Key’s whitewash response to the claims he has built a tax haven is hilarious.
John Shewan has been appointed by Key to investigate if the tax haven Key has built can get away with this scam, Shewan of course is the Ex Chair PWC NZ.
And who are PWC?
PwC promoted tax avoidance ‘on industrial scale’, say MPs
Accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been accused of promoting tax avoidance “on an industrial scale”, in a report by MPs.
It is said to have helped hundreds of clients cut their corporation tax bills by setting up bases in Luxembourg.
Earlier this week the Archbishop of Canterbury said companies should pay tax wherever they earned their profits.
PwC said it disagreed with the Public Accounts Committee report but added that the tax system was “too complex”.
The report was based on an evidence session held in December, at which PwC gave evidence.
“We believe that PricewaterhouseCoopers’s activities represent nothing short of the promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale,” said Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
We consider that the evidence that PwC provided to us in January 2013 was misleading.
Margaret Hodge, Chair, Public Accounts Committee
She said PwC had written more than 500 letters to the tax authorities in Luxembourg, on behalf of more than 300 international clients.
The tax avoidance schemes, which are legal, involve companies diverting profits to tax havens like Luxembourg via a series of loans between different parts of the business.
The profits are eventually taxed in that country, but often at tiny rates.
…right, so the bloke who used to work for a company that was creating tax avoidance ‘on an industrial scale’ is now going to look over the tax haven Key has built.
How stupid are NZers really to believe this?
They say it takes a thief to catch a thief, but that only works when the person paying their wages actually wants to catch a thief.
Shewan also was/is? Director of the China Construction Bank.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/reserve-bank-registers-china-construction-bank-bd-159198
This bank was faulted by the Fed in US for its anti-money laundering efforts. http://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-faults-china-construction-bank-over-anti-money-laundering-efforts-1437490936
Just like in UK where the head of the tax evasion ‘enquiry’, the head of HMRC, was formerly a partner at the legal firm which set up Cameron’s father’s off-shore funds. You couldn’t make this shit up!
Ex Nat pm Jenny Shipley, who collapsed Mainzeal, and who was then appointed to the board of Genesis, is also on the board of the China Construction bank.
She was replaced by Murray Horn in 2013. Of course, Horn is the extreme neo-liberalist who produced the Horn Report in 2009 which advocated the privatisation of the health system. He along with mate Tony Ryall gave us the amazing ponzi scheme, known as Health Benefits Ltd. Fortunately this total disaster was wound up in 2015 but its affects linger on e.g the disgusting slop served by private company Compass at Dunedin Hospital. And of course, Health Alliance, HBL’s toxic rump, still gets $11million+ from our indebted DHBs to do work often done by in-house DHB staff. I have taken a bit of a tangent here but it just shows the calibre of those in positions of power.
Excellent post, thanks so much for that information Natalie !!
They are pretty stupid if you believe the polls
The truth and nothing but the truth!
John Key is a liar…
“10 October 2011
Foreign investors in a New Zealand fund with only foreign investments will now bear no New Zealand tax on their income, whether or not the fund distributes that income. The tax change, which came into force in September 2011, should make New Zealand managed funds an attractive alternative to funds resident in Luxembourg, Ireland or the Caymans.
…
In 2008 when the PIE tax regime was introduced, it did not treat non-resident investors well. They could not be zero rated. Instead they had a PIR equal to the top tax rate (currently 28%). This made them unattractive to foreign investors, especially for a fund with income from non-New Zealand sources.
…
The Government recognised that this tax treatment was not sensible from a policy perspective. … Accordingly, the tax change now allows a New Zealand fund to elect to pay tax at 0% on foreign income attributable to foreign investors. The fund will treat the foreign investor as if it were a New Zealand company or trust. However, unlike a New Zealand company or trust, the foreign investor will have no New Zealand tax liability on the income attributable to it, either when earned by the fund, or when distributed. [My emphasis]
The proposal to change to 0% tax was the direct instruction of John Key:
“I have told Gerry to deliver me a paper that has zero rating of funds and we’ll work on that.””
http://thestandard.org.nz/key-changed-the-law-to-turn-nz-into-a-tax-haven/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10691438
This is final straw convincing; Key is simply bonkers … and expects Kiwis (admittedly some ridiculously gullible) to believe this defecation of an appointment.
The polls (and election results) seem to prove that, unfortunately, and -you’d think-incredibly, many NZ voters have no objection to the sort of skulduggery that Key and co see as acceptable. The level of willfully blind chauvinism towards Key reminds me of the final scene of Some Like It Hot.
It seems to be Key’s lack of substance that makes him such a difficult target to hit. (Remember Steve Braunius’s essay about him, in Roosters I Have Known -written before he became PM?)
A piece of (supposedly) nonsense verse from the late 19th century maybe sums up the Key phenomenon best:
“Yesterday, upon the stair/I met a man who wasn’t there/He wasn’t there again today/I wish, I wish he’d go away”
What’s next? Storm troopers?
This is nothing new, it happens quite often that government or business organisations use “experts” that have a history of involvement with vested interest holding businesses. All they need to do is declare they are “independent” and follow a code that “experts” have to follow.
I have observed the same during the Unitary Plan Hearings here in Auckland, where some business groups as submitters, or Council themselves, asked “experts” to present evidence, while the experts are well known to have served certain vested interests for many years.
There are very blurred, grey zones, and in a little country like little Niu Zilliland this is just one major problem we have. It even goes up to the Officers of Parliament, who often are appointees, who have a track record of having either served government or business, in their former roles. The HDC has a record of having worked for the Ministry of Health for over 17 years, was a career man in the sector, and now he is the “watchdog” for health and disability issues.
I fear we have too much of the “old boys network” here at play, and in this appointment it is so damned blatantly obvious, that the man that the government has chosen to review the trusts and trust law in New Zealand is basically one very biased one, who actually helped establish the situation we have.
Winston Peters is on the ball re this, he will do all to expose the rot in the system, and Andrew Little did today follow his example, during Question Time in Parliament.
The government is dodgy, Key is dodgy and their “experts” are mostly dodgy ones too. Watch this space, as similar crap went on to formulate the welfare reforms that were brought in in mid 2013. Many people with conflicts of interest “advised” the government, and sadly the useless crap media here did never pick this up, or if they did, they never raised any issues.
Useless media, brainwashed people, dumbed down voters and indifferent, distracted citizens all over the place will not bother digging into it, unless Winston and others keep hammering away on this.
In New Zealand you can with a CV for being a professional poacher easily get a job as a gamekeeper, this is well known in the world.
Look at some other experts there are, look at them closely, check their LinkedIn profiles, and you will see this is no overstatement or exaggeration.
Comments are closed.