Legislation for the Bahamas government's national budget for the period 2015/2016 came into effect as of 01 July 2015. The national fiscal year runs 01 July to 30 June.

The Government of The Bahamas has implemented Value Added Tax ("VAT") effective 01 January 2015.

The ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, non-partisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency and has a membership of over 13,000 insolvency practitioners, including judges.

The Bahamas has achieved "A" Signatory status to IOSCO as of January 2013, signifying the highest level of compliance with international standards for the jurisdiction’s securities regime.

The Bahamas Supreme Court gave an important judgement regarding the efficacy of foreign arbitral awards for being relied upon as the basis of a statutory demand...

In June 2013, the current Rules of the Supreme Court will be replaced by new Rules of Civil Procedure ("CPR").

The Government’s Budget for 2014/2015 was presented in Parliament on Wednesday, 28 May 2014 by the Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie, MP, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Persons engaged in the business of advising on or managing securities have the flexibility of setting up business in The Bahamas without having, directly, to be physically present.

Property owners whose Property has never been declared or assessed may now file a Declaration of Ownership form with the Real Property Tax Department and receive an entire waiver on taxes and surcharges for years prior.

Chief Justice Sir Michael Barnett recently heard petitions of a voluntary liquidator of two Panamanian companies, BC Capital Group SA and BC Capital Group International SA ("BC Capital entities") for the Supreme Court of The Bahamas ("Supreme Court") to supervise the respective voluntary liquidations.

The Bahamas has recently committed to adopting the Automatic Exchange of Information Standard ("AEOI Standard") which the Government states it will implement by means of individually negotiated bilateral treaties by end of 2018.

CERTAIN RELIEF AND INCENTIVES under the Real Property Tax Act were introduced in July 2015 that are important to be reminded of for the tax year 2016.

The Employment Act, 2001 provides a comprehensive set of minimum standards of employment within The Bahamas which includes, amongst other important aspects of the employment relationship, the vacation entitlement.

In August 2012 the Securities Commission of The Bahamas approved a new SMART fund model, increasing the total number of approved SMART fund models to seven.

A White Paper on Taxation Reform was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday 13 February 2013.

On 30 April 2012 a modern company liquidation regime for The Bahamas came into force, replacing the former liquidation laws that were largely untouched for more than 60 years.

The Value Added Tax Act, 2014 came into force 01 January 2015. It is intended to raise additional revenue for the Government of The Bahamas by means of value added tax.

Tax changes came into effect on 01 July 2013 relevant to businesses.

THE BAHAMAS is an international financial centre and major hub for the global shipping industry, ranking globally as number one for cruise ship registration and number three in total world tonnage.

The Bahamas Government announced that it had approved in principle the Model 1 Agreement with the US Government to implement FATCA.