John Christensen was guest speaker at a day-long public meeting at the Town Hall on Saturday, organised by the Jersey Attac group.Explaining the reason for the meeting, which was attended by up to 70 people, Attac member Jean Andersson said that the pressure group wanted to discuss how new tax proposals for Jersey – to lower the corporate tax rate to zero in 2008 – would affect the ordinary person, and what were the alternatives.Mr Christensen said that during his 11-year period as assistant economic adviser he had been asked to look into the amount of tax paid by one 11(k) resident, which turned out to be very little or nothing at all.
‘This is not an isolated example’, said Mr Christensen.
‘The tax system here is appallingly lax.’He claimed that the Island was ‘caving in’ under external pressure to reform its tax haven status, with the image of the offshore finance industry ‘oiling the wheels of international finance’ a ‘cosy metaphor’.
