death and taxes
Contrary to what he first claimed at his trial, Bernard ‘the ponzi’ Madoff now alledges that several high profile (I refrain from calling them respected) banks and funds ‘were complicit’ in the $64bn scam that unravelled in December and culminated in both his own 150 year sentence and the suicide of his eldest son, Mark. Bernie now believes ‘they had to have known but their attitude was “if you are doing it, we just don’t want to know about it.”’
Either way it can’t do anything for the credibility of the banks, including HSBS, Citigroup and JP Morgan, Either they knew about it and covered it up, or they didn’t even realise it was taking place. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. All intend to fight vigorously any claim and allegation, that’s ANY claim, made by the victims’ trustee, Irving Picard but it’s great to see them turn on each other, with Citigroup even trying to pass on its exposure to its partners in crime just months before the sticky stuff hit the fan. It delights me to see there’s no honour amongst these thieves!
And whilst we’re on the subjects of banks and their dirty dealings, it’s galling to see the startling statistic that Barclays paid just £113m in corporation tax in 2009, whilst raking in reported profits of £11.6bn for the same period. This equates to a corporation tax charge of less than 4.5% as opposed to the standard rate of 28%. In its defence, Barclays, whose slogan once described them as ‘fluent in finance’, argues that much of its profit is generated abroad and therefore subject to the tax regime of that particular country.
Ah, of course it is. And this accounts for the mind-boggling statistic of 30 subsidiaries in the Isle of Man, 38 in Jersey and 181 in the Cayman Islands. Oh, and don’t forget that perverse tax anomaly that allows the banks to offset any subprime losses in the US against their UK tax bill. A true double-whammy if ever there was one and proof that surely a fundamental change in the way tax liability is applied is way overdue. But we all know it’ll never happen as the former ‘masters of the universe’ remain in exactly that position: a parallel universe to the rest of us, paying billions to each other whilst remaining unhampered by the mere-mortal inconvenience of paying tax.
