{"id":9871,"date":"2011-05-04T08:38:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T07:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=9871"},"modified":"2011-05-04T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T07:39:02","slug":"economic-warfare-being-waged-from-st-peter-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/05\/04\/economic-warfare-being-waged-from-st-peter-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic warfare being waged from St Peter Port"},"content":{"rendered":"

My\u00a0blog on Guernsey's new\u00a0foundations\u00a0law<\/a> landed\u00a0me on BBC Radio\u00a0Guernsey\u00a0at 7.50 this morning (no doubt this can be heard again later\u00a0today on their web site<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As usual no minister was willing to come on at the same time. Instead they issued a statement about how\u00a0open,\u00a0transparent\u00a0and cooperative Guernsey is with other nations when it comes to providing information under\u00a0tax information exchange agreements. So, they said, any government with a TIEA with Guernsey could make enquiry of it about who owned these arrangements and Guernsey would cooperate.<\/p>\n

Let's ignore the near\u00a0insurmountable\u00a0hurdle to making a TIEAs\u00a0requests<\/a> for a moment.<\/p>\n

Instead, as I\u00a0pointed\u00a0out, the main markets for these foundations are (in Guernsey's own opinion) China, Russia and Latin America. Now let's look at who Guernsey has TIEAs with according to the OECD<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Australia,<\/p>\n

Denmark,<\/p>\n

Finland,<\/p>\n

France,<\/p>\n

Germany,<\/p>\n

Greece,<\/p>\n

Greenland,<\/p>\n

Iceland,<\/p>\n

Ireland,<\/p>\n

New Zealand,<\/p>\n

Norway,<\/p>\n

San Marino,<\/p>\n

Sweden,<\/p>\n

Faroe\u00a0Islands,<\/p>\n

Netherlands,<\/p>\n

United Kingdom,<\/p>\n

United States,<\/p>\n

South Africa.<\/p>\n

Do you notice any Latin American countries in there? Or China? Or Russia? No, me neither.<\/p>\n

In other words this was blatant Orwellian misinformation by the States. These places can't access information on who might own these foundations, but they're the target audience for Guernsey Finance.<\/p>\n

So, as I said on air, these are deliberate structures intended to help\u00a0people from those places avoid or evade their tax responsibilities to their own governments. Making these structures available without information exchange facilities is tantamount to declaration of economic warfare on these states from St Peter Port. And it is secrecy that provides the essential weapon in this war - secrecy that Guernsey deliberately creates.<\/p>\n

That's the only honest assessment that can be given of this activity.<\/p>\n

I'll be curious to\u00a0know\u00a0what the response of the States is. And I'll also be curious to hear the response to the challenge that I laid down on air: Guernsey needs to tell us, openly and honestly how\u00a0much\u00a0data has ever been\u00a0supplied\u00a0to anyone under TIEAs. Then we can get a real idea of how\u00a0transparent\u00a0Guernsey is. I bet it's only a\u00a0handful\u00a0or so. And that will tear \u00a0their claims\u00a0to shreds Which is why I don't expect them to answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My\u00a0blog on Guernsey’s new\u00a0foundations\u00a0law landed\u00a0me on BBC Radio\u00a0Guernsey\u00a0at 7.50 this morning (no doubt this can be heard again later\u00a0today on their web site). As usual
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