I’m blogging from the House of Commons where I am speaking at a meeting organised by PCS and War on Want on tax justice.
I’ve just been challenged by Michael Meacher MP to outline a plan of what I would do if I was Gordon Brown between now and the G20, next Wednesday. My response was this:
- The UK should admit that the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are ours — as the current crisis in The Turks & Caicos have proven in the last week, and that we can therefore reform them;
- Publish the terms of reference for the Foot Commission into UK tax havens so we know that reform is going to happen;
- Announce that the forthcoming banking code will compulsorily ban banks from undertaking structured tax avoidance;
- Announce that this ban will be extended to all UK companies through a general anti-avoidance provision being enacted in the UK;
- Support the call for country by country reporting which will make all companies go on record about their use of tax havens;
- Announce an end to HMRC redundancies so the resources are available to deal with automatic information exchange which we so badly need;
- Announce unconditional support for the amended EU Savings Tax Directive which would shatter the use of offshore structures in many places — and that we will impose this on our own tax havens, as we can.
All of that is possible.
None require international support.
All would offer clear indication of leadership that would set an example to all at the G20, and all those watching it.
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And therein lies the problem….whether or not the UK government is able to impose it’s way over crown dependencies. If the crown dependencies are such a problem why not reform the UK tax system so that the advantages that the crown dependencies currently have are negated?
Just come across your very informative/interesting blog. Today was the first time I have heard about “country by country reporting”, and it is resonating with me – there is no good reason for this not to be implemented. It is relatively easy for the layman (like myself) to see the simplicity and benefits of such a disclose requirement.
Keep up the good work
A most productive and interesting evening.
I was especially pleased to get some inside information on local tax offices which I wasn’t expecting, as well as the interesting debate and talk on tax havens, which is what I originally went for.
Richard,
The Crown Dependencies are not “ours”. Jersey and Guernsey were part of the Duchy of Normandy that conquered Britain in 1066 and were given formal rights in 1215 that guaranteed their autonomy. They are no more British than Aquitaine or Zimbabwe, places that Britain has controlled far more recently than the Channel Islands.
Unless you are suggesting that big countries should just be able to take over small countries they don’t like, regardless of history, law or the wishes of the populations concerned. But that does not sound democratic to me.
Paul
Please send me a copy of that agreement of 1215
Richard
PS – for everyone else’s benefit – he can’t – no one has a copy and no one even knows if it ever existed. Like all offshore it’s a myth
And even if Paul did produce the 1215 agreement you would denounce it somehow or move onto some other form of attack.
[…] Richard Murphy writes, Gordon Brown should do the […]
Of course
I’d draw attention to the fact that as my friend and colleague John Christensen recently noted:
The 1973 Royal Commission (a.k.a. the Kilbrandon Report) stated as follows: “the United Kingdom Government are responsible for defence and international relations of the Islands, and the Crown is ultimately responsible for their good government. It falls to the Home Secretary to advise the Crown on the exercise of those duties and responsibilities. The United Kingdom Parliament has the power to legislate for the Islands, but it would exercise that power without their agreement in relation to domestic matters only in most exceptional circumstances”.
“[The UK] Parliament does have power to legislate for the Island without their consent on any matter in order to give effect to an international agreement”
Source: Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 3 June 1998, cols. 471 and 465.
More compelling than a missing agreement of 1215, don’t you think?
Richard