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Island a Legitimate Offshore Centre 29 January 2004 Treasury Minister Allan Bell MHK has welcomed a UK Government Minister’s
parliamentary answers drawing a distinction between different kinds of offshore
financial centres.
Answering a question in the House of Lords on Tuesday this week (January 20,
2004), Lord McIntosh of Haringey distinguished between Britain’s Overseas
Territories and the British Crown Dependencies (the Isle of Man, Jersey and
Guernsey).
Of the Crown Dependencies, he stated:
"They have different tax regimes but we are satisfied that they comply with
all the regulatory conditions that we have in this country. We are also
satisfied that they have adequate protection against fraud."
Lord McIntosh also stated:
"I believe we should make a distinction between the offshore jurisdictions
which are attractive because they have low tax regimes, which is legitimate, and
those which have poorer regulation and which fail to comply with international
standards of exchange of information or, indeed, of withholding tax. That is the
direction in which we should target our efforts."
Lord McIntosh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport, was answering a question from Lord Wallace of
Saltaire, who asked Her Majesty’s Government:
"Whether, in the light of recent financial scandals and evidence of tax
evasion, they propose to review their relations with offshore financial centres
under British sovereignty."
Commenting on the response, the Island’s Treasury Minister said:
"Offshore centres are often lumped together, but they are not all the same
and it is encouraging that a UK Government Minister has made this clear in the
House of Lords. As Lord McIntosh indicated, there is a big difference between
legitimate centres like the Isle of Man - which combine international standards
of regulation with competitive taxation – and some
of the other centres around the world." More stories >>>
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