Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons has called for Government to come clean on what it agrees with and disagrees with in the Tax Review which was made public last week.

Government revealed that it had already implemented some of the recommendations in the long-awaited ?Report on the Bermuda Tax System?, including changes to payroll tax.

Finance Minister Paula Cox said: ?For example, the assumed remuneration option in payroll tax was removed in 2000 and the relative contributions of customs duty and payroll tax have changed in accordance with the recommendations.?

But Ms Cox declined to say what policies her Government approved or disapproved of in the 1999 report which was made public last Monday.

She said Government continued to review recommendations in the report as some of them ?may become more feasible as our economy further develops?.

?Clearly, however, any major changes will require consultation with our social partners as we chart our way forward in the ongoing development of tax policy and the implementation of a fairer, more broadly-based and more equitable tax system,? she said.

But Dr. Gibbons wants to know just where the PLP stands on these issues ? and thinks the public has a right to know.

The United Bermuda Party originally commissioned the report but did not publish its controversial results before the General Election. But the UBP Cabinet had a chance to look at the document and discuss its contents.

When the PLP swept to power, they commissioned some changes, such as looking at raising taxes to 24 percent of gross domestic product and progressivity, which means taxing the rich more than the poor.

And Dr. Gibbons said that he wanted to show what the UBP agreed and disagreed with, point by point (see belowl). For example, Dr. Gibbons agreed with keeping the tax system overall the same, but did not want to introduce taxes on undeveloped land for fear it would encourage development.

He challenged the Government to come clean and go through the list of recommendations, also point by point, so that the electorate could know where they stood with the document and how taxes would be raised.

The long-awaited Report on the Bermuda Tax System, by Harry Gutman and Eric Toder, was originally commissioned in 1997 by the United Bermuda Party, but they did not release the report before the General Election because it was such a sensitive document.

Then when the Progressive Labour Partly swept to power, the authors of the report were asked to ?improve the progressivity of the overall system of taxation? as well as increasing tax revenues to 24 percent of gross domestic product.

The report states that Government could raise and additional $54.3 million or 2.1 percent of GDP at 1999/2000 prices, with recommendations that could be implemented together or separately.

Ms Cox said Government was looking at raising taxes by between two and three percent ? but would not bring in income tax.

Dr. Grant Gibbons said that the revelations show that PLP Government was in effect looking to raise between $74 million and $110 million in taxes which would be the equivalent to doubling or tripling land tax at the current rate or a 50 percent increase