Thursday, October 15, 2009

We Told You So!

The JDA have never had any confidence in the Zero-ten tax scheme, especially after our expert, Preston Hobbs, submitted the damning report, which we published over two years ago.
Now, it seems that we were right, and the EU have seen through it. Terry le Sueur's position as Chief Minister will no longer really be tenable after the inevitable questions are asked, and Geoff Southern will ask them, if noone beats him in the queue. However, the man has more than enough brass neck to make up for any shortcomings in his abilities, so I suppose we can look forward to two more years of his "leadership"
David Rotherham

9 comments:

  1. So what is Geoff proposing in its place that

    a) will retain the finance industry (and not sink the economy into a supermassive black hole)

    b) be agreeable to the EU

    Personally, I think the EU are bully boys and hypocrites who want to impose their own rules. Jersey should get the OECD involved, then if there was minimum rates of Corporation tax, for example, it would be global.

    The last time the EU was involved with the EU, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria ended up on the "grey list" because outside their own cosy club, it was seen that their "unfair tax practices" were a sham!

    I'd trust the OECD to provide global fairness, they have a good track record. The EU, quite frankly, doesn't.

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  2. Perhaps the Prof or somebody can explain what money won't come to Jersey as a result of Zero ten being scrapped and where else it will go?
    And perhaps somebody can then tell me why the money is looking for a home in the first place - surely it belongs somewhere?
    And, if it stayed where it belonged would it not be used to generate more business and investment opportunities and therefore benefit the people to whom it belonged directly and not be diluted into the pockets of lawyers and accountants who could be better employed trying to solve some of the legal and economic problems that confront the whole world?
    I am only asking out of curiosity - don't expect anybody to take notice of the questions of a mere pleb.

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  3. Right, well if the EU says, for example, that the Channel Islands must have a minimum level of Corporation Tax, then some companies will be reformed (and assets transferred) to jurisdictions outside of the EU control - Delaware, Hong Kong?, or within the EU club, Luxembourg? which have comparable or better levels of corporation tax.

    If the OECD however imposes a minumum corporation tax, then no one can wriggle out of it.

    It is noteworthy that as far as personal tax goes, Luxembourg still applies the witholding tax rather than give up its secrecy on individuals.

    As do Austria and Belgium, Luxembourg currently uses withholding at the source, which allows it to safeguard banking secrecy. And it is jealously guarding this.

    An EU directive states that it will have to switch over to the system of automatic information exchange between tax administrations – and thus abolish banking secrecy – once the 27 have approved agreements containing OECD standards with Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Andorra, San Marino and Monaco.

    In other words, it is not in the Grand Duchy’s interests to endorse the agreement with Vaduz and allow the launch of talks with Switzerland.

    A sure-fire way to upset a Luxembourger is to class their land-locked home state as “offshore”, despite it being exactly that. Luxembourg is the second-largest fund domicile in the world by assets under management, after the US. With a population of under half a million, it is home to €1.7 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in assets.

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  4. The really damaging part of the Zero-ten proposition was the axiom that local services should be paid for by local residents. Until then, foreigners paying a big chunk of our tax for us was the main benefit of hosting the finance industry. Now that principle has been conceded, we will find it hard to get it back. And so now, we all have to effectively subsidise the finance industry, not as a positive measure, but as a desperate defence against mass unemployment and economic meltdown.
    I can't help thinking of the old joke about the traveller who asks a local yokel for directions and gets told "Well, you don't want to start from here!" We are now in the wrong place as an economy to set out for anywhere worth going, whatever your vision for the future might have been.

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  5. Shall the JDA membership be wearing red or white poppies this year?

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  6. Whatever: It is yellow daffodils that are a sore point with us these days!

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  7. Cop out diversion with yellow daffs is it?
    But how does the JDA membership view the Jersey British Legion selling cuddly teddy bear in uniform badges "for children"? Is that really a healthy way to present war and to raise money?
    C'mon - leave that space on the fence for Le Herissier.

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  8. The trouble with this discussion is that neither of us are quite sure what the other is on about. I have never seen white remembrance poppies on sale, and don't know the significance: Is it something to do with white for peace, or opium poppies as a reminder that the Afghan war has revitalised the heroin trade the Taliban had all but suppressed? I've got a red one now, anyway.
    For my part, the yellow daffodil joke was referring to the fact that when Time4Change, who treacherously turned from an outreach to a breakaway, had a yellow daffodil emblem.
    Obviously, it would not be the JDA's place to take any position on charity teddy bear badges as a party, but as you were careful enough to address the question to the membership, my own 2d-worth is:-
    A real bear is at least as scary as a real soldier, but I don't see any harm in teddy bears. So soldier teddy bears don't seem any worse. It will not be feasible to abolish war anytime soon, if ever, so kids do need to grow up with the awareness that their interests may sometimes need to be defended by force, and if they are not doing their own defending, then they need to show gratitude and respect to those who do it for them. A cute soldier teddy badge is a gentle step, and quite appropriate for a charity that does give practical effect to the gratitude and respect. thus I would say it is a healthy way to approach the subject.

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  9. Since I wrote this, Tony the Prof has written an article on his own blog about alternative poppies, that I found interesting and informative.

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