Under seige

The offshore industry could be forgiven if it feels under siege at times. There have been numerous initiatives by the European Union, the OECD and other global bodies to crack down on what they regard as unfair tax policies. No-one, however, probably feels as much under siege as UK advisers and the Crown Dependencies. The UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has been waging a concerted campaign against tax planning over the past eight years. While the Inland Revenue says it has been clamping down on loopholes in the law, advisers describe these moves as attacking legitimate tax planning opportuniti...