{"id":226527,"date":"2016-04-28T06:06:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=226527"},"modified":"2016-04-28T06:06:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T20:06:42","slug":"bsi-ceo-pay-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bsi-ceo-pay-taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"BSI CEO: We pay taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark<\/a>
Mark Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Sunshine International, Ltd. wanted to clarify to the public that they are paying taxes\u2014however, not casino taxes. <\/p>\n

In a press conference, BSI chief executive officer Mark Brown said he wanted to give emphasis for the people to \u201cunderstand and know that we are paying a lot of tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown was acting in response to previous media reports, which in their view, got the public confused that they don\u2019t pay taxes at all. <\/p>\n

Brown said BSI has contributed to the CNMI treasury about $70 million on just mainly taxes of gross revenues and fees.<\/p>\n

Brown mentioned some of these fees saying that from the beginning, they have paid a $ 1 million application fee for their license. They also already paid the first, second, and fifth year of the license fee of $15 million a year totaling $45 million, $3 million a year for the casino commission\u2019s salary, $4.4 million for permits and development fees, $1.7 million on excise taxes, have given $10 million to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and had other contributions as they buy lands, homes, and brought in yachts.<\/p>\n

Aside from these, Brown said they are paying a 5 percent business gross revenue tax on all their revenues including the gaming tables.<\/p>\n

As of April 30, Brown said they have paid $14 million in BGRT, averaging $3 million to $4 million a month.<\/p>\n

No to adding casino or gaming tax<\/strong><\/p>\n

For this reason, and adding the detail that they will be paying about $38 million a year once they operate and have two buildings, Brown said they are not okay should there be a casino or gaming tax on top of all their other fees and taxes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho actually wants to pay more tax?\u201d Brown said, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to pay more tax.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we want to pay a $40 million a year fee\u2026it\u2019s almost $40 million that we\u2019re going to be paying, and then we\u2019re paying the 5 percent BGRT,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re saying, would you be okay with a gaming tax on top of the 5 percent BGRT on top of the $40 million that you pay every year? The answer would be no, of course not, we wouldn\u2019t be happy with that,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n

Asked if they would comply should a casino tax be implemented, Brown said \u201cno\u201d because that is stated in their exclusive casino license.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we won\u2019t comply with that. Our license agreement says no gaming tax,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the agreement coming in. You pay this $15 million fee, you pay this $20 million fee, you pay the commission\u2019s salary, and there\u2019ll be no gaming tax. Even though you\u2019re still paying BGRT,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Brown, who had been in the casino industry in various countries, said other casino jurisdictions don\u2019t require to pay $40 million every year to operate a casino. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no $40 million fee that they pay every year, that\u2019s the difference. New Jersey, you\u2019ll pay a 9 percent tax, but no one is paying $40 million fee a year to be there, that\u2019s the difference,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n

Brown said it should be \u201cone or the other\u201d but not both, adding that they will pay casino taxes should \u201cthe $40 million a year went away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s not what they\u2019re thinking. They\u2019re thinking on top of the $40 million. That doesn\u2019t make sense. No other jurisdiction does both. You don\u2019t have $40 million fee and pay a gaming tax,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather have a 9 percent and no fee, than a 5 percent and a $40 million fee,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Gaming tax in the future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Previous media interviews with Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, however, said that the government \u201cdo need to tax gaming but perhaps right now is not the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no ifs or buts, we will tax them. But we need them to start the investment now before we start taxing them,\u201d Torres said, referring to casino or gaming tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever you go, in regards the casino, you start them with zero interest and then you build that revenue in. You start that investment and then eventually you tax them,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

However, asked when the right time will be to implement a casino or gaming tax, Torres did not give a direct answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you look at tax, you got to look at what the investment is and what is the projected revenue to bring back their investment. That is the time when we will discuss do we increase it now? Do we propose 1 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent?\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, we all know it\u2019s going up to 20 to 30 percent. As to know what point [that is], we got to monitor that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Torres mentioned that is what happened in Las Vegas and Macau, before they start taxing 40 years ago and that there is certain growth of the tax.<\/p>\n

Torres also recognized BSI\u2019s contributions to the CNMI with their current taxes and investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget that for the investment here. We don\u2019t waive the excise tax. They pay excise tax. They are not qualified for a qualifying certificate. Rota and Tinian, on the other hand, they have the qualifying certificates that can apply. If you look at those numbers you can benefit up to $500 million or $600 million dollars,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo although there are zero taxes for gaming, you see them grow this economy from land, housing, employment, higher salaries, number of employees being hired, and the indirect cost with everyone else, with all the other businesses you\u2019ve seen them with the effect they are coming in with the revenue,\u201d he added. (With reports from Dennis Chan)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Best Sunshine International, Ltd. wanted to clarify to the public that they are paying taxes\u2014however,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":226568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[7019,1311,256,26],"class_list":["post-226527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-bgrt","tag-bsi","tag-casino","tag-cnmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}