Sweets,
Your thread is perfectly fine here and this does come up time to time as you said, but you just need to be aware that the info gathered here for the most part needs to be taken with a grain of salt. There are very few people in this forum who can honestly say that they have a thriving, longterm business in Negril.
As I mentioned, most here will only be able to give you second hand info. The comments may need to be corrected or expanded on in order to be useful. The above post from Rastagirl777 expands on my point.
The "runnings" she mentions is not something you will come to know by asking questions, but by simply living in Jamaica. If you do your research and spend time here before starting the business - you will pick this up automatically.
The budgeting aspect is not as simple as "triple that amount". If you do your research correctly, you should be very close to the actual investment needed. If you dont do the research so well, then maybe the "double or triple" concept may work, but that would lead me to believe your venture is doomed to failure if you underestimated your actual investment by over 200%.
Work permits are over us$1000 per year at present so you will need to be serious just setting up the business in the first place. Tax Compliance Certificates (TCCs) are nothing unusual, all businesses need them in Jamaica - Jamaican and foreign owned alike. All it means is that you have paid your share of taxes. Your accountant can handle all this for your business. If you cant get a TCC, then you have bigger problems than running a business... (grin)
As far as the fingerprinting goes, no one I know has had to do any fingerprinting to get their business started or their work permits. Possibly if you are starting a security company or similar business it may be required, but you will not find any references to fingerprinting in any of Jamaican government work permit documentation.
As mentioned, the best advice is research while you are here on your future trips before taking the plunge.
