Speeches by Dr. Douglas De Couto, JP, MP

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

58 words

Thank you, Madam Chairman. My question is with respect to c lause 13 which amends [section] 46A of the original Act and enables the Corporate Income Tax Agency to waive interest charges in the various situations. What would be the criteria or circumstances for that waiver? Why should we expect them to want to waive that? Thank you.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

21 words

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I believe we a re just waiting to an answer on my question about waiving of interest.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

50 words

Clause 13 basically enables, by my reading, enables C ITA to waive interest that would otherwise be applied on certain late payments and so forth. I would like to understand what would be the conditions , or why they would want to waive that or things like that. Thank you.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

50 words

Yes, t hank you, Madam Deputy Speaker . I thought I would actually start my comments today with thanks, because I didn't really get into it in the prior B ill, which I thought we would just whip through quite quickly, but, you know, there we go. [ Inaudible interjections]

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

2,106 words

I want to say, you know, particular thanks to everybody on the Tax Reform Commis-sion. As was stated, I was on that committee for a portion of time. They work very, very hard. Particular 1666 5 December 2025 Official Hansard Report B ermuda House of Assembly thanks to, you know, many of the people that the Premier has already thanked …

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

7 words

Point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker .

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

24 words

He's misleading the House, Madam Deputy Speaker. I have not been a member of that committee since prior to the election— [ Inaudible interjections]

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

60 words

— around this time last year. Second of all, I will tell you, and although I think I can say this without breaching the confidentiality, in my per-sonal view, while I was a committee member, we never received adequate information to make the recommendations that we . . . that I personally would have liked. Thank you. [ Inaudible interjections]

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

6 words

Madam Deputy Speaker, point of order.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

76 words

The Member is misleading the House, and he is implying that I approved that report. I never had sight of that final report, nor did I have an opportunity to approve it. I cannot control that they put my name on it or not, but I did not review, nor approve, or have any role in signing off on that …

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

7 words

Point of information, Madam Deputy Speaker .

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

3 words

One could imagine—

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

50 words

One could imagine several points of negotiations with international business. Our consultations have shown that they are almost . . . no, not almost. [They are] 100 per cent uniformly in favour of using these funds to pay down the budget. So, for example, the Government — [ Inaudible interjection]

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

30 words

Ah, excuse me. To pay down the debt, of course. Hon. E. David Burt: I do not yield anymore, Madam Deputy [Speaker] . He is not speaking to the point.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

19 words

Can he un- yield? I just — B ermuda House of Assembly Hon. E. David Burt: —I just did.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

14 words

—have a point of information. He wants to know what I would do .

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

7 words

And I am telling him. [ Crosstalk]

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

70 words

Yes. The point being, knowing that international business is uniformly and unanimously in favour of using these funds to pay down the debt: Option one, negotiate with them and say, no tax credits year one, but we promise to use all of the reve-nue above and beyond the standard traditional budget to pay down the debt, and so on and …

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

11 words

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I kind of have two questions.

5 Dec 2025 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House of Assembly

142 words

Technically three, but I suspect it is two. Clause 31, subsection (3) , lays out a series of percentage payroll benefit factors that decrease over time. Clause 32, also in its subsection (5) , lays out a series of percentage factors that decrease over time. My question is , what is the thinking behind those specific percentages and why do …