Guernsey’s tax plans ‘subsidise the rich’
Tax expert questions 2008 plans
The scrapping of Guernsey’s corporation tax in 2008 in favour of finance
industry growth to help make up a projected £50m shortfall is nothing more than
a state subsidy for the banking industry, according to a tax expert.
Richard Murphy, of the Tax Justice Network, called the move a ‘strange
economic policy’ and described it as ‘probably the largest state subsidy that
has been created by any territory in the world for a particular industry’.
‘To spend £50m to basically subsidise the banking industry and its already
very rich clients – let’s be candid, that’s what they are – is a very strange
economic policy,’ he told the BBC.
Guernsey’s Treasury minister Lyndon Trott disagreed, saying the move was in
the island’s best interest and urged people to rally behind the measures.