TIE's For Handouts
This must be the worst piece of grandstanding yet by the National Government trying to play hardball with non-existent "tax evaders". From the John Key "Magical Pacific Handout Tour" where even The Stranded have called him out for the stupidity of giving $10 million (or $6250 per person) to a corrupt Niue.
It’s just ridiculous. We shouldn’t pretend a first-world economy can be built on a rock in the middle of the ocean with the population of Bulls. We’re propping up a totally unsustainable economy and getting bugger all to show for it.
Now it seems the Cook Islands has got one over Uncle John.
Prime Minister John Key has signed a Tax Information Exchange agreement with Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai as part of efforts to clamp down on tax evasion and avoid another wine-box affair.
I hate to break the news to them but after the wine-box New Zealanders bolted from the Cooks to other offshore jurisdictions!
Only an idiot would still have a Cooks company or Trust if they are a New Zealand tax resident and not declaring it to the IRD, given the closeness and reliance on New Zealand by the Cooks.
In exchange for signing an utterly worthless TIE, the Cooks gets more foreign aid from New Zealand. Prime Minister Marurai did well.
Perhaps not coincidentally, New Zealand also increased official development aid to the Cook Islands from $11 million to $14 million this year, rising to $17 million over 2011/2012.
Perhaps Mitch? I think even you can see what has happened here. But the most important piece of aid was the underwriting of this very important flight.
“New Zealand has agreed to support the Cook Islands Government’s decision to underwrite any loss on Air New Zealand’s weekly Los Angeles-Rarotonga-Auckland route, with a capped $1 million contribution from the aid programme for the current financial year.”
This is the only flight that has the Air New Zealand Business Premier service. Very important. I wonder what plane John Key and his entourage left on?
It’s just ridiculous. We shouldn’t pretend a first-world economy can be built on a rock in the middle of the ocean with the population of Bulls. We’re propping up a totally unsustainable economy and getting bugger all to show for it.
Now it seems the Cook Islands has got one over Uncle John.
Prime Minister John Key has signed a Tax Information Exchange agreement with Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai as part of efforts to clamp down on tax evasion and avoid another wine-box affair.
I hate to break the news to them but after the wine-box New Zealanders bolted from the Cooks to other offshore jurisdictions!
Only an idiot would still have a Cooks company or Trust if they are a New Zealand tax resident and not declaring it to the IRD, given the closeness and reliance on New Zealand by the Cooks.
In exchange for signing an utterly worthless TIE, the Cooks gets more foreign aid from New Zealand. Prime Minister Marurai did well.
Perhaps not coincidentally, New Zealand also increased official development aid to the Cook Islands from $11 million to $14 million this year, rising to $17 million over 2011/2012.
Perhaps Mitch? I think even you can see what has happened here. But the most important piece of aid was the underwriting of this very important flight.
“New Zealand has agreed to support the Cook Islands Government’s decision to underwrite any loss on Air New Zealand’s weekly Los Angeles-Rarotonga-Auckland route, with a capped $1 million contribution from the aid programme for the current financial year.”
This is the only flight that has the Air New Zealand Business Premier service. Very important. I wonder what plane John Key and his entourage left on?
posted by Cactus Kate at 7:13 AM
6 Comments:
Speaking from within the Cook Islands banking industry, I can tell you the leap from TIEA to increased aid is unfounded. Unfortunately this perception will be hard to counter because both were announced at the same time. In fact the TIEA has been in the works for 3 years and this was seen as the opportune time to get it squared away. The main driver has been the international trend to "open the books" as a crackdown on tax evasion - you will see this has really sped up during 2009.
Agreed that this has been in the making for some time, however the NZ case is separate to other countries insofar that New Zealanders know not to go to the Cooks for banking and offshore trust work after the winebox. I would be very surprised if any illegal business was being conducted in the Cooks in the name of New Zealand tax residents or companies because of this, they left the Cooks years ago for other parts which has led to the shrinkage of your industry.
The Cooks stop was part of the "Magical Pacific Handout Tour" make no mistake about it and it is New Zealand and not the Cooks I am calling out here for making a big thing out of a TIE that means practically nothing.
Cooks in my view cleaned itself up after being blacklisted. It's probably got better AML legislation than most offshore and even some onshore jurisdictions.
"Perhaps Mitch?"
Is this the real name of Standardista ? Do you have their surname ?
Must have been all the Kava he has had lately. Shocking.
Is the money to keep the Chinese out of Niue?
Key flew on Broomstick One for this tour. Don't think they have Premier Biz Class tho'.
Incidentally I understand that the dosh underwriting the weekly Air NZ flight LAX-RAR-AKL is comuitted from the aid budget.
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