Please see iNews Cayman’s story published January 20 2016 before reading the following “The Cayman Islands – home to 100,000 companies and the £8.50 packet of fish fingers” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/the-cayman-islands-home-to-100000-companies-and-the-8-50-packet-of-fish-fingers/

Can Cayman be wound up? Someone can’t be telling the whole truth

By Richard Murphy From Tax Research UK

Can I warmly recommend you watch the BBC2 programme ‘Britain’s Trillion Pound Island – Inside Cayman’? It is available on iPlayer here for the next four weeks. [Not available in Cayman Islands]

IMAGE: Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 22.41.05

I have worked with Jacques Peretti and like him.

I liked four things about this problem.

First, it got the understanding of offshore right. That was because it was advised by my friend, collage and co-author Pro Ronen Palan of City University.

Second, it went out of its way to highlight the paradoxes of Cayman: the wealth and the poverty; the claim of friendliness and fun lifestyles and the secrecy and paranoia; the no tax message and the massive costs this imposes on some.

Third, I liked the fact that this was extrapolated by Peretti to the possibility that we are heading for tax haven UK. How could he have known the Google deal would break on the same night?

And fourth, Peretti did some good interviews. He exposed both the Premier and Prime Minister as shifty, and verging on incompetent in dealing with wholly anticipatable questions. I don’t think that was unfair of him. But what he also got from them were clearly different views on a key issue. The Premier argued that if the UK did not like what Cayman does it could very clearly close it down as it ultimately carries the can for everything on Cayman, which is a view I should say I share and have long argued, but which is hotly disputed in other UK tax havens but which legally has to be right, as the case of the UK takeover of the Turks & Caicos Islands proved. The Governor flatly disputed that.

Now they can’t both be right.

And I think the Premier was telling the truth and not just passing the buck, whilst the Governor was just buck passing.

But that brings us right back to Whitehall and the obvious question of why do we put up with such locations dedicated to undermining democracy and the right of elected governments to collect the taxes owed to them? The question has only really arisen on the watch of David Cameron. He has to answer.

For more on this story go to: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/01/24/can-cayman-be-wound-up-someone-cant-be-telling-the-whole-truth/#sthash.xtPLG5Hj.dpuf

COMMENTS:

Bertrand Boulle says:
January 24 2016 at 9:09 am
Your Agenda is not technical. It is solely and shallowly politically and, from empirical experience, you act like a mini (socialist) Hitler on your blog. Just as well people like you don’t run countries or they would be bankrupt pretty quickly.

You should be more honest and transparent about your ultra socialist dreamer political agenda and not dress it up in pseudo technical mumbo jumbo professing to want to save the world.

Reply
Richard Murphy says:
January 24 2016 at 10:10 am
Bertrand

Those are interesting suggestions. I note you do not have the decency to say you are an offshore operator when making them

Maybe what they say is that offshore operators take normal concern for fellow human beings as indication of extreme socialism

I’d say, given it is Sunday morning, that it is just evidence of ‘loving your neighbour as yourself’. But then I guess you’d describe the author of those words as an ultra socialist dreamer of a political agenda dressed up in pseudo technical mumbo jumbo who professed to want to save the world.

Reply
sam says:
January 24 2016 at 10:10 am
If we are headed for being a tax haven, all the evidence suggests it will be a corporate one only.

Reply
Richard Murphy says:
January 24 2016 at 10:11 am
Most are these days

Reply
sam says:
January 24 2016 at 10:22 am
I could be wrong but I cant think of any that are just havens for the corportes. Plus If the left want make the claim they best say it will be only a corporate one not for individuals to.

Richard Murphy says:
January 24 2016 at 10:37 am
Almost all abuse is now via corporate structures

james s says:
January 24 2016 at 11:06 am
The programme about the Cayman islands was fantastic, so good, it even got my wife interested. Jacques peretti was excellent. The interview he did with the governer was surreal. She reminded me of David Brent from the office the way she handled herself under questioning.
Also the comment above about your sincerity is pathetic. I’ve been reading this blog for over a year now and all what he said could not be further from the truth.

Reply
Richard Murphy says:
January 24 2016 at 11:43 am
Thank you

I often wonder where these people come from

I am a chartered accountant, a believer in the mixed economy, a Quaker with social ideals I admit, and have always had problems with being described as a socialist because of the materialist implication

It’s laughable that this is suggested

But it says a lot about those saying it

Related story from DS Forums:

Britains Trillion Pound Island – Inside Cayman

I’m very surprised not to see a thread on this.

Believe it or not there are some seriously poor people living on the Cayman islands and Peretti visited an area. No welfare state here and the wealth gap is vast.

The clueless Governor is an embarrassment but listen to what the local Ferrari driving black guy “made good” says on how he views UK.

Quote:
The Cayman Islands. It is a Caribbean paradise of sun, sea and cocktails, but there is something else going on. Big money, big corporations… and seemingly no one paying a penny of tax.

Now Jacques Peretti travels to Cayman in search of the truth about this controversial British tax haven, and uncovers some shocking revelations for what this sun-drenched island means for everyone back in Britain.

Jacques meets the politicians, playboys and ex-pats on the islands in a bid to unravel the truth about a place with the population of Bognor Regis… but a trillion pounds in the bank!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode…-inside-cayman
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Old Yesterday, 15:48 #2
Parker45
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Amazing programme. It was a real eye-opener and the British Governor was certainly an embarrassment – seemingly struck dumb for some of the questions.
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Old Yesterday, 20:30 #3
Dirty Rooster
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Very interesting programme, and I was surprised the guy got access to the two most powerful government representatives and various other interesting characters.
The was (intentionally) and undercurrent of illegal dealings in the “she doth protest too much” vein.
I found the presenters socialist ideals far too intrusive though, as if he really wanted them to have income/corporation tax and mortgage defaulters (thieves) should be given loads of free stuff.
It also looked like all those beachfront properties were sitting a bit low and exposed considering the hurricanes.
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Old Yesterday, 23:24 #4
Mr Oleo Strut
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A very disturbing programme which cleverly led me to the conclusion that the the Caymens are carefully constructed with the connivance of the rich, the financial institutions and the British government to provide an entirely legal means of enjoying massive tax avoidance. The cold and callous attitude of the authorities to island poverty and destitution was shaming, and I was disgusted that the Caymens are only one of about 100 other similar tax-havens. All very alarming. Can we all join in?
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Old Yesterday, 23:58 #5
Squatch
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Even just a 0.1% tax would be enough to uplift the locals; 0.1% of one trillion is still one billion pounds, which is over £17,100 for every resident on the island.

How can rich foreigners be so greedy as to deny the locals that.
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Old Today, 00:33 #6
bart4858
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(Anyone know the name of the song playing at around 11:30 on Iplayer? Just after he’s picked up his 4×4 trip passengers.)
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Old Today, 01:50 #7
Grafenwalder
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Marcus at 6m 50s in, his description of how money is moved was so simple yet also disturbing at the same time. Later on around 28m mark the description on how Facebook avoids paying tax was pretty much the same. Very disturbing.

The bottom line being, the more money a person or company has, the less tax they will pay because they squirrel it away under the false pretence that one part of the company made no money at all. It’s evasion neatly dressed up as avoidance.
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Old Today, 11:38 #8
Mr Oleo Strut
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Spot on, Grafens, you are so right!
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Old Today, 12:45 #9
Eraserhead
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Interesting programme. I knew the islands were a tax haven but I didn’t realise they were still under British rule. The Governor was an embarrassment. She came across like one of the old style colonials, a clueless aristocrat given a cushy job.

And it was almost laughable how the residents of the island – the ex-tabloid journalist, the estate agent – were at pains to point out that everything was just fine and above board.

The trouble is, even if the Cayman’s tax haven status was repealed (highly unlikely) rich individuals and corporations would simply move their operations elsewhere.

The only thing which might threaten the status of the island is climate change. If sea levels rise significantly those lovely seafront properties are going to be in big trouble.

And the price of fish fingers was just ridiculous.

For more on this story go to: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?p=81225388