Mr. Richards suggested that instead of penalizing Bermudians who go abroad to shop, and, by the way, NOT penalizing those who shop on-line, Premier Cox would help local businesses better by delaying import tax until goods are sold, similar to Britain’s VAT I guess, rather than when goods are landed. This makes sense to me, as the present system forces businesses to expend capital at the front end and then wait to recoup that money until the goods are purchase-which may or may not happen.

Who remembers back when the duty free allowance was worth about $1000 in todays purchasing power?

Retail was booming then. People did not travel near as much either. Air fares were far more expensive. Various duty rates were not near what they are today.

Government did not have such a massive civil service to pay either. There was no debt to service. Polititians considered the job partime & were paid as such.

How times have changed!

So you mean to tell me, and I am assuming that you are in the know, that the OBA is willing to allow the BERMUDA people to suffer,for another maybe 13 months, so the PLP does not get any credit for a recovery….

Is that how they will put Bermuda first…

what do they call this strategy… Bermuda first but only if you vote for us if not we will continue to sabotage any good ideas, and make the people suffer.

just asking..

Are you stuck on Stupid, who cares who gets the credit if OBA truly believes in puttin Bermuda 1st, they would not be placing such asinine statements. so childish. told you, you can’t trust them, snakes.

The rate actually increased 40% (40% of 25% is 15%. 25% + 15% = 35%).

Its Cyber bullyin am tellin u. I mean om gon tell my Momma if you don stop right naw!!!

Om jess sayin.

One good thing about time, it improves things see today everyone has the right to vote for the person that best shares their vision..

and we can respectfully differ in who that may be.

You’re suggesting there should be price controls, but you also say you purchase 99% of your shopping away. Believe me, if you introduce price controls there will be nothing to buy here. Another nail in Bermuda’s coffin.

The problem is that this type of knee-jerk “idea of the day” is not part of a plan. There is no strategy to get us out of the mess we’re in. It’s one crazy idea after another. And the govt is inconsistent. On one hand they’re cutting payroll tax to encourage retail, and on the other hand they’re doing all they can to discourage IB. So do they want jobs here or not?

In the past few days they’ve spent their time doing photo-ops with beauty queens, photoshoots in hotels, and announced a nice trip to Manchester for a ‘conversational breakfast’ and a ‘cocktail party’, all at taxpayers expense. They give the impression they don’t give a rats behind about what any of us think about anything.

I can’t wait for the election. They should call it as soon as possible. We need change. Now.

BTW I think this increase sucks but what sucks more are the disingenuous comments made for political point scoring.

I also believe Bermuda needs to take a look at our tax structure, I believe we have out grown the old model.. the new one needs to place a greater consideration on lowering taxes for the poor. we need to get a grip on the gap between the rich an poor…

I don’t agree with a sales tax, because I find our retailers greedy… they will have a 2000% profit on their goods in addition to the sale tax.

There should be price controls as well as a tax incentive for monopoly items.. ie only Boyle’s selling Clarks shoes at 400% the US price..
If any Govt wants residents to buy Bermuda, price controls are got to be put in place..it’s not like we can drive to the next town or state for competition.

I will also admit I do 99% of my shopping away…right now I am not so proud of that, after coming back from school, starting a family I never brought Bermuda some 30 years now. taught my children how not to buy Bermuda

With the situation the world is in now. I feel a sense of responsibility to my county and I am attempting to reverse my ways for the greater good.

I purchased a pair of tights from a local store for $35.00 thinking not so bad….until I found a Conway price tag stuck in the inside leg for $2.99. I hope someone is monitoring the profit margin for the retail & grocery stores as well as the the hotels… I don’t see where the breaks they are getting are tricking down.

And Bob I sure wish you would stop pretending that you are offering a solution when in fact you and the OBA are opposing any and everything for opposing sake…

What does the OBA really stand for…..except for taking care of non Bermudians especially if your in the upper echelon, and F$@k the rest of the people.Where is the OBA’s balance. I’m starting to think he is getting his pockets lined…

In addition, nobody (Citi in this case) is going to explicitly say things like “we left because of term limits”. I just makes no business sense… negativity is always bad. You don’t tell your new girl you’re with her because she happens to NOT have undesirable traits x,y, and z that your ex had. You’re not going to let it get out to your new domicile that you’re only there because they suck less than your old one, you’re going to make it positive!

the poster is not making it up.

By trying to shift the responsibility to the tax payers is not he answer actually it will backfire, because as of today I will not for six moths buy any good in Bermuda at all, now if I feel like this I am pretty sure others do, so let’s see what happens now.

Think before you propose crazy bandaide fixes without full thought. We all want to buy Bermuda we love Bermuda and want to see everyone prosper, think outside the box and look for innovation ways and not punitive measures to get things done.

People that travel and shop and pay duty on arrival increase the money in Government’s purse, encourage it and why don’t you then provide rebates to the local retailers. What do you do with the money from duties anyway……….?

There are creative ways to make things happen.

I hope the swing voters do the right thing, but I suspect the frothing idiotic masses will vote these utter f*ckwits back in to power.

You know, back in 1998 several said this would happen, but we didn’t know how they would destroy Bermuda or how long it would take. 13 years in the end.

Time for a BIG change.

Bob’s point has been, and continues to be, that chipping away at symptoms in an ad hoc manner is not substitute for a coherent economic policy and measures to jump start the economy. Cog needs to look at fundamentals and, to date at least, has shown and unwillingness to do this. The reality is. the PLP and specifically the Premier & Finance Minister are bankrupt of ideas.