Firstly, there are of course many other “tax havens” around the world, including Britain’s own Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Jersey, plus British overseas territories Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands. Indeed, any country that offers low corporate tax rates, and intends to lower them still further (such as Tory Britain itself!!), and whose legislation facilitates tax avoidance, is one! So, perhaps, people in glass houses etc…..? My own view is that there should be an EU wide tax policy, followed by a UN one. It is clearly against the interests of ordinary people, including Britons, to have countries like Britain offering low tax rates and laws that facilitate tax avoidance, in a deliberate attempt to attract foreign investment. All it produces is “beggar my neighbour” * (* in effect, ordinary people!), downward spiral, economies and societies, in that countries’ tax takes are constantly driven down to the detriment of services, infrastructure, jobs and wages. We have seen how that has recently affected France, and its attempts to put the social well-being of its ordinary citizens above those of its already well-ff individuals and businesses. It’s rampant, greedy, poorly regulated capitalism gone mad. The losers are always we ordinary people. Sheer madness! In a speech in July 2013, in Brussels, Juncker promised to “fight tax evasion and tax dumping. … We will try to put some morality, some ethics, into the European tax landscape.” But he also told German TV: “No one has ever been able to make a convincing and thorough case to me that Luxembourg is a tax haven. Luxembourg employs tax rules that are in full accordance with European law.” At a press conference in April 2014, Juncker promised he wouldn’t try to influence regulatory cases involving Luxembourg: “I wont abuse my position in order to pressure commissioners to make different decisions regarding Luxembourg than they would regarding similar cases.” Actually, the EU has been investigating Luxembourg, and other, tax haven issues for some considerable while. The European Union and Luxembourg have been fighting for months over Luxembourg’s reluctance to turn over information about its tax rulings to the EU, which is investigating whether the country’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat Finance violate European law. Luxembourg officials have supplied some information to the EU but have refused, EU officials say, to provide a larger set of documents relating to its tax rulings. Juncker, Luxembourg’s top leader when many of the jurisdiction’s tax breaks were crafted, has promised to crack down on tax dodging in his new post, but he has also said he believes his own country’s tax regime is in “full accordance” with European law. Under Luxembourg’s system, tax advisers from Pwc (Price Waterhouse Coopers, accountants - JD) and other firms can present proposals for corporate structures and transactions designed to create tax savings and then get written assurance that their plan will be viewed favourably by the duchy’s Ministry of Finance. “Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement that “advance tax decisions” are “well established in many EU member states, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Luxembourg” and that they don’t conflict with European law as long as “all taxpayers in a similar situation are treated equally”.” huffingtonpost/2014/11/05/luxembourg-tax-haven_n_6094544.html
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 08:09:35 +0000
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