid US taxes. But what about the part of his Antiguan Citizenship? Is he not bound to pay taxes here as well? I know England has a tax treaty with us but USA has not. Therefore he would be taxed double. In any way the IRD executes its mandate by respect of the person. I would therefore suggest that we all denounce our citizenship and become let say Cayman Island citizen and then naturalized to Antiguans again and don't pay PIT here. Just an idea to get around the system. But I can tell you any high net-worth individual he is fact with paying PIT would think twice of becoming Antiguan. So what goes for one should go for all? Or they should not be called Antiguan Citizen. Because they will reap the benefits of being Antiguan such as no Alien landholding license required any longer. No work permit and so on.

Observer whats funny is hearing the government ministers and their supporters cry down ALP MP's suggestions and then later back track, and claim it will be our savior. A current example of this is the Economic Citizenship idea. The white paper on this basically pointed out for this program to work, EC would basically have to be divorced from paying PIT, at least on their overseas income. The employers Federation which includes persons loyal to the government, has in general pointed out that PIT is a negative. Its just strange that we accept in order to foreign persons to invest here, we need to look at PIT, yet then argue we need not look at it for locals. The same persons then strangely lament the lack of investments
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A lot of young professionals have been brainwashed that it is not possible. They simple do not understand the economic principle behind it. Gaston and team you guys need to do more work. Believe me. It’s not that simple after you let the UPP for years feed the people with the non-sense that PIT is necessary. Like everywhere in the world pays Income tax. Small Island economies do not lend themselves for PIT. The base is to small and the burden to heavy. ABST is a better way, but the rate is debatable. I for one don't believe it should be on Imports. That is burdening the capital requirement of the businesses. It is making doing business more expensive for all. And I also believe we should look at different rates. For example goods like Cigarettes should be taxed higher because of what they contribute to the wellbeing of the nation. A car is considered both a luxury and a needed transport. So we can make certain vehicles more affordable than others. Anyway I trust Gaston will not be like the UPP and totally ignore good ideas given through mediums like these.

"Bird chided the government for blatantly shunning ALP projects and now slowly returning to them with an attempt to make them seem original."
This is what I keep accusing the UPP for. They don't want to be seen taking other’s suggestions. So they will wait a while and then introduce it. Example I gave was the Construct Antigua Initiative. We at CA made several of these proposals to Lovell in early 2009 after they "won" the election that he needed to jumpstart the economy by giving certain incentives. Same thing we said about lowering ABST will boost business. Now he brings it back as a UPP initiative during X-mas. So all glory be to the UPP for a tremendous idea. Give me a break. Give me an aspirin. These guys are to nuff to listen to good and free advice from its own citizen. I trust the ALP will work hard on bringing home the message of abolishing the PIT.

The Education Levy was introduced by the ALP as a two year temporary measure to assist with the shortfall of revenue in education, books, school repairs etc.

The 5% CST (Customs Service Tax) was introduced to assist in paying for the IHI project (desalination/p ower plant), it was later doubled to 10%. To this day there is a cloud surrounding the IHI payments.

I seriously doubt that the ALP will remove the PIT if they get elected. This is a ploy to rally the middle class earners as they hope for some financial relief...

It's a great idea if you iliminate wasteful spending and improve other areas the gradual ilimination of PIC will be a good thing. How you are going to invite FDI give them tax breaks and not local investors? NO PIC is attractive. UPP's don't have no money because they manage money very poorly and don't seem to know that it is tax payers money..ALL THE MONEY ANTIGUA NEED IS ALREADY IN ANTIGUA!!

They did that before, same old same old, the country suffered as a result. This is the only gimmick that they can come up with, we have been down that road before with ALP, hopefully Antiguans will not fall for it again. The country has to support itself, the handouts from Europe have disappeared, these people really need to get serious and put a plan out there. How do they intend to support the country? There is nothing good about getting rid of the income tax system except the ALP sees it as a way to get back the government and Antiguans should not fall for that, ask Lester et al for a plan forward for the country, instead of one of their gimmicks.

So government cannot afford to pay its bills, not even monthly salaries but Lyster Bird says if elected he would do away with personal income tax and revamp ABST leaving even less money in the pot each month. How can that idea possibly work unless he plans to raise taxes elsewhere?

Eliminate PIC will enhance investment foriegn and domestic. Lower ABST will boost the economy and it is alway good to involve the youth this is another example how the Developement bank can help develope Micro Business Antigua and young people and grow itself.


Bird chided the government for blatantly shunning ALP projects and now slowly returning to them with an attempt to make them seem original - Not just APL ideas but a lot of other peoples ideas and now they stuck on empty.