Tax Havens or Not

Guernsey's Chief Minister and the Head of GFSC have been before the commons select committee in respect of what caused the Banking Crisis. Jersey has defended its tax haven status in respect of the recent Panorama television programme.

Now whether or not the politicians of our tiny jurisdictions are angry or see nothing wrong with the tax industry the fact remains that (1) locals pay tax (2) non-local companies do not pay tax in Jersey and are no doubt paying nothing at home. The fact that the GFSC stated that some sort of preference may have been created for other creditors of Landsbanki will cut no ice - it is posturing and only words - it will have no effect on the Landsbanki Guernsey depositors - the fact remains that Guernsey had no depositor protection scheme. Jersey still has none.

We only have to look at the USA reaction over a Guantanamo Bay High Court case that intelligence will be withdrawn if certain evidence is revealed. So in our case, whether or not Jersey and Guernsey think their tax havens are proper and well regulated what our politicians and industry leaders seem to miss is that the USA government and the UK government do not care - what they want is, quite fairly, the correct tax take from their citizens - and they will do what they need to get it - no matter what our local ministers say.