The Jersey Evening Post has written:
DETAILS of bank accounts in Jersey held by UK residents are to be passed to the UK tax authorities.
A UK tribunal has ordered over 300 banks to hand over details of customers with accounts offshore to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
The HMRC will not be entitled to come knocking on any doors in Jersey. However, the move is likely to concern people living in the UK who wish to keep their financial details confidential.
Jersey Finance say that the initiative ‘should not have a major impact on the finance industry’ and that in any event the Island ‘would never condone any client evading their tax responsibilities’.
I do wonder who they think they are kidding? I estimate that Jersey costs the UK more than £1 billion a year in tax cost — much of it evasion.
And quite frankly — I do not believe them when they say ‘would never condone any client evading their tax responsibilities’. Day in day out they operate accounts for people who refuse to disclose information on their account to HM Revenue & Customs under the European Union Savings Tax Directive — and the only possible explanation for that refusal is tax evasion. Yet they do not report the tens of thousands involved (at least) as suspected tax evaders.
Why is that?
And why aren’t you enforcing obligations on your banks to report suspected money laundering instead of spinning deliberate misinformation Jersey?
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If the Jersey Banks truly cooperate in opening their books, there will be a lot of knees knocking in Cornwall and elsewhere, and/or a mass closure of Jersey accounts. I worked for NatWest in the late 80’s early 90’s, in a large Cornish seaside town. We had many high cash turnover businesses who availed themselves of the Branch Manager’s unorthodox money transfer facility – we called it our ‘gold top service’ ! Businesses, generally at the end of their Summer season, would bring along carrier bags full of cash. They would be ushered into a side room, the cash would be counted, and credited to an imprest account, such as ‘Branch Sundry Persons Credits’. The cash would then be transferred from the imprest account to NatWest Jersey, without ever touching the customer’s Onshore account. Multiply our branch practice by say 10,000 all Bank branches, and it is clear how significant Jersey was to tax evasion. If Jersey really do co-operate fully I will be truly amazed. Our Manager at the time, stated that it was up to the buinesses to declare their income, NatWest was merely offering a money transfer service. Strip away all moral and ethical considerations, which have never featured in Banking, and he is correct of course.