Gordon Brown Writes To The Isle Of Man . . .

[Evil Goblin]

Two possible problems, Albert. The first is the extremely short memory span of a large number of British voters - if Broon can engineer an albeit short-term apparent improvement then, along with the votes of his Client State (assiduously built up over the past eleven years), he just might squeak home again. It's not as if the present Opposition gets anyone excited, either. Secondly, there will be a lot of momentum behind the "get tax havens" juggernaut supplied by Obama and the rest of the EU, which may mean a Tory Government would have to fall in line anyway.

 

We should assume the worst and get cracking on ways and means of counteracting the proposed pieces of legislation so that we can comply with all their rules but in such a way as to negate their intention!

[oldmanxfella]

We would end up like Cuba or Iceland or worse and run by taxi drivers.

 

And we are not already?

 

I do agree with Politician that other options should be explored. Everyone needs a Plan B in this environment and going straight to the EU and seeing if a deal could be on the table makes sense to me in that sort of context. It should be something that is at least on the table to be thrown into the mix - for me the point for that decision has nothing to do with the tax haven debate though. We are a Crown Dependency where the UK Government has stolen £550m from one of our banks and that put our relationship into context for me. They would happily close us down and constantly tell us to adopt ever increasing high standards but they are happy to keep our money stolen from our taxpayers and our international customers in their banking system. Gordon Brown is nothing but a crook, and not even an intellectually gifted crook like Blair was and therefore why should we even want Britain as a protectorate? Its a bankrupt state that can't even auction off its own Gilts because its gorged itself to death on cheap credit fuelled by lax regulation whilst it pretended to be a leading economic power and lectured everyone else about accountability and fiscal prudence.

 

Moving to independence though I know that your point above was a joke, but honestly God help us if we ever made the decision to go it alone because politically we could never pull it off. We'd be an EU micro nation with a hotline to Brussells and still be hearing debates on Manx Radio about parking discs or bus services from the completely inept bunch of incompetents that hold politicial office here. We are, quite honestly, not up for the job politically and nothing short of a revolution is going to change that.

 

There are some really good people out there so its hard not to tar everyone with the same brush but bright, competent, and creative people are in short supply in Keys, and in senior roles in government and that would have to change. That's not to say they don't exist as Treasury has some really good people but they would really need to have alot more of the same to make us viable as a functioning independent territory.

 

I do believe though that the time to act is now - with the whitelist debate largely buried and our standards recognised internationally its time to start acting like a financial centre of repute and not some shoddy back water run by taxi drivers and postmen that just got lucky.

[Rog]

We should assume the worst and get cracking on ways and means of counteracting the proposed pieces of legislation so that we can comply with all their rules but in such a way as to negate their intention!

 

Make no mistake. The intention is to shut down the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles as tax havens.

 

Moreover to do it within the lifetime of the present parliament, but even if that proves to be impossible the next parliament of whatever hue will go down the same path.

 

The British electorate does have a short memory, but in the case of tax that is certainly not the case. Especially as tax hikes and service cut backs come into play.

 

People should also remember there are many more ways to kill a cat than kick it up the arse. The restriction on access to the NHS is simply a thing that came about and not something done with ulterior intent.

 

Just think of the many things that the UK government could do simply by making creative use of existing legislation.

 

And thoughts of the Isle of Man remaining as some form of financial services resource without being a tax haven is simply as silly as imagining that the Isle of Man could ‘go it alone’.

 

It’s a changed world, and the changes are still gathering place.

[pongo]

The intention is to shut down the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles as tax havens.

 

IOM is not a tax haven according to the international standards.

[Rog]

The intention is to shut down the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles as tax havens.

 

IOM is not a tax haven according to the international standards.

 

As I wrote there’s more ways to kill a cat than kicking it up the arse.

[Tempus Fugit]

If they have any sense, the UK voters will be more inclined to boot out the bunch of scheming fraudsters in Westminster claiming for every 88p bathplug on expenses than the pittance the treasury are actually losing from their coffers by the operation of companies here, the UK are in much much deeper trouble than they could hope to recover from IoM depositors, I would suspect the majority are not UK residents so the UK would not be able to queeze any blood out of them.

With an increasingly large number of unemployed voters seeing immigrants taking the available jobs, and MP's creaming fortunes out of expenses on top of salary, the time is right for a rebellion in the ranks.

 

However, I am sceptical about media freedom and what they will be allowed to print in the period up to the next election to keep the voters on the right track to re-elect yet another Scottish UK goverment (but the entrenched opinions in the media will see to that anyway, never let facts get in the way of a good rant).

[manshimajin]

The worry is that things are so bad in the UK and the oulook is so awful that the UKG is likely to use any diversionary tactics it can think of to try and look active and tough whilst trying to keep voters' minds off growing unemployment and the big huge tax burden that will hit UK families in about 2011/2012 to repay the costs of 'fiscal stimulation'.

 

In the past governments looked for a war to divert peoples' attention from problems at home but Brown has already played those cards with his support for two very unpopular overseas forays. Given that the other diversionary tactic, the London Olympics, does not seem to be working any magic at the moment "Tax havens" may be the main diversion that is available.

[oldmanxfella]

Make no mistake. The intention is to shut down the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles as tax havens.

 

For the sake of clarity it has been categorically proven that the IoM is not a tax haven by the publication of the G20s own whitelist. What part of that do you not understand? Effectively they have closed us down as a tax haven because it is a point of fact that we are no longer one according to their own benchmark.

 

Ignoring this even if they do close us down (ie, put our banks and finance companies out of business) what would be the point - to create a bunch of skint pissed off locals sat in crown dependencies reliant on UK government financial support but with a massive axe to grind with the UK Government?

 

It would be like Northern Ireland all over again - the shit would soon kick off in London.

 

At the moment for a "dependency" we are low maintenence - we set our own taxes, pay our own benefits, run our own hospitals, and pay a shed load of VAT back to the UK each year. They must accept this at a political level as being more desirable than the alternative.

 

The problem for the IoM now, as I see it, is not about meeting international standards but about access to markets and the HSBC job losses are interesting in this context in that some jobs are moving to Luxembourg which has faired worse than the IoM in relation to the whitelist, and Ireland. The reason jobs are going is simple - we might have high standards but in the funds business who wants to pay the price of high standards through higher reporting requirements or more complex AML regulations in the IoM when you can't even distribute the funds you are creating in Europe - one of the biggest financial services markets in the world. Lack of access to European markets is going to kill the IoM now that the "tax haven" issue is becoming less relevant.

 

We are asking people to jump through extra hoops to comply with our high standards with no knock on benefit in terms of access to financial markets. That is why companies are still going to Luxembourg lower standards or not as its a low cost gateway to Europe. So even now we are off the "list" this place is still going to empty out over the next few years because there really is no benefit to being here anymore and has not been for about 10 years. We are essentially a very expensive place that you run admin through, and that has pretty much been our only role for the last 10 years.

 

For this reason alone I suggest a Plan B involving Europe or the EU is completely sensible.

[pongo]

Lack of access to European markets is going to kill the IoM now that the "tax haven" issue is becoming less relevant ... For this reason alone I suggest a Plan B involving Europe or the EU is completely sensible.

 

Unfortunately the majority of people on the IOM and most of the politicians are somewhere to the right of the Daily Express with respect to the EU.

 

But I hope that the serious debate will begin. Without it getting bogged down in all sorts of constitutional and self image nonsense about loss of powers, federalism etc.

[oldmanxfella]

Lack of access to European markets is going to kill the IoM now that the "tax haven" issue is becoming less relevant.

 

Unfortunately the majority of people on the IOM and most of the politicians are somewhere to the right of the Daily Express with respect to the EU.

 

I agree and sadly they are deluded. There must be a fast realisation now that this place does not have a business model anymore (hence the Foot Review etc) as it offers access to markets you can access from anywhere else in the world without the high costs and red tape of doing business here. The Isle of Man needs a unique sales proposition as it currently does not have any reason to attract new financial businessess here.

 

My own viewpoint on the Foot review of British offshore centres is that its really been set up to establish those Islands that will not become a financial burden on the UK Exchequer when their governments finally realise that they have been boxed into a corner by all of this action. Maybe a few will be encouraged to go Independent as a result of the review so that Britain does not pick up the tab when it all goes horribly wrong.

[manshimajin]

Another Economist article - focusing primarily on the CIs:

Economist

 

Pressure for more disclosure is mounting, but so is competition among tax havens. Jersey and Guernsey recently had to match the Isle of Man (another British dependency, this one in the Irish Sea) by reducing their tax rates on non-financial firms to zero. The Isle of Man stands to lose less from corporate freeloading: it has fewer local companies than Jersey and receives a subsidy of around £200m ($286 million) a year from pooling value-added tax returns with Britain, Mr Murphy says.

Whilst I am a supporter of the EU I am not sure what benefits would accrue to the Island from independent EU membership (assuming this was even possible). If the financial playing field is substantially levelled within Europe what is our competitive advantage going to be?

[pongo]

If the financial playing field is substantially leveled within Europe what is our competitive advantage going to be?

 

1. Being allowed on that playing field.

2. Entry to markets.

3. Isle of Man companies (eg engineering, research, tech) would then be able to bid for EU funded projects and development funding - and to join consortia involved in such funding. Development funding is often crucial to industry.

 

It's more about what the IOM will do about moving away from this over - dependence on financial services. That industry is in decline, even without the current emphasis on international regulation. The IOM has to accept that we will be, economically, basically a bit like Rutland but with higher transport costs.

[manshimajin]

If the financial playing field is substantially leveled within Europe what is our competitive advantage going to be?

 

1. Being allowed on that playing field.

2. Entry to markets.

3. Isle of Man companies (eg engineering, research, tech) would then be able to bid for EU funded projects and development funding - and to join consortia involved in such funding. Development funding is often crucial to industry.

 

It's more about what the IOM will do about moving away from this over - dependence on financial services. That industry is in decline, even without the current emphasis on international regulation. The IOM has to accept that we will be, economically, basically a bit like Rutland but with higher transport costs.

Then we will have to attract whole new sets of skills onto the Island and find a sustainable niche such as for example environmental engineering. Whatever the niche is it would have to be very high value added to overcome the transport and skills problems.

 

Mind you I doubt that the EU Member States would be falling over themselves to admit such a small 'country'. Heavens, imagine if we got the rotating Presidency!!!! Wait for the Lisbon Treaty to be implemented.

[bluemonday]

Which numbskull in the local media decided that this was a threatening letter (assuming our letter is the same or better than the Jersey letter)?

 

Times are pretty critical at the moment and this sensationalising of some threat that seemingly doesn't exist with the only likely result of antagonising a situation should result in at least a sideways move. Is it too much to ask that someone who can read is employed in the MR newsroom?

 

Frankly, I would have thought that Alan Bell would welcome that letter as it implies that we are setting the bar and encourages us to raise it.

 

Did MR rely on a press release or put their own interpretation on it? If the former, heads should roll in the office which issued the release, if the latter, heads should roll in MR.

 

C'mon Gladys. Reality check. Heads never roll here. They just get promoted or moved to 'exciting new ventures' where they can 'look forward' and be 'delighted to be leading' etc etc

 

The standard of local radio and paper reportage is frequently second rate.

[Politician]

The Foot review is about UK residents and taxation - not anything to do with the rest of the world - and how UK citizens pay tax and whether UK residents are using this place to evade paying tax in any way.

Is it? I understood it to be a review of banking regulation in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories following the collapse of Landsbanki in Guernsey and Kaupthing here. The outcome I am expecting is the proposal of a unified depositors' protection scheme, operated by the UK and funded by hefty payments from the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, et al - either taken directly from our respective governments or via a levy on interest earned here. Both would, very dangerously, establish the principle of the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, or the people who use them to do business, being in effect compelled to pay a UK tax. The latter would additionally reduce the competitiveness of our financial services offerings.

 

If I am correct, this truly demonstrates the sinister nature of the deliberately engineered Kaupthing collapse - lest we forget, the UK bank was found to have a surplus of some £1,100 million after the administrators had done their work, indicating it was solvent all along. In other words, Brown and Darling organised a calamity for the Isle of Man, and may shortly be demanding regular payments just in case it happens again. That is the dictionary definition of a protection racket, and alone gives good reason for us to reduce our close ties with the UK, forge new relationships with the broader world, and upstream our banks' money to financial centres other than the City of London.

 

Certainly suggestions of severing ties with the Mainland are cloud cuckoo land thinking, as is the assumption that the Isle of Man could simply knock on the door of the EU and be welcomed with open arms.

The EU would certainly not accept the Island at present, as it does not negotiate directly with dependent territories. However, if we were to become a sovereign nation - and the roadmap for this is clearly set out, merely requiring a successful referendum on the matter - I see no reason why we would not be fast-tracked for admission. Assuredly, the EU is not an exclusive club - it will take almost anybody, as indicated by its willingness to absorb Romania and Bulgaria, whose economies are shaky and where organised crime is rife, and its courting of Turkey, the vast bulk of which is not even in Europe.

 

Broon has a year or so left until he has to face an election (on or before 3 June 2010) - do you really think he has any chance of achieving all this in that time? I suspect not, and given that NuShite has a snowball in hell's chance of being re-elected…

Common sense would indeed support what you say, but the electoral system is heavily biased in favour of Labour. Moreover, the present institutionally criminal government is likely to cheat - the current Private Eye has an interesting article on how they intend to do so, through the creation of a commercial company in Northern Ireland processing millions of postal votes, many of which are likely to be for non-existent persons. That is why it is vital we are ready to push the button on an independence referendum if need be, as the OECD and G20 have shown themselves to be fair-minded when it comes to offshores, whilst Brown and Darling now appear to be in bed with the extremist anti-tax haven lobby.