Personal Tax Proposals Disliked By Jersey Businesses

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

31 August 2010

Those working within Jersey’s finance industry would prefer greater cuts in public spending before increases to personal taxes are considered, according to a Jersey Finance survey.

Further to the recent States of Jersey consultation papers on personal taxation and government spending cuts, Jersey Finance surveyed employees working in the finance industry to gain their views on the government’s proposals.

Almost 1,200 respondents completed the survey between August 16-23, and the results will be sent to the government prior to the end of the consultation period on August 30. The key findings were as follows:

• Over 60% of respondents do not think that the proposed cuts or savings go far enough;
• Only 12.1% of respondents believed that the split between spending cuts and personal tax increases should be 50:50, as currently proposed by the Council of Ministers. Almost 75% thought the split should instead be at least 70:30 in favour of cuts; and,
• Of the proposed personal tax increases, the taxes most cited and preferred by respondents were quite equally divided, between GST (28%), social security (23%) and income tax (29%). 15% indicated that none of the personal tax increase proposals suggested were preferred.

Heather Bestwick, Technical Director of Jersey Finance, commented:

“The results indicate that employees working in the finance industry are overwhelmingly of the opinion that government spending must be reduced before personal tax increases can be considered. Raising taxes, particularly personal tax, could adversely affect Jersey’s competitive position in attracting international investment and business to the island. This fact has already created negative coverage for Jersey in the national media regarding the possible increases to personal income tax.”

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