My, so far, invariably reliable sources on all things Isle of Man have told me that HM Treasury has called in the Isle of Man and they have been told to renegotiate their VAT sharing agreement, again. Only one direction of movement is being considered — and that’s downwards as far as the Isle of Man is concerned.
Rumour has it that the publicity given on this blog to the blatant attempt made by the Isle of Man to manipulate the agreement in its favour by restating its basis for calculating its gross domestic product and gross national income may have been influential in forcing this renegotiation on the Isle of Man, but I couldn’t possibly comment on that.
What I do know — if this is true — is that some serious apologies are due in this direction from the Isle of Man.
But I’m not expecting any to be forthcoming.
What I am pleased about is the fact that the ordinary people of the UK will, I hope, stop subsiding the pernicious abuse promoted by the government of the Isle of Man as a result of such renegotiation. And that has to be good news.
For the whole saga, read here.
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Perhaps less to do with you than you think – its basic economics. The amount of VAT revenue accruing to the Island is more destructive to the Manx than the British.
The IOM Government has publicly stated (in response to your blog) that it’s intention with restating the figures is not to claim more VAT revenue, and has signed an agreement publicly available on the Internet which sings the same tune!
I’m a little disappointed that your reference to the older blog seems to be a restatement of the blog which received a great deal of comment. As an economist, I always vote transparency – perhaps you could adjust the HTML to live by your own rules?
@James
You would say that…
And where’s the link to this statement then?
Transparency and the Isle of Man government is a contradiction in terms.
VAT sharing agreement aside… there are few places in the world more opaque and devious than this wretched island.
And the PSG has the evidence to prove it!
[…] reported on Sunday news that has reached me that the Isle of Man is to be forced to renegotiate its VAT agreement with the UK, […]
[…] reported on Sunday news that has reached me that the Isle of Man is to be forced to renegotiate its VAT agreement with the UK, […]
It strikes me that there is a reality malfunction by the Manx government in particular and the Manx population in general.
They seem to overlook the rather obvious that while we could do quite well if not slightly better by setting the Manx free to plough their own furrow without us they would be in such incredible deep trouble without us as to be beyond belief. At least their belief.
Maybe someone should pick up their chief minister by his ears and shake some facts of life into him. As a small shop keeper I would have thought that the basics of buying and selling would at least have been known by him even if not well executed while he ran his business. THEY need to buy gas, oil, most of their food, most of what they wear, most of what they build with, most of what they eat off, all of their electrical entertainments systems and white goods, all of their cars, in fact everything that makes civilised life civilised as imports while they export what?
With the destruction of the tax dodging sector by actions taken by various governments around the world (even though the UK have been slow to get on board) and with the tourist industry destroyed by outlandish prices and lousy facilities, with the fishing industry all but finished, with mining now no longer viable, and with wrecking internationally illegal just what has the Isle of Man got to use to earn foreign earnings — if not what is in effect charity from us?
We’ve got them on the back foot.
Let’s not allow them to slime their way from our grasp, Give them an option by all means. The option should be to give up the silly and outdated idea that they are in some way really independent from us and become a county of the UK or go their own way with full independence.
This time the independence they have played on to such an extent to facilitate tax dodging and worse (what is this about sanctions busting to Iran?) not to continue to do so, even if they could, but the independence to starve.
Because without us that is precisely what they would do —- or see swarms of them whining at Heysham, or some airport that still served the place and crying for asylum and emphasising their UK family background.
The whole lot of them should remember their place in all this. THEY are the beggars, and beggars must not be allowed to be choosers.
NB: contribution very slightly edited by Tax Research UK
@Simon
Spot on