United States Senator Barack Obama may be the darling of the of the rest of the world, but we in the Cayman Islands need to be concerned if he does in fact win today’s US presidential election.
Newspapers across the globe came out in support of Obama on Monday.
‘Obama the best hope for US revival,’ said an editorial in The Australian Financial Review.
The Gulf News, an English-language paper in the United Arab Emirates, said he could ‘undo the great damage done by the Bush administration to America’s image,’ especially in the Middle East.
The Irish Times simply declared that Obama ‘deserves to win.’
This is the same man who on 22 September in a speech in Wisconsin said ‘we lose $100Bn every year because corporations get to set up mailboxes offshore so that they can avoid paying a dime of taxes in America. Imagine if you got to do that…I will shut down those offshore tax havens and corporate loopholes as president, because you shouldn’t have to pay higher taxes because some big corporations cut corners to avoid paying theirs.’
If Obama is elected the new president of the United States of America today, he could push for the passage of the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Bill, which was introduced on 17 February, 2007.
Under his leadership, the Untied States could actually adopt laws that would do the Cayman Islands more harm than good.
At the heart of the bill is its target – offshore financial centres.
Earlier this year officials from the United States Government Accountability Office came here to take a look at Ugland House in George Town and the law firm that is its sole tenant – Maples and Calder.
The subsequent GAO report to the Senate Finance Committee pointed to several areas where the problems in prevention and enforcement of tax evasion lay with the US government, not with Cayman.
Instead of removing the plank from its own eye, the United States, through various legislation and under Obama’s leadership, seems likely to reform the tax code to making moving business offshore less attractive.
Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said in May cooler heads will prevail.
‘Obama or not…they are going to think very seriously and long before they go to the drastic move that (they) are speaking about. It is hugely beneficial to US corporations. Without tax neutral jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, those corporations would not be anywhere near as profitable or as competitive in the world markets as they are now. They fully realise the importance of the jurisdiction. The ones that really matter quietly sit by and know they won’t do anything.’
We pray to God he’s right, especially if Obama does win today.
And if he does, the Cayman Islands needs to adopt strategy to deal with the outcome. If Obama is elected we should expect the worst, but hope for the best.
Under his leadership, the Untied States could actually adopt laws that would do the Cayman Islands more harm than good.
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