FIXED INTEREST RATES

Letters to The Guardian

25 Jan 2014.

I think Base Rates should be fixed at 0.25% for the foreseeable future. Larry Elliot writes “When interest rates do rise the ‘new normal’ could be 3% not 5%” (Guardian 25 Jan 14); but the world has changed and Base Rates might not rise. The majority of stable, large economies charge less than 1%, which accords with the vast amounts of global liquidity, including $32 trillion hidden offshore and the $4.5 trillion corporate hoard, all looking for safe havens. Interest siphons wealth from the Have-Nots to the Haves. A UK increase from today’s 0.5% to 3%, if passed to borrowers, gives The City an effortless, risk free revenue boost of £36 billion a year gouged from the pockets of the poorest borrowers. We need to question the curious presumption that passive capital (savings) deserves any risk free rewards.

Noel Hodson, Oxford

http://www.global-rates.com/interest-rates/central-banks/central-banks.aspx   

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24 Jan 2014.

The Right Hon, Andrew Smith MP

Ex-Treasury Minister

Oxford East, UK

Dear Andrew,

REPATRIATE $3 TRILLION (EQUAL TO 8 MILLION JOBS) - A WINNING LABOUR POLICY THAT THE TORIES WILL NOT PLAGIARISE.

This email (below) from The Center for Public Integrity and International Consortium of International Journalists (ICIJ), both based in New York, about use of tax-havens by Far East rich people and government VIPs, reminds me that the question I requested you and that you kindly put to HM Treasury, “Who in UK government uses tax havens?”, was not answered.  In the light of these new ICIJ facts and the Edward Snowden revelations that NSA and GCHQ probably have copies of all the transactions, please put the question again to Parliament and HM Treasury; and inform your Party.  Warning – you will probably alienate all your rich friends / politicians/ public servants /stars / journalists / executives /etc. “Only the little people pay tax” – Leona Hemsley.

But you will gain great popularity with millions of Plebs and Proles, will hugely enrich the UK, transform the economy – and win the next election.

Not least because many of the 70 or so global tax-havens were British inventions, it is estimated that the UK has lost $3 trillion to $4 trillion in tax-evasion-capital-flight which is hidden in the $32 trillion offshore. E.G. David Cameron’s family: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9218119/David-Camerons-inherited-family-wealth-based-in-foreign-tax-havens.html

I want to know how much and which UK citizens have hidden cash and assets offshore. Applying the 4 basic (UK and global) tax-tests for deductibility (1) Wholly necessary (2) Arms length (3) Not for tax avoidance (4) Normal Commercial Terms (transfer pricing); ALL the offshore assets have probably been siphoned out using illegal ENRON accounting and thus can be clawed back to the UK; and the “owners” required to prove that all due taxes have been paid (in tax law we are presumed to be guilty until we prove innocence).

It is astonishing that the present government has all but dismantled the specialist tax investigation units who used to bring avoiders and evaders to book (3 offshore cases in the last 2 years – only one succeeded). The UK government special advisers and tax-legal system is stuffed full of VIP tax-planners who parrot “It is all strictly legal” – but it isn’t.  The UK needs a 500 strong specialist tax recoveries task force to repatriate $3 trillion (8 million ten-year jobs) – I’d be happy to organise and recruit a team from the intelligence services.

Let us put the purloined $32 trillion back to work, re-boot the global economy and create unprecedented global wealth.

Best wishes  

Noel

(Mr)  Noel Hodson, Oxford

NOTES

$32 Trillion buys a lot of friends in low places and in government and Courts

Studies by the OECD, Paris and one by Wall Street, McKinsey economist James S Henry show there is $32 trillion (80 million global jobs for ten years) tax-unpaid money offshore. The global total grows by $1 trillion annually. The UK’s share of this vast hoard is about $3 trillion (8 million UK jobs) - $16 trillion has been siphoned from the US economy.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameshenry/social/

Some tax experts believe job cuts at HMRC have hampered its ability to reduce tax avoidance by big companies. Since 2005 HMRC has cut more than 37,000 jobs, according to the Public and Commercial Services Union. HMRC plans to cut an additional 10,000 jobs by 2015.  http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/revealed-hmrc-s-backlog-big-business-tax-investigations/551407  

Andrew - Addendum – Tax-Evasion-Capital-Flight - Here is my summary of our previous correspondence and David Gauke’s response. TAX-HAVEN OWNERS IDENTIFIED - DAVID GAUKE, HM TREA...    Noel