Bmda: Taxing lemmings

Bermuda faces higher taxes, with across the board increases of between two to three percent – but income tax is not on the horizon, according to Finance Minister Paula Cox.

In revealing the long-awaited ‘Report on the Bermuda Tax System’ by Harry Gutman and Eric Toder, Ms Cox said that Bermuda’s current tax system brings in a tax revenue of about 18 percent of gross domestic product.

But the Gutman/Toder team was given instructions by the Progressive Labour Party back in 1999 (when changes were made to the original report) to find ways to raise taxes to become 24 percent of gross domestic product.

Ms Cox said that Government had no intentions of raising taxes to this level – but instead would like to see the level of taxes raised by between two and three percent to between 20 and 21 percent of GDP.

I guess Ms. Cox's point is that Bermudans ought to be grateful for that 3-4% difference and to be allowed to keep 25-26% more of their money than citizens of many countries are. Somebody ought to put the tax percentage to a referendum.