From Chris Whitworth.
ALTHOUGH it is excellent news to read that Jersey is top of the class when it comes to financial regulation, I do wonder if it actually makes a great deal of difference when tax avoidance matters are raised.

Consequently, should we really complain when the BBC Panorama programme challenges our financial operations, while our government keeps bragging about how Jersey is the top-performing finance centre?

Surely, then, it should come as no surprise that not only journalists, anti-tax-haven campaigners or even financial centres lower down the IMF list will be only too happy to bring us down a peg or two.

However, rather than moaning about Panorama reporter John Sweeney picking on one of our sacred banks, shouldn’t we be grateful that he has highlighted how it is still possible to move money around the world to avoid paying tax? Clearly, it would be better to outlaw accountants, as these are the people daily advising those with too much, how to pay too little, when it comes to tax.

This alone proves that the ‘trouble with banking’ is far from over and the world’s reliance on the current financial system cannot be allowed to continue.

It is ironic that Gordon Brown, probably the most unpopular Prime Minister Britain has ever had, saved the world from a severe depression with his scheme to prevent the banks from collapse. And I don’t think he took such a decision in order to maintain the huge bonus payments still being paid to the so-called whizz-kids who got us into this mess in the first place!

Another thorny issue is the fact that many of these banks will be able to offset the huge losses accrued during the last couple of years against tax liability over the next ten years or so, due to the way the UK financial system is set up.

This is not at all good for the ‘bail-out black hole’ solution, which must be repaid and can only mean taking more tax from the working population for many generations to come.

Therefore, is it not time for all the governments of the world to consider the introduction of the ‘Tobin tax’ (a small tax rate of between 0.1% and 0.25% charged on all currency trades, named after economist James Tobin) as an alternative way to ensure that the finance industry pays its way?

Thankfully, sub-prime lending and risky concepts such as 125% mortgages are a thing of the past, but until an equitable worldwide taxation system comes along, the world will always be vulnerable to financial collapse.