Levels and playing fields

Read this in the newspaper today.

Untaxed vacation home rentals present unfair competition for hotels, as their popularity began to grow over the past several years, and Turnquest said the government was mindful of the uneven playing field that this has created.

Ummm…. how about this? Hotels present unfair competition for Bahamians. The playing field is so uneven that very little will help to level it. When small hotels are able to qualify for the exemptions that hotels of 50+ rooms can get (almost exclusively owned by NON BAHAMIAN corporations), then let’s talk about playing fields.

That said, paying VAT on those rentals is only to be expected. But to talk about it in terms of LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD? What have we been smoking?