The free event, entitled ‘Past imperfect, future uncertain: the changing offshore world’, has been organised by pressure group Jersey Attac as a response to the question how sustainable is Jersey’s future as a tax haven?The organisers are aiming to encourage Islanders ‘to engage in constructive debate about the Island’s future’.
They say that the outlook is not encouraging, with the economy too narrowly focused, no manufacturing base and few prospects for attracting other industries.
Our senior politicians and their advisers are anxious to talk up the current situation, but the reality is that they have no realistic strategy for reducing the Island’s dependence upon its role as a tax haven, and their current proposals for tax reform will benefit the banks and their clients while transferring more of the tax burden onto low income households,’ say Attac.
Increasingly Jersey people are being forced to leave the Island because of high costs and poor job opportunities, and the attractions of living on this small Island have diminished as a result of overcrowding and the loss of our ‘sense of place’ caused by the disappearance of the traditional industries.
Mr Christensen, who resigned from his post at the Policy and Resources Department in 1999 and now lives in the UK, will speak on the topic: Who ordered a tax haven? Other speakers include Dr Mark Hampton, of the University of Surrey, and Matti Kohonen, of Tax Justice Network.
The network was launched earlier this year, at the annual general meeting of the Association of Accountancy and Business Affairs, an organisation championed by Mr Christensen.
Their core argument is that companies and individuals who funnel assets to tax havens are shifting the tax burden further on to ordinary citizens and smaller businesses.
he conference will take place at the Town Hall on Saturday, 4 October, between 10.
0 am and 3.
0 pm, with a break from 1 pm to 1.
5 for lunch.
For further information about the event contact Jean Andersson, telephone 768980 or e-mail jeanandersson42@hotmail.
om.
1415September2003
