Merry Christmas !

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The office will be closed over the holiday period, but we will be picking up emails and our telephone answering service will be in operation.

A chance to confess your Income Tax sins….

The Guernsey Tax Office have announced an Income Tax Irregularities Scheme (“ITIS”) to encourage “non-compliant” taxpayers to declare any omissions/irregularities in their tax affairs, Those doing so will not face the usual penalties, and in addition any declarations made under the Scheme will not be referred to the authorities for possible prosecution. Full details of the Scheme are available from the Guernsey Income Tax website: http://tinyurl.com/Guernsey-ITIS

UK Finance Bill 2011: consultation on draft legislation

The consultation published today outlines proposals for legislation on "Disguised Remuneration"which could have a significant impact on Channel Islands fiduciary businesses providing services in relation to employee benefit trusts. At present UK directors and employees can make arrangements involving offshore trusts which enable the avoidance, reduction or deferral of income tax / NIC liabilities. In future it looks as this if is going to be a lot harder to achieve. The UK Treasury estimates that the changes could increase tax receipts by up to £500mn p.a., which gives an indication of the scale of this business.

For more information follow this link to the consultation: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/finance_bill_2011.htm

UK financial services companies over-regulated and over-taxed ?

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, a quarter of UK financial services companies have considered leaving the UK because they consider they are over-regulated and over-taxed.

The good news is that the top alternative destinations are Switzerland, Jersey and Guernsey !

New UK Equality law will enable employers to favour females

A new equality law in the UK will in future enable companies to be allowed to “positively discriminate” in favour of female applicants without facing legal action.  See full story on the Telegraph website.

This news is quite timely as in Guernsey there is presently a consultation taking place on a review of employment law and protections.  See Guernsey consultation for more details.

Are you too good-looking for that new job ?

A recent study in Israel has found that good-looking women were twice as likely to be refused an interview as unattractive candidates. For men it seems the reverse is true, with good-looking male applicants having a 50% higher chance of being called for interview.

Full details on this story at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8177885/Youre-too-pretty-to-work-here.html

First annual report from Guernsey Fiscal Policy Panel published

The States of Guernsey set up the Panel earlier this year to ".. act as an independent arbiter on the conduct of States’ fiscal policy and provide an annual public judgement as to whether or not the States is conducting its fiscal policy within the constraints set out in its own Fiscal Framework."

Overall it seems that the States are doing pretty well. The report concludes that the budget deficit is well within limits, and that "On-budget expenditure and revenue are well within the historic norm". It evidently also seems likely that, if things carry on as they are, the cumulative budget will be within the Contingency Tax Reserve limits, which is certainly good news.

Follow this link to access the full report.

Collas Day and Crill Canavan Announce Merger

Leading Guernsey law firm Collas Day have today announced that they will be merging with Jersey law firm Crill Canavan in the spring of next year.  The new firm will be known as Collas Crill. 

Following the recent alliance of Mourant and Ozanne, this merger represents something of a continuation of the trend, and reflects the increasing demand from international clients for a cross Channel Islands service. 

Follow this link for the official press release.