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The government expands its plans to become ‘Tax Haven UK’
February 7th, 2011
The ConDem government has announced a further development in its plan to turn the UK into a tax haven. As the FT reports this morning:
Multimillionaire foreigners prepared to invest their money in Britain will find it easier to make a home in the UK under government plans to relax immigration rules for the super-rich. The Home Office will shortly propose changes to “investor visas” to encourage more rich people to live and invest in the UK.
Under the plans:
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Jersey – captured by finance
January 31st, 2011
I have often argued that tax havens / secrecy jurisdictions have been subject to regulatory capture. Wikipedia defines this as:
regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for large firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called Captured Agencies.
The evidence became very clear ina  presentation given last Friday by Jersey Finance to the members...
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Offshore is endemic in corporate Britain
January 24th, 2011
As the Mail on Sunday reports yesterday:
When Barclays boss Bob Diamond confirmed that the bank had about 300 subsidiaries in tax havens there were gasps of dismay at a Treasury Select Committee hearing earlier this month. Few at the highly charged meeting would have believed such a vast network of offshore companies existed, potentially allowing the bank and its clients to avoid huge sums in tax. They would still be in the dark had MP Chuka Umunna not put the figure to Diamond in the first place. But a Financial Mail investigation can reveal that Barclays’ Byzantine structure is far...
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