Jersey flies undone, again

Our attention has been drawn to the following notice put out by Jersey's Comptroller of Income Tax:

Foundations (Jersey) Law 200-

Advice for Jersey residents considering registering a ‘Foundation’

It is advisable that, if a Jersey resident is considering registering a Foundation or has any interest in a Foundation he or she should provide the Income Tax Office with full details as to the reason(s) for doing so and the purpose of the Foundation and seek pre-clearance from the Comptroller before going ahead.

Failure to do so will lead the Comptroller to take the view that creating a Foundation has as one of the purposes, or the main purpose, the avoidance of Jersey tax.

The Comptroller will counteract such avoidance under the provisions of Article 134A of the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961.

Comptroller of Taxes

12 December 2009

What can we say? Like so many other secrecy jurisdictions, Jersey plays with fire by offering tax evasion services to non-residents, but doesn't like it when its own residents start playing the same games. Hence their strong anti-avoidance provisions targeted at the local population. The Comptroller is merely stating the bleeding obvious when s/he suggests that the purpose, or main purpose, of creating a foundation in Jersey is tax avoidance. What other purpose might such a foundation serve?

As Tax research puts it:

So now we have incontrovertible proof: Jersey has deliberately created a structure for the use of those not resident in its jurisdiction which it knows has the sole or main purpose of tax avoidance (at best) . . . If you wanted proof that everything I and others have said here over many years is true – here it is.

Why doesn't the government of Jersey come up with new ideas for producing goods and services that might serve a useful purpose, instead of peddling such "innovations" as foundations and revocable trusts, which undermine human well-being and promote criminal activity?