I can't resist noting the following from the Jersey Evening Press this week (this bit not on line):
The Economic Development Minister said (speaking to 800 people at the Jersey enterprise awards ceremony) that over the last four years a total of 87 new companies had set up in the island, creating more than 900 job opportunities. Significantly, 90% of those jobs were for local people . He said that the island had already attracted inward investment businesses from a broad range of sectors including oil, gas and mining.
Wow: oil, gas and mining in Jersey? Their future is made!
Except hang on a minute: there is no oil, no gas and no mining in Jersey. No, these are oil, gas and mining companies seeking to divert their profits into tax havens. The companies in question do not, of course, pay any tax in Jersey.
Which is precisely why we need full country-by-country reporting to disclose this tax abuse.
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The Times is carrying a story about the abuse of tax breaks to move money offshore. Being too tight, and not interested in giving Murdoch my email address or my money if I can help it, I haven’t read the article, but I guess you might have access, and you might also be interested to read the goings on as reported in the website of Isle of Man’s press http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/tynwald-backs-pinewood-purchase-1-4660674 (plus a few other articles there on related subjects), plus several pages of actually quite incisive analysis in one of the dens of the internet where you would normally be made to feel most unwelcome… manxforums.com (!!!) This time, however, nobody is making any personal attacks against you because they cannot attack your arguments, this time they are attacking the local politicians and attempting to uncover WHY the Isle of Man Government is pursuing its current course… http://www.manxforums.com/forums/index.php?/topic/51842-changes-to-iom-film-industry/ if you have not already been following this…
Errrr, the enterprise awards were in fact in March, so either the rag was late reporting it (unlikely) or there is an error somewhere.
Never mind, your point is well made. Just why are these companies setting up subsidiaries or HQ’s, I know not which, in Jersey? What exactly do their staff here do?
And how will such goings-on enhance Jersey’s “reputation”? Or is this another LVCR – play the game while you can, and retire when you are found to be cheating and stopped from playing?
In other words, when will Jersey try to have an honest, sustainable Finance sector?