The chief financial officer of Washington, DC has made a call to transform the perpetually cash-strapped American capital into an on-shore business domicile — saying the city has the potential to become “Bermuda on the Potomac.”
In an article on December 13th, “Washington Herald” columnist Harry Jaffe said that a number of schemes had been floated recently to broaden Washington’s tax base and increase revenues — including one idea proposed by a city councillor to encourage casino gambling in a bid to transform Washingtomy into “Vegas on the Potomac”.
“Natwar Gandhi has a better idea: Let’s bring in dollars from rich corporations, namely banks and insurance companies who currently park millions of dollars abroad in island tax havens,” said Mr. Jaffe. “Gandhi wants to change federal tax laws and make DC ‘Bermuda on the Potomac’.
“Sounds reasonable. ‘The financial centre of the country is in Washington now’, Gandhi tells me. ‘All the trading can be done in New York, but the decisions are made here’ …”
So why not make the capital into an on-shore tax haven, asked Mr. Jaffe? Why not lure all of those Bermuda-based insurance companies and their millions back on-shore by turning the District of Columbia into a corporate-friendly zone?
“Having no vote in the House or the Senate, DC is at the mercy of our suburban neighbors,” he said by way of answering his own question. “Every time DC floats a tax haven idea, politicians from Maryland and Virginia see it as giving the central city a competitive advantage. ‘It’s an idea we have explored in the past’, council finance chair Jack Evans says. “Maybe it’s time to do it again. I’m all for it’.”
The chief financial officer of Washington, DC has made a call to transform the perpetually cash-strapped American capital into an on-shore business domicile — saying the city has the potential to become “Bermuda on the Potomac.”
