Want Life Without Income Taxes? Come to the Bahamas

Freeport, Bahamas
9 Dec 2010

How would you like to live where there is no income or sales taxes?

Then come to the Bahamas – just a few miles off the USA eastern seaboard -- it has neither. However, being an island country it has to import EVERYTHING. And the import duty for a car runs from 55% to 65%! Just add that to the cost of your ride to get an idea of the trade off.
Our ship is about to leave for Key West, but I got a chance to see the Bahamas for the first time in a meaningful way. American tourism is No. 1 driver of the Bahamian economy – over 20 inhabited islands, with over registered 400 banks that are not visible on the streets.

Ours was one of three Giant ships that pirouette into tiny harbors in Nassau and Freeport. In Freeport, we are parked next to two more ships –one is a giant cruise ship that runs daily to Florida. Now independent from England they still drive on the left side of the road. As low key and non-threatening as it is, some people on the ship were so untraveled that they were afraid to get off the boat. Had they done so, the only threat they would have encountered would have been buying too many hats and bags in the little shops. One limo driver talked about the big hurricane that hit a few years ago (2005?) and blew in windows and tore off even the hurricane tile roofs. They are now using tin roofs.

A few feet from the ship in Nassau is a canal that takes you past a row of houses, two owned by Oprah, one by Tom Cruise and some others – right there next to the edge as we pass by. Oprah’s cost $10 million each – I certainly could get used to it and the handy boats out front. But alas, it looked pretty empty as did the others. Nearby were coral reefs that looked very delicate – which had strange looking large fish hiding behind “brain” coral.

The Bahamian people are friendly and non-pushy. The guides had a very British dry sense of humor that made you laugh and enjoy the experience. The biggest noise came from tourists singing Karaoke in the Senor Frog’s in Nassau. Freeport reminds me of a small Houston – bustling with gravel ships, oil tanks being loaded from offshore oil tankers via pipeline, and business.

If you don’t want to pay income taxes or sales taxes, this is the place for you. But then your 55% plus import tax on what you buy will take a good chunk. It’s all how you want your poison folks.
Next stop, Key West, which reminds me of a Humphrey Bogart movie for some reason…

Michael Fjetland
Global American Series