The G20 has said that 12 tax information exchange agreements are enough for a jurisdiction to get off its tax haven listing and so avoid sanctions.
As Jersey and the Isle of Man have proven there’s an easy way to do this — you sign TIEAs with almost meaningless locations like the Faroe Islands and Greenland where there is no chance that an information request will ever arise.
What have they shown? That right now Cayman and Bermuda should be putting in calls to Greenland — or perhaps even more easily to each other to print out a TIEA they can ratify in a fortnight and so avoid sanctions.
If that’s the case the criteria set by the OECD have created just about the biggest tax avoidance scheme ever known.
It’s not much credit to Jeffrey Owens and his team at the OECD in Paris I’m afraid. They really have become just about the best friends the suppliers of corruption services have ever had. They should be hanging their heads in shame if they did not see this one coming. They got the 2000 process wrong. It looks like they’ve done it again.
Thankfully the G20 will have the chance to adopt a new approach and maybe even a new partner for the process later this year.
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Depressing, but unsurprising. I’ll believe the G20’s achieved anything in the way of real reform of the world financial system when I see it. Geortge’s Monbiot’s reaction in today’s Guardian seems close to the truth.
Could you be any more disingenuous? Of the Isle of Man’s 14 TIEAs you pick two jurisdictions – Greenland and the Faroe Islands – and ignore the other 12. These are, of course, meaningless locations such as the United States, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Iceland, Finland, etc etc. Do you think there is no chance an information request will be made by the UK, or the US?
Consequently Switzerland is to expedite finalising their 12 TIEAs with Zimbabwe, Liechtenstein, Lesotho, Sao Tome & Principe, Costa Rica, Tristan da Cunha, Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga, Djibouti and the Vatican. 😯
Of course Richard doesn’t mention all the TIEA’s with the big countries.
The IOM or Jersey could have TEIA’s with every country in the world and he would complain that that had TIEA with East Timor.
It woulod invalidate his arguement to tell the truth of the situation.
It just once again shows the huge bias he has, which severly comprises his arguements
Of course Creg doesn’t mention all the money that is residing in Jersey from developing countries through effective embezzlement of those countries’ natural resources.
The apologists ridiculous argument that a handful of requests from the US through that TIEA means that Jersey is quite clearly not indulging in screwing governments neglects the facts that Richard Murphy constantly blogs.
Anyone with any experience in the industry knows that that the structures to hide the ultimate beneficiary are hard wired into business practice.
Arnald
What utter tripe ! Are you Richard in disguise ? I have completely dismantled Richard’s interpretation of the cause of Jersey only exchanging 5 times with the US and he has ducked the argument. He fails to accept that the US is clearly happy with the TIEAs so how many requests have been refused by Jersey from the US? Its a perfectly valid question but Richard doesn’t want to answer it.
When was the last time you worked in a crown dependency finance industry?
I know that Richard is fed up with repeating himself on this. I am an amateur observer, but even I can tell Rupert and John Buckles the two simple ripostes to their arguments. 1. In order to request information under TIEAs, you have to know a lot about the abuse which is taking place – how helpful is that? 2. How come so many account holders in Jersey came clean when they were offered an amnesty if Jersey regulation is so great?
course Creg doesn’t mention all the money that is residing in Jersey from developing countries.
Actaully very little money is sitting offshore, it’s more than likely to be in the onshore developing countries. Infact look at all those multi-nationals stripping the developing world of resources, what countires did they come from? Exxon, BP, Shell, Rio Tinto, etc, and where are all their shareholders who benefit from the rape of the developing world, look in the mirror.
“onshore developing countries”, read onshore developed countries 😳
creg
Let’s have a look at this. All those riches from those countries where your list have made their money.
Where are they? Are those countries prospering?
Tell me why not?
Carol
Just like Richard you are missing the point. Let me spell it put for you.
Richard tells the world constantly that Jersey is abusing the TIEA with the US “because only 5 bits of information have been exchanged since 2002”. I say that this is quite logical because Jersey financial institutions and service providers generally dont do any US business and so why would that figure be any higher ? Richard eschews that argument and accuses me of being naive/wilfully blind for suggesting that. So I challenge Richard to use his seemingly wonderful contacts to find out just how many requests the US has made to Jersey and which have been declined, and I ask why the US is clearly happy with the TIEA and why Washington considers the Channel Islands to be fully co-operative. At which point Richard ducks the argument and goes for a lie-down, having had his pivotal and very public criticism of Jersey completely torpedoed, in the process losing all of the credibility that he had built up on this myth.
Sorry but the credibility is all gone. Never mind, maybe a career in the media world beckons. The screen test seems to have gone OK and the media experience won’t go to waste.
Rupert
For the last time – because your own paranoia and persecution complex seems to prevent you hearing it – my criticism is systemic using Jersey as an example.
The TIEA process is what I am criticising. Jersey was involved in that if I recall correctly, so I blame it. I blame the OECD much more. I use the 5 as an example that the system does not work. I say it shows it is nigh on impossible to raise a request – which is true, not that it is easy to reject them – although that is also true.
So please stop assuming that I am always picking on you. In the Jersey US case I am blaming the US case as much as you for the fact that the arrangment does not work. It’s only your willingness to accept blame that prevents you seeing that.
Richard
Richard
Sorry but I dont buy that at all. Just look back through your many postings in which you build your attacks on Jersey around the “only 5 exchanges with the US” issue. There was absolutely blame attached to the OECD in those postings then, just an all-out attack on Jersey, without any qualification of that criticism. It can only mean one of two things. Either you allowed your absolute hatred of Jersey to override a more reasoned criticism, or you are now trying to dig yourself out of a very deep hole which you have dug for yourself.
I look back at your postings and I see daily and sustained attacks on Jersey. I see only a very occasional criticism of the OECD in comparative terms, yet the OECD designed the TIEA system that you so deride. You criticise the offshore finance centres for signing up to what the OECD demanded of them. What more could the offshore finance centres reasonably have done ?
You say from time to time that you are equally critical of the lack of transparency re beneficial ownership of companies and public register of trusts in the US and the UK, yet the offshore finance centres receive 1000 times more criticism of this on your blog. Why is this ? To me its obvious. You dont want to pick on the big boys and would rather pick on the little guys, particularly Jersey where you have been suckered in by the false propaganda given to you by Christensen who has the biggest chip possible on his shoulder. It has caused you to become irrational and paranoid about Jersey without realising that Christensen’s propaganda is false and has let you down through your blind belief in it.
More balance to your postings, qualifying it at the time rather than only when you have to, and less reliance in false anti-Jersey propaganda from your mate would make so much more of your postings more credible and less vindictive.
If the TIEAs don’t work, why are the OECD countries including the UK, US, France and Germany, happy with them?
Is it significant that Richard Murphy doesn’t approve of them, whereas those who negotiate them for their own benefit don’t have the same problem?
I understand that if the requesting country needs a “smoking gun” already found before it can request information that would be problematic.
However, I don’t see why the solution to the problem would be automatic information exchange, instead of amending the information request process – and yes I acknowledge that will be difficult to get right.
Should the police be able to automatically access information on every part of everyone’s life to be able to more effectively stop crime? If not, why should tax authorities be able to automatically access information on someone overseas?
Automatic information exchange is one possible answer to the problem of TIEAs not working, but it is not the only possible solution and I don’t see why it should be the default solution.
Why does EVERYone comment as if the CI finance industry has been here since the evolution of man?
IT HASN’T!
Its been here for the past 30 odd years, and has turned our island into a sham, and a shambles, thanks to the self serving, self agendered and almost entirely corrupt Governments in both islands, who are only interested in appearing to do the right thing so they can keep the cash registers ringing, putting all their golden eggs in one basket, namely finance, whilst adamently protesting that they weren’t.
Consequence? We’re now well and truly in the proverbial.
I and many other islanders, that is, people who live in the islands and appreciate them for what they are, not what they can gain from them, would be glad to see the back of all the well and truly DIRTY money that flows through our islands and hope that G20 goes some way to achieving this.
And to those of you who have moved here to fill up your bank accounts, who smugly parrot facile comments about ‘where would we be without the finance industry?’ (like you actually know?!), who hold our islands to ransom (as in the last Gsy elections, where finance made it clear ‘vote for finance friendly politicians, or else..!’), who drive our economy up so high that no one can afford to live here, who encourage future generations to focus their careers on the apparently illustrious and entirely soul-less skill of making the rich richer (and yes indeed, with no other work skills and no other industries to go to, what WILL they do if all the Banks go..? But who’s fault is that, exactly?!), I say – there’s a boat that leaves in the morning – and many of us hope you will all be on it.
@ Rupert
Do you know me? Have you EVER talked with me? How can you say I have a chip on my shoulder?
Please cut the personal attacks. This is not the first time you have done this, which makes you a serial coward. By all means talk with me (079 79 868 302), but stop your pathetic attempts to impugn my integrity. I can produce dozens of witnesses in Jersey, including politicians (and ex-politicians) like Roy Le Herissier, Robert Duhamel, Daniel Wimberley, Nigel Queree, Alan Breckon, Imogen Nicholls, Alistair Layzell, Stuart Syvret, Goeffrey Southern, who can attest to the fact that I was deeply disillusioned with what I saw in Jersey and never, ever, harboured wishes to continue my career in the States of Jersey. By any reckoning your personal attacks are a sign of weakness not strength.
best wishes
John