File Photo: Harbour Island street scene.
(Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas) – Police along with personnel from the Business License authority in the Ministry of Finance conducted inspections at businesses throughout Harbour Island on September 30th, to determine if they were in possession of their required Business License.
The fees for licensing a business are:
- for a business with turnover greater than $50,000 per annum but not exceeding $500,000 per annum, a tax
of 0.5% of turnover; - for a business with turnover greater than $500,000 per annum but not exceeding $5 million per annum, a tax of 0.75% of turnover;
- for a business with turnover greater than $5 million per annum but not exceeding $50 million per annum, a tax of 1.25% of turnover;
- for a business with turnover greater than $50 million per annum but not exceeding $100 million per annum, a tax of 1.5% of turnover;
- for a business with turnover greater than $100 million per annum, a tax of 1.75% of turnover.”;
A total of 42 business establishments were inspected and a a whopping 32 of the 42 were found to be in breach of the Business License Act. All non-compliant businesses were given a two week period to have their licenses regulated. Police stated that they plan on revisiting the businesses in breach to check that they are now in compliance, and those which are not will be closed down, and the owners placed before the courts.
Related: Local Gaming or ‘Numbers’ houses on Harbour Island were also checked and found to have current web shop licenses. Police have no mandate to pursue them further at this time. In fact, according to authorities, two new establishments opened up on Harbour Island recently bringing the known number of “Web Shops” on the small island to five (5).
