{"id":12959,"date":"2011-11-23T18:29:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T18:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=12959"},"modified":"2011-11-23T18:29:31","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T18:29:31","slug":"sometimes-you-just-have-to-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/11\/23\/sometimes-you-just-have-to-laugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes you just have to laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This comment was in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisisjersey.com\/news\/comment\/2011\/11\/22\/we-do-not-want-vulture-fund-business-in-the-island\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Jersey Evening Post<\/a>, from Geoff Cook, the head of Jersey Finance, which markets the island's financial services sector:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a career spanning over 30 years in financial services, which has taken me across the globe, I have discovered no jurisdiction that has such a commitment to truth, transparency and integrity as Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>Our reputation is everything, we guard it jealously, and defend it vigorously. If we can act to assist those who are less well-off while upholding the principles of international law, we will, and as quickly as we can.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well sometimes you have to laugh or you'd cry.<\/p>\n<p>Let me ask Geoff about these commitments to\u00a0transparency:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why is it possible for vulture funds to use Jersey?<\/li>\n<li>Why can no one see the accounts of a Jersey company?<\/li>\n<li>Why is it usually impossible to find out who owns or controls a Jersey company?<\/li>\n<li>Why do you allow sham trusts that let the settlor also be the\u00a0beneficiary\u00a0and to control the trust - a concept alien to real trust law?<\/li>\n<li>Why won't you fully information exchange under the\u00a0European Union Savings Tax Directive?<\/li>\n<li>Why does the UK think you non-cooperative for information exchange purposes?<\/li>\n<li>Why have you not signed\u00a0tax information exchange agreements with almost any\u00a0developing\u00a0country?<\/li>\n<li>Why do so many scandals and frauds seem to find their way to Jersey?<\/li>\n<li>Why do so many banks have so many subsidiaries in Jersey about which no one knows anything?<\/li>\n<li>Why has Jersey helped to undermine the PAYE system in the UK through the use of employee\u00a0benefit\u00a0trusts, and so repeatedly?<\/li>\n<li>Why has Dave Hartnett had to say the\u00a0informationexchange\u00a0deals with jersey don't give him all the information he needs?<\/li>\n<li>Why did you fight so hard to charge no tax on\u00a0offshore\u00a0companies using Jersey whilst increasing it heavily on the people of your island?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Go on Geoff: just answer, in full.<\/p>\n<p>And tell us whilst you're about it when the\u00a0commitment\u00a0to\u00a0transparency and poor people will come into play?<\/p>\n<p>Or will you duck this as\u00a0you\u00a0do all our other challenges\u00a0because\u00a0you know you can't answer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This comment was in the Jersey Evening Post, from Geoff Cook, the head of Jersey Finance, which markets the island&#8217;s financial services sector: In a<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/11\/23\/sometimes-you-just-have-to-laugh\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jersey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}