The Jersey tax avoidance industry (i.e. the finance industry) has worked overtime to sell to the people of Jersey the idea that a recent decision in the United States is the result of lobbying by our politicians.
Only politicians as politically devious as Senator Ozouf would have the gall to put this into the public domain, because it is absolute rubbish.
The people of Jersey need to know the facts.
In 2007 an American Senator, Carl Levin – an avowed enemy of tax havens – took a Bill to the Senate called A Stop Tax Avoidance Act. This included a section that provided a blacklist of tax havens around the world. He withdrew it, and has now just replaced it with a beefed-up version.
An important feature of his new proposed legislation is the removal of the blacklist of secrecy jurisdictions that was present in the previous version. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man were included in this list.
Foolishly, Senator Ozouf responded to this news by preening himself and claiming that he and staff from Jersey Finance had lobbied American officials to have the Crown Dependencies removed from the blacklist and they had been successful.
Senator Ozouf said: ‘We are delighted, therefore, to see that we have been listened to and there is now a greater understanding in Washington of our open and transparent regime.’
That is complete nonsense.
The Crown Territories were not removed from the blacklist – the whole blacklist was removed. And it was removed because Senator Levin, following advice from US Treasury officials, changed his Bill so that it concentrated the whole direction of the Bill on US persons who do businesses with foreign financial institutions that don’t comply with their 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act (FATCA).
This Bill, instead of recommending that the US Treasury automatically imposes stiffer requirements on those who use offshore jurisdiction, will build on FATCA by creating tougher disclosure, evidentiary and enforcement consequences for US persons who do business with foreign financial institutions that reject FACTA’s call for disclosing accounts used by US persons.
Jersey and the Isle of Man are included in those territories not complying with FATCA’s demands.
Senator Levin told Congress: ‘By focusing on non-FACTA financial institutions instead of offshore jurisdictions, my Bill relieves the Treasury of a difficult task while providing additional incentives for foreign banks to adopt FACTA’s disclosure requirements.
‘“Probably the biggest change in this Bill from the last Congress is that this Bill no longer requires the Treasury to develop a list of offshore secrecy jurisdictions and then impose tougher requirements on those US taxpayers who use these jurisdictions.
‘We are taking a different approach than that contained in the last Bill. Our focus is not so much on the jurisdictions [the blacklist], but rather on the financial institutions that specifically shun FATCA, which is our crucial tool in fighting abusive offshore behaviour. They are now the targets of this Bill.”
It is quite clear from this evidence that the US has not listened to the pleadings of our politicians. They have simply decided on a better, tougher, more effective route of stopping the drain of money out of their country which Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man facilitates
Only politicians as politically devious as Senator Ozouf would have the gall to put this into the public domain, because it is absolute rubbish.
The people of Jersey need to know the facts.
In 2007 an American Senator, Carl Levin – an avowed enemy of tax havens – took a Bill to the Senate called A Stop Tax Avoidance Act. This included a section that provided a blacklist of tax havens around the world. He withdrew it, and has now just replaced it with a beefed-up version.
An important feature of his new proposed legislation is the removal of the blacklist of secrecy jurisdictions that was present in the previous version. Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man were included in this list.
Foolishly, Senator Ozouf responded to this news by preening himself and claiming that he and staff from Jersey Finance had lobbied American officials to have the Crown Dependencies removed from the blacklist and they had been successful.
Senator Ozouf said: ‘We are delighted, therefore, to see that we have been listened to and there is now a greater understanding in Washington of our open and transparent regime.’
That is complete nonsense.
The Crown Territories were not removed from the blacklist – the whole blacklist was removed. And it was removed because Senator Levin, following advice from US Treasury officials, changed his Bill so that it concentrated the whole direction of the Bill on US persons who do businesses with foreign financial institutions that don’t comply with their 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act (FATCA).
This Bill, instead of recommending that the US Treasury automatically imposes stiffer requirements on those who use offshore jurisdiction, will build on FATCA by creating tougher disclosure, evidentiary and enforcement consequences for US persons who do business with foreign financial institutions that reject FACTA’s call for disclosing accounts used by US persons.
Jersey and the Isle of Man are included in those territories not complying with FATCA’s demands.
Senator Levin told Congress: ‘By focusing on non-FACTA financial institutions instead of offshore jurisdictions, my Bill relieves the Treasury of a difficult task while providing additional incentives for foreign banks to adopt FACTA’s disclosure requirements.
‘“Probably the biggest change in this Bill from the last Congress is that this Bill no longer requires the Treasury to develop a list of offshore secrecy jurisdictions and then impose tougher requirements on those US taxpayers who use these jurisdictions.
‘We are taking a different approach than that contained in the last Bill. Our focus is not so much on the jurisdictions [the blacklist], but rather on the financial institutions that specifically shun FATCA, which is our crucial tool in fighting abusive offshore behaviour. They are now the targets of this Bill.”
It is quite clear from this evidence that the US has not listened to the pleadings of our politicians. They have simply decided on a better, tougher, more effective route of stopping the drain of money out of their country which Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man facilitates
Well then, let's ask Ted a fair and simple question and see if he can give a straightforward, no BS, answer.
ReplyDeleteTed, do you agree with Stuart's attempts to highlight Jersey's failings with childcare, abuse, corruption, and justice in general - or do you believe he should be locked up for his data protection "crime" (which he believes was in the public interest given the lack of judicial accountability) of exposing the highly suspect "Nurse M" who was not - it seems - adequately investigated? Or for some other supposed wrongdoings - please specify. Bringing the island into disrepute (in reality certain PEOPLE - not the island) threatening our all-eggs-in-one-basket Finance industry?
Straight answer please, or else you'd be a proven waste of space, thank you.
(posted on Trever's blog, Ted's and Stuart's)
Stuart did himself a great disservice by going to London for six months and using tax-payers money to fund his trip. He later confessed that he was partly driven to do this because of his break-up with Carolyn.
ReplyDeleteAs a sitting Senator, Stuart had all the power he needed to have prepared a full report about his findings and called for a full public inquiry into the question of child abuse. Under parliamentary privilege he could have presented all of his evidence but the route he chose was to break the law, flee to London, stay away long enough to lose his seat and then appealed to the public by standing in the election and losing horribly. His judges were the people of Jersey who rejected his arguments
I dealt with the farce of the bus contract when Connex was awarded the contract by putting a vote of no confidence on Maurice Dubras and presenting the compelling case to the States calling for a full public inquiry which ordered Connex to pay back £196,000.
I did the same with Frank Walker over the Trinity in-fill fiasco when he survived a vote of censure by the skin of his teeth.
Stuart could have done this using his position as a Senator which gives him great power. Instead he chose a suicidal path of self-destruction. Very sad.
Stuart had a lot of evidence about all sorts of incidents where he was wrongly treated. The mistake he made was to respond by similarly breaking laws, putting himself in a no-win situation He could have solved his driving licence offence by simply paying the fine.
Where has your old blog gone? Why was it deleted?
ReplyDeleteJust testing. Ted.
ReplyDeleteAre you not receiving comments?
Or are you just not publishing them?
I publish all comments provided they stick to the guidelines laid down and are not repetitive
ReplyDeleteMy "old blog" was ended six years ago when I had to resign as a Senator due to ill-health. I currently have a web-site as well as this bog and my "presidents page" is still up on the JDA web-site,even though I resigned some months ago. No one else has written a word on the JDA site since I resigned, which confirms the point I made that no one else was prepared to do any work
ReplyDeleteNo I didn't run a blog at the time of the last by-election. All my writings were on the JDA blog under from The Presidents Chair.
ReplyDeleteI worked with Ted Vibert on the petition against GST increases and removing Senator Ozouf from office which gained over 10,000 signatures. This was a freezing time of year when Ted and his colleague Shaun Keedwell were out in King Street every day asking people to sign the petition. In contrast to the cold the most heart-warming thing was the desire and enthusiasm of many to sign the petition and so stand up to be counted.
ReplyDeleteTed clearly showed us all that he is a man of action who works hard and is totally dedicated to what he believes in. In his case actions do really speak louder than words. I like that! Very soon after the GST petition he was organising the milk petition and gave that his very best shot. As expected the States ignored the wish of the people. Sadly many who signed knew they would.
What we need in the States is clear-thinking, tough-talking and hard-working people whose main concern is to strive to make this Island a fair and happy place and so represent the people they serve. Ted's got my vote!
Thank you for those comments I have lived by the maxim that what I say I will do, I do. I regard my role in the States, if elected, is to make people keep their election promises and work towards making government in Jersey fairer and more transparent putting an end to much of the secrecy that surrounds our current government. Taxpayers should be able to know how their money is being spent; however people like Ozouf don't want you to l know. That has got to stop.
ReplyDeleteHi Ted
ReplyDeleteDo you not think that with the USA economy currently in meltdown the pressure will be on government officials to try to claw in as much revenue as possible?
Is it not likely that, blacklist or no blacklist, tax havens are going to be a priority target for the USA administration?
How on earth is Ozouf going to spin that one?
To Anonymous – the one is who is very interested in the history of Ted Vibert’s Blogs.
ReplyDeleteAs Ted’s technical assistant, I set up this blog for Ted. This present blog address is the same as a short lived blog set up for Ted as part of JDA publicity and which was subsequently plagued by comments from a poster or posters who appeared keen to cause hurt to individuals and which is something that no one concerned would tolerate or even comment on. The blog was thus ended.
I have had the good fortune to have resurrected the blog address and believe me anonymous, your understanding of Google and blogs is way out... Subject closed! Onwards and forwards to more important things please.
Absolutely and completely - having worked for a large organisation in the States I know the very fear of the thought of an IRS investigation fills every senior executive there. The fact that Jersey dos not comply in terms of disclosure with America's new tough rules means any company or individual investing in off-shore tax havens that does not comply will have IRS staff crawling all over them. Jersey needs to understand that Bush jnr came from an oil state and constantly blocked any attempt to get oil companies - the major US tax evaders - to do the right thing. Obama is publicly committed to stopping tax evasion in a big way. And also don't forget that Europe is in an even worse state and can't allow their money to be drained off by tax havens. I have been warning Jersey about this for years and they don't seem to understand and prefer to listen to their spin-masters such as Geoff Cook of Jersey Finance who lives in cloud cuckoo land. The end is nigh for tax havens who promote tax avoidance and who hide behind meaningless tax information agreements and the sooner we realise it and get into pure,legitimate wealth management that is open and transparent the better. This will save the industry and protect the jobs involved. Because I express that legitimate, concerned view, Ozouf paints me as a person who wants to "destroy the finance industry". In short, he is terrified of a proper debate on this issue because he knows he will be outgunned.
ReplyDelete