It's becoming more obvious every day that Jersey is panicking about its new tax laws. That latest report from the Jersey Evening Post says (and note this web link will expire in a couple of days at most as the Jersey Evening Post is now just about the only organisation on earth to re-use URLs):

MINISTERS are making a last-minute attempt to head off defeat over GST exemptions by proposing a £3m tax break for middle-earners.

They say that the new proposal to raise tax allowances for those on middle incomes by an extra 3.5% - a 3% rise is already proposed in the Budget - would undo the potential damage of the 3% GST on food, books, magazines, newspapers and childrens' clothes.

And they say that their proposal to raise Income Tax thresholds will target the extra money at the people who need it rather than every Islander rich or poor, and that it will save an 'administrative nightmare' of exemptions for the tax department and businesses.

Three interesting thoughts:

1) That's another increase in the 'black hole' that is sure to ruin Jersey;

2) What about the poorest in society for whom tax reliefs will be of no benefit as they don't pay this tax? Who is looking after them, or is Jersey content that its tax system becomes ever more regressive, with the burden passing ever more steadily from the richest to the poorest in its community?

3) If Jersey cannot manage the political consequences of 0/10 before the revenue loss that it will inevitably give rise to, what will happen when the government of Jersey begins to fail as it suffers a deficit of about 20% of its expenditure each year? What sort of backlash will that bring?