(MENAFN- EIN Presswire)
Repeal GST! The British Bankrupting of Anguilla: Now available at The Anguillian Newspaper office – and on Amazon, also accessible at Book Examines a Generation of Fiscal Negligence Compounded by the Undemocratic Imposition of a Culturally Atrocious Tax
THE VALLEY, ANGUILLA, November 28, 2023 /EINPresswire / -- Repeal GST! The British Bankrupting of Anguilla by Melinda K. M. Goddard is now available. The book is a compendium of contemporaneous articles examining failings of governance, legislative alternatives, and the social and political impact of a culturally dreadful tax exploding into Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory (BOT). Repeal GST! highlights how this Caribbean island of ~15,000, yet the size of Manhattan, slipped gradually into a sea of debt and fiscal vulnerability, while offering an array of strategies to achieve financial independence as a precursor to self-determination.
As a backdrop, in 2020, the last election turned on promises to avoid GST, but it was nullified the moment the last votes were counted. Goddard's often lyrical articles trace that sudden reversal to its roots in commitments made, promised as negotiable, and then enforced as a condition for humanitarian aid. While keeping a burgeoning government afloat, the island was still navigating the aftermath of a major hurricane in 2017 – and was facing the evolving Covid-19 impact on a tourism destination in real time.
Repeal GST! begins following days of stakeholder input, including Goddard's recommendations for alternatives to GST to the Anguilla House of Assembly Select Committee on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 5, 2021. In fact, she asserted in that session that they should“not blame the British” for fiscal shortfalls, but they soon over-rode elected Ministers' nays to pass GST with British appointees' votes. It was then clear that such options had been rejected, including budget cuts without layoffs or adjusting other culturally accepted taxes – in the depths of the pandemic with the borders closed.
Notably, the same British governor who signed the GST legislation after passage with British appointees has since been assigned to Turks and Caicos (TCI). Many in Anguilla are concerned for their sister BOT, heretofore, free of value added tax (VAT) or GST.
Citing an unexpectedly egalitarian BOT debate in the UK parliament in May of 2023, Goddard ultimately questions apparent contradictions to self-determination rhetoric given the imposition of GST. Many chapters also conclude with aspirations for prosperity and leadership to repeal GST and pass taxpayer protection laws, while also restoring hope, joy and freedoms enjoyed before GST. She assures the reader that its repeal would set a lot of things right again, there in paradise!
Repeal GST! The British Bankrupting of Anguilla is available on Amazon and may also be reached at:
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About the book: Repeal GST! is the result of a collaboration with The Anguillian Newspaper editor-in-chief, A. Nat Hodge, MBE, to keep discussing alternatives to GST in the weekly publication. Mr. Hodge was among the first community leaders to recognize the need to manage spending to provide tax relief for the people and better jobs for the public servants in a fit-for-purpose, efficient government – without layoffs or crisis interventions. Melinda Goddard is also the author of One Way Ticket: From America to Anguilla , which chronicles her relocation to Anguilla with her husband, Terry Brady, in 2002.
Monique Webster
The Anguillian Newspaper
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