EU ‘backtracked on zero-ten tax’
Tuesday 20th October 2009, 2:57PM BST.
Former Chief Minister Frank Walker
JERSEY was given ‘green lights all the way’ on zero-ten, according to former Chief Minister Frank Walker.
He says that when Jersey was proposing the zero-ten corporate tax system in response to EU pressure on tax-exempt companies, both the UK and Ecofin – the EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council – had approved the plan.
Mr Walker backed current Chief Minister Terry Le Sueur’s position that the EU had ‘backtracked’ over the tax system. Last week it was announced that ‘zero-ten’ – a corporate tax system with a 10% rate for finance companies, and zero for non-finance firms – would be dropped after the EU said that it ‘did not meet the spirit’ of the rules on business taxation.
‘There is absolutely no question about it – Jersey was given green lights at every stage of the process,’ said Mr Walker, who retired from the States last December. ‘We got the green light at every point that we needed it, from the UK government, from Ecofin which was the body responsible for agreeing or not the new tax measures. We were getting green lights all the way down the line.
‘But we have to accept that the member states find themselves in an unprecedented situation. They have had to make colossal changes including bailing out banks and running fiscal stimuli that they would never have dreamed they would have to do three or four years ago.’
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He would say that,Wouldn’t he,,,,,,
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thought he’d retired …
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I for one would love to know if the whole truth was told at the meeting with the EU, or was it another one of those things called a smoke screen. I would love to know as i have very little faith in the way things are run over here, No Tax for non local companies seems a bit of a p*** take. To me the only thing that tax will be paid on by these companies are income tax for the workers. It all seems a bit unfair as to why a over seas company with less overheads than a small local company can be helped out so much by the states. Being transparent as the states keep telling us wouldn’t get us into this mess in the first place. I love this island but sometimes i wonder if the island loves us or just penalises us for living and trying to make a living here, It has also been proved Jersey is one of the top three most expensive places to live in the world. So for the States to say we have it good is an under statement. If they spent less on s@*& ideas the poorer classes might have a bit more to show for it. a couple of examples of this are, A steam clock that doesn’t keep the righ time, Queens Valley flooded yet we are still on the verge of a drought, A cavern to fill with water if town gets flooded that floods on a high tide! Millions spent on Haute De La Garren and it ended up being a Coconut shell. What is going on!
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James e: There certainly seems to be something amiss with what spin doctors of the states are sending out. But I must admit, I recall when town basements used to get flooded, fire engines pumping them out, manholes lifting due to th eforce of water. Now the cavern and other works are completed, this doesn’t seem to happen anymore. Or perhaps I and the JEP are missing some news stories here.
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Perhaps we should be looking for some sort of compensation from the EU(not necessarily financial).
What will stop this EU ‘moving the goal posts’ time and again until we fall into line with their doctrine?
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Time to tell them to get lost…independence..our own dollar…and pull up the drawbridge…for a while till things settle.
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Has anyone in the States heard the phrase ‘Hope for the best and plan for the worst’?
Zero – ten was a clsssic ‘sunny weather’ plan with all the flaws that entailed.
It assumed that the finance industry would continue to boom and that there would be no major economic upsets that would cause countries all over the world to look hard at their finances.
The finance industry worldwide is now going to go through at least a decade of tough regulation, mergers and down sizing as it seeks to dig itself out of a massive hole and inevitably the island will feel the affects of this.
We should have been thinking of diversification a decade ago, not know when the storm is at its height.
To compound what is a major strategic failure on the part of the States it seems that the budget will go in to deficit and the only way to get it back in to balance will be by a hefty increase in GST and other taxes.
A dreadful legacy from a myopic, failed and failing set of administrations under Senators Walker and le Sueur!
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Frank Walker got it wrong. Where was plan B? There were many who said 0-10 was likely to get busted … including some prominent local politicians as well as guernsey’s finance minister.
Jersey’s politicians, both past and present, have bee too arrogant to listen and too stupid not to have made a contingency plan – as any responsible government would have done.
Frank Walkers excuses are lame duck excuses.
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