Call for tax breaks

Thursday 9th July 2009, 3:00PM BST.

IOD chairman Gary Drinkwater

JERSEY should start acting now to put in place tax measures that will attract new business, says the chairman of the Institute of Directors in Jersey.

Gary Drinkwater says the Island’s tax regime should be under constant review to take account of market conditions.

He points to successes in other jurisdictions, such as the Isle of Man’s film industry based on tax incentives for production companies.

‘There are many historical examples of how proactive taxation can benefit communities,’ he says in the latest IoD newsletter. ‘Much of Ireland’s economic success in the 1990s came from changes to taxation which made Dublin a funds powerhouse.’

Guernsey’s captive insurance business and the Manx shipping register are further examples where tax breaks had created significant business models.

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1
Clare Guillaume

July 9, 2009 at 4:44 pm

I work in the Finance Industry and am all for incentives to entice new business into Jersey. However, as a tax and mortgage payer facing the abolition of the vast majority of income tax allowances, I have to ask, where is the lost tax revenue expected to come from if tax incentives are introduced. We, the tax payers of Jersey, are already paying for the consequences of the introduction of the ZeroTen income tax incentive!

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2
david brown

July 9, 2009 at 10:33 pm

can i have a tax break please, to rid myself of the year behind.

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3
bob

July 10, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Clare – I think you’re missing the point – this is to attract new business to the Island – not reducing tax on those already here – by offering Tax breaks on ‘new entities’ our total tax take increases

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4
joker

July 10, 2009 at 1:38 pm

Clare Guillaume

The whole point of a strategy like this is to net more tax from businesses not less. The Island’s tax margins may fall per business, but there will be far more businesses contributing attracted by the low tax rate. Therefore the Island would net more tax overall and hopefully reduce the burden on the individual.

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5
Arnald

July 10, 2009 at 3:50 pm

joker
Is that why GST was brought in?

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6
Nick

July 17, 2009 at 10:52 pm

A very good and positive idea but do not get too complicated.We have some excellent business, legal and financial brains in this island, but when it comes to marketing a product or introducing an incentive the tendency is always either to make the thing so simple it is of no interest and lights nobody’s fire, or so complicated no one understands it,or in these days of constant information bombardment & overload is prepared to spend the time to understand it.There is a danger too if you introduce too many incentives one after the other that you convey to your prospective client a wholly different message, that of being too eager to please.

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