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Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Paradise Papers from my Home Country




Firstly,  the Paradise Papers is an effort by the world's news media to uncover possible crimes committed and covered up in Bermuda while totally ignoring the fact that the information obtained itself is a major crime akin to breaking and entering the offices of Appleby and taking the files from the filing cabinets.

No-one from Appleby's leaked that information. It was obtained via a simple hacking operation and it confuses me that the media can spill such private information, illegally obtained to the whole world. Names have been released, including Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, but the best part of all is that those bastards have had to admit and report they have not found wrongdoing but rather that all is perfectly legal.

I was born in Bermuda, and along the way I have been close enough, or outright involved in Bermuda's growth as an international finance centre to have an insider's understanding of Bermuda's attitude about these things.

Let me say I am not a spokesperson for Bermuda but rather these are my own personal observations, views and opinions. In the early days Bermuda was a favourite for people who sought to establish Trusts as a way of safeguarding assets from greedy grasping spouses. Whether they also evaded paying taxes on those assets I really don't know, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine that some people went that extra step.

Then we saw an attack being made on the secrecy laws and practises of Switzerland and some of us said we had better get out ahead of this matter and re-examine our own exposures because we are entirely too small and isolated an outpost to survive pissing off financial authorities by standing in their way to track down taxes due to them.

When the regulatory authorities for Europe came knocking on our door we were in a position to say this is what we have already done towards fighting tax evasion and money laundering. Let us see what your further criteria is and we will close the gaps.

Bermuda is fully in compliance with regulations from both sides of the Atlantic. We can not afford to get in a fight with the IRS in the United States or the Inland Revenue in the U.K. or any other authority. I can tell you that the United States conducts financial examinations in Bermuda of United States companies because I have had to sit with their examiners myself and supply information.

With respect to the payment of tax, often when the tax authority conducts an audit they will find that the taxpayer has over paid his tax burden because of miscalculation. In those cases the authority will refund the overpayment, which establishes that we are only required to pay what is required of us and not a penny more.

If there are so-called loopholes that allow the taxpayer to reduce his burden then the loop hole needs to be closed. The person or company that uses the loophole must not be blamed. Said loopholes may exists in Bermuda, or the United Kingdom or The United States of America.

I'm proud of my Bermuda and its integrity. On top of that in the presentation of their investigative journalism the British BBC program "Panorama"  showed stunning images of Bermuda which made me long for home and amounted to great publicity for the island. On top of that they found all to be in order.

The Paradise Papers indeed!

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael