Accountants don’t want to work in the Channel Islands

Accountancy Age has reported that:

Less than a quarter of accountants polled in a survey say they would chose to relocate to the Channel Islands, an indication that the benefits the tax havens offer do not hold sufficient allure for accountants today.

Well, let’s list the harm such a choice could cause:

1) You increase world poverty;
2) You associate with people who don’t comply with the law;
3) Your work in a place which is sinking fast into oblivion;
4) The locals don’t want you there;
5) Everyone knows that tax haven activity is unacceptable now.

Would you want links with any of those on your CV?

Putting the record straight

Terry le Sueur, Jersey’s finance minister recently assured Jersey’s business community that it’s new zero ten tax system had met with approval by the EU.

There’s one problem with the assurance. It’s wrong. The EC will not have considered this issue as yet; it’s time scale would not allow that to have happened. As a result John Christensen and I had the follwoing letter in the Jersey Evening Post on Saturday:

So you meet the EU code? Says who?

From John Christensen, director and Richard Murphy, senior adviser, Tax Justice Network

WE note Treasury Minister Terry Le Sueur’s claim (reported by Christine Herbert) that the zero-ten tax regime is fully compliant with the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation. Since the zero-ten regime has only recently come into effect it cannot, to the best of our knowledge and belief, have been considered by the European Union for compliance purposes as yet.

Remember, the Isle of Man government was only informed in October 2007 that their new regime, which came into effect in 2006, was not compliant. We anticipated that the Isle of Man measures would be rejected by the EU, and for similar though not identical reasons, we likewise anticipate that the Jersey regime will be deemed non-compliant with EU requirements. At this stage it would be unwise to rely too heavily on the Treasury Minister’s assurances.

Published 18/4/2008

Sometime soon these people are going to have to realise that their only option is active compliance. But it certainly hasn’t occurred to them as yet. When it does the game will stop, and the people of Jersey will suffer. Le Sueur will have retired. If one person will not carry the responsibility for this it is him. I admit, that annoys me.

My del.icio.us bookmarks for April 20th

These are my links for April 20th:

TUC leader slams Brown over 10p rate Money The Observer - With Vince Cable, Brendan Barber is the man most likely to get tax right at the moment

Simon Caulkin: A century on, the MBA still has lessons to learn Business The Observer - The MBA training the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences - I wish I’d said that

The terms of debate are changing

Roy Hattersley wrote in the Observer today that:

It is a rule of progressive politics that necessary and feasible reforms are often postponed because opponents master the details while supporters rely on passionate assertions of principle.

In tax, that’s changing. It’s TJN that is providing the technical detail that is changing the UK and worldwide debate on this issue.

That’s the good news. The bad news is we took a long time coming on the scene. For that alone I apologise.

My del.icio.us bookmarks for April 18th

These are my links for April 18th:

FT.com / Companies / Financial services - Ex-Refco president guilty of fraud - More evidence of the consequnce of light regulation

FT.com / Companies / IT - Samsung chairman indicted by prosecutor - Samsung looks to be rotten to the core. Unregulated capitalism is.

The Times - Subprime hurts Swiss banking - So much so that it’s moving to Singapore. Is the Swiss myth dying?

Offshore Asset Protection BLOG - Bob Bauman: Treating Americans Like Idiots - Can anyone be taken seriously when they call Carl Levin and Barack Obama ‘far left extremists’?

That 10p tax rate

When you’ve been blogging for a while you can look back and see if you spotted a trend. So I’ve been to see what I said about the budget in 2007 to see if I saw the 10p tax problem coming.

I did. I said, almost immediately after the budget was published and before I’d had a chance to analyse it in any real depth that:

The redistribution effect? Forget it. There isn’t one, although I suspect those on £20,000 or so might lose - but that’s instinct only at the moment.

And I summarised that post saying:

Let’s be clear. the big issues concerning justice were not tackled. And that’s massively disappointing.

Some more politicians should be reading what I say - some would not be in the mess they are now if they’d raised the issue at the time.

In praise of progressive taxation

Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian today of the Fabian Society’s call:

for a new pressure group to campaign, explain and lobby for a more progressive tax system. There needs to be a counterweight to the right and the Tax Payers’ Alliance, a voice to make the case for fairer taxes, to explain why paying taxes is a social good, to shame avoiders and praise the civilising value of tax money well spent on the things that matter most.

TJN is, of course, already fulfilling the technical part of this brief. But it’s true that we’re not a mass campaigning organisation, and more a research one.

And I wholeheartedly endorse the need for such a campaign.

But as Toynbee says - a first target has to be the Labour party, and the Fabians have to be willing to criticise that party of this is to work. I really hope they will because the issue has to be bigger than the party now: the need for reform is too strong for this to be ducked.