Opening Pandora"s box

The stirrings of a fresh breeze of information is finally starting to dissipate the edges of the storm clouds of doubt that have been hanging over the heads of the UK-based offshore advisory industry. After seven months of waiting, Chancellor Gordon Brown"s ominous-seeming tax-collecting tax force is to reveal some of its secrets at a Jersey Taxation Society conference. The extent to which the "Financial Institutions Task Force" clarifies the methods it will use to reclaim the estimated $2bn of unpaid tax, it is a welcome development. However, there are serious issues of privacy at stake...