Rather than keeping political score cards, focus on Bermuda’s reputation, on how “we” can pull our reputation out of the pit of lost tax revenues for all countries that are reeling from their tax shortfalls; a defeceit nightmare for these countries.

Ms Packwood is doing her job admirably, taking the argument to those who matter – the politicians in both Houses of representatives of the United States. By placing her arguments in periodicals, newspapers magazines, etc that specifically target the audience that matter we may see some movement in a positive direction.

Ms Packwood should head both the London and Washington offices thereby cooridnating our counter-defence to tax haven in both Washington and London.

But at the end of the day when these countries lose badly needed tax revenue to fund their social programmes and wars, being an “alley” does not cut the mustard, terrorism needs to be fought, and wars need to be funded. The US and UK can call upon their companies to come back home not only on tax grounds but for their vital national security interests, and patriotic companies will respond.

Final thought, it is most likely that France, US and UK will very reluctanty be drawn into a targeted regional war with IS, how it plays out will have an effect upon companies in tax havens.

Judging by your comments, you obviously do not understand the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Per the OECD’s definitions:
Tax Avoidance – generally used to describe the arrangement of a taxpayer’s affairs that is intended to reduce his tax liability and that although the arrangement could be strictly legal it is usually in contradiction with the intent of the law it purports to follow.

Tax Evasion – generally used to mean illegal arrangements where liability to tax is hidden or ignored, i.e. the taxpayer pays less tax than he is legally obligated to pay by hiding income or information from the tax authorities.

Tax Haven – in the “classical” sense refers to a country which imposes a low or no tax, and is used by corporations to avoid tax which otherwise would be payable in a high-tax country. According to OECD report, tax havens have the following key characteristics; No or only nominal taxes; Lack of effective exchange of information; Lack of transparency in the operation of the legislative, legal or administrative provisions.

With respect to Bermuda, tax is not levied on earnings of local or exempted companies, but both have to pay an annual company fee in line with their capital. This means we do meet 1 of the criteria which determine whether a country is classed as a haven. However Bermuda has taken tremendous steps to ensure there is effective exchange of information via numerous TIEA’s and transparency in the operation of the legislative, legal and administrative provisions. Hence the reason we are not classed as a tax haven on the OECD list.

In my opinion, if a company has a physical presence in a country and sells goods/services from that country, any earnings generated in the locale should be subjected to the local rate of tax whatever that may be! The world does not operate on a “one size fits all”template, nor should it. The US model operates on the belief that the government is entitled to charge tax on any US domiciled company’s WORLDWIDE earnings!!! How the heck is that fair, equitable or even justifiable? It is a poorly written and interpreted application of an archaic system in desperate need of revising.

Most corporations are beholden to their shareholders to produce a return on their investment, which means reducing their spend as they see fit with prudent fiscal management. To some people, this means changing their corporate domicile to a country where the tax laws are more favourable. This is not illegal, although arguably there are some unscrupulous companies who will use such a jurisdiction to evade tax.

So yeah, some may be in Bermuda for their financial health, but so what! That in and of itself does not make them tax evaders or Bermuda a tax haven.

Huffington Post is about as impartial as the likes of the Worker’s Voice, MSNBC, FOX or your opinion pieces!

I don’t care about Republicans or Democrats, but it is not hard to pick out the inherent biases in all media nowadays as they don’t tend to hide it.

And HuffPo leans so far in one direction they need a kickstand just to stop from falling over!

By the look of it you just enjoy being anti-Bermudian.

Much of the money earned by Companies worldwide operations is NOT earned in the US. So why should a company have to pay more tax on those earning to the US ?

FATCA and our tax sharing agreements cover wealthy individuals.

The reinsurance industry allows their consumer insurance cost to be significantly lower.

The US based operations do pay tax on their profits.

Please can the same politician explain why they are not attacking the state of Delaware and their tax regime?

Lets enjoy it while it lasts shall we?

What makes this Huffpo interpretation of this Poll even more absurd is that Republicans are expected to regain control of the Senate in the forthcoming midterm elections. So much for Huffpo’s reporting.

Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were. 

The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. For he was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid. 

Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said: 

“But he has nothing on”! 

This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.