From Richard Murphy and Markus Meinzer of Tax Justice Network.
We note your editorial ‘Harder work for the critics’ (JEP, 5 November). We suspect you would include us among the ‘critics of Jersey’, although that is not true; we are critics of the offshore financial services industry wherever it is to be found. The recently published Tax Justice Network Financial Secrecy Index is solid evidence of that.
Jersey scores poorly in the work that underpins that index. It had an opacity score of 87%, which is nothing to boast about.
It is almost impossible to determine any practical information about Jersey companies, their ownership or trading. No data is available on Jersey trusts. 43% of EU resident account holders in Jersey deny their own governments information on their income from Jersey bank accounts, and the Jersey government is currently refusing to change to automatic information exchange to stop the enormous systematic tax evasion that this facilitates.
Jersey promotes the use of protected cell companies, foundations and other arrangements designed to create a veil of secrecy that undermines the effectiveness of markets, assists tax and other fraud, and undermines the tax systems of democratically elected governments.
While Jersey continues to promote such abuse we have an easy time in pointing it out to a world now all too willing to understand that globalised financial markets require transparency and mutual co-operation to curtail illicit financial flows through secrecy jurisdictions such as Jersey. For that reason we won’t be going away.
Article posted on 10th November, 2009 - 3.00pm
8 Article Comments
Information on Trusts is not available in the UK either. The Tax Justice Network Financial Secrecy Index has as much credibility as an opinion poll on who will win the X Factor 2009.
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Dear oh dear, no matter what organisation says otherwise, IMF, OECD, Foot Report, STEP and not forgetting our White Listing, Richard Murphy and his Tax Justuce Network still exercise selective hearing and still say we are a tax haven. Well they have to justify their funding I guess, but like Matt says their Secrecy Index has no teeth, is not even worth the paper it is written on so don’t be fooled by them and just ignore them. Everybody else outside does!
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Trevor
Are you sure everyone else ignores us?
Who but us argued tax havens should be on the international agenda/
Who but us argued that the Isle of Man had a subsidy – now gone?
Who but us argued against zero-ten?
Are you sure it’s wise to ignore us?
Or is this just wishful thinking on your part – rearranging the deckchairs, some might say?
Richard Murphy
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There is no point arguing with Richard Murphy.
He is a lobbyist and carries the same weight as other lobbyists such as the Taxpayer’s Alliance.
Before quoting from him the JEP should, in the interests of objectivity, quote from another lobbyist that has a similarly partisan view but from a different perspective.
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Despite Messrs Murphy and Christenson’ s condescending views of offshore finance centres the previous assumptions of £20 Billion being lost to the Channel Islands alone has now been shown only recently by the Foot Report to be made up, so that wraps it all up for me now.
And this ‘throwing toys out of prams’ threat of ‘we won’t go away’ just about sums the pair of them up, in fact it is laughable because if this is the only way they can now make any noise these days then it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how much influence they really do have on the world of economics. Perhaps they realise that the people they are up against are smarter than themselves and they know it now to be a losing battle?
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Are you sure everyone else ignores us?
(I am)
Who but us argued tax havens should be on the international agenda/
(Obama)
Who but us argued that the Isle of Man had a subsidy – now gone?
(No relevance to Jersey)
Who but us argued against zero-ten?
(You hate all of Jersey’s finance business, why pick on 0-10? This ‘told you so’ has already been dismissed, get over it!)
Are you sure it’s wise to ignore us?
(Yes, you have no real power)
Or is this just wishful thinking on your part – rearranging the deckchairs, some might say?
(The reports that matter say differently Richard and thats what is important)
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Richard
How jumped up of you to take all the credit for the ending of the IOM VAT refund? Everyone knows that the only reason the UK Government ended the agreement is because of the level of debt they’ve got themselves into and have nowhere else to turn in their desperation. Had we still been experiencing boom years, the IOM wouldn’t now be looking into making a fair chunk of their public workforce redundant.
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Perhaps Mr Murphy and Tax Justice Network would like to attack those regimes with real secrecy like Delaware Ireland Switzerland and the City.
Whoops I forgot they are flat track bullies and selective in who they attack.
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