From Kevin Keen.
IT may be complicated for the Treasury to raise tax from the numerous foreign-owned non-finance companies which trade in Jersey, but that must not mean that they should escape paying some tax here.

While it is fully acknowledged that foreign-owned non-finance companies bring many benefits to Jersey, they also consume resources, which are funded by general taxation. These resour-ces include roads, drains, waste disposal, police, fire service, economic development support and social security supplementation, to name just a few.

If these companies are to receive such services for free, then the remaining taxpayers will have to subsidise them, which in my view is totally unfair.

Senator Ferguson and her Corporate Services Scrutiny panel are completely right to push the Treasury hard on this matter, and they deserve Islanders’ enthusiastic support in doing so.

The companies which would avoid contributing to the running costs of Jersey (where funded by general taxation) go far beyond a few retailers. They include airlines, shippers, builder’s merchants, media companies, property developers, fuel suppliers, hotels, nursing homes and probably many others. On this basis the estimate of £5 million of lost tax also seems very modest to me.

There are other reasons why these companies must make a full financial contribution to the running costs of Jersey. General tax revenues are under pressure due to the global recession, demographic change will impact tax revenues, and it also looks as if the profits of the financial services industry will be squeezed for some years to come.

If the Blampied proposals are unworkable, Deputy Noel and his colleagues must come up with some other way for these firms to pay their fair share — and soon.
Vue des Champs,
Clos de la Porte,
St John.