Tax? What’s that? Says Merrill Lynch
Investment bank Merrill Lynch may not have to pay UK tax for decades. The Wall Street giant, which employs 5,500 in the City of London, could be eligible for a tax holiday of more than 50 years after accruing billions of pounds of losses on ‘exotic investments’.
The possibility of such a business escaping tax will astonish households struggling with their personal finances. What this means in practical terms is that the tax burden, previously shared between individuals and large capitalist entities such as Merrill Lynch, will now fall increasingly onto the shoulders of the ordinary personal taxpayer.
The collapse of profits among all the banks have led to a dramatic fall in their tax burden — which means a big hole in the Treasury’s books.
Merrill Lynch racked up losses of £15.5billion because of the sub-prime meltdown in America — their insane investments in housing for the untold millions of illegal immigrants flooding that nation.
The losses were booked in its UK subsidiary Merrill Lynch International, because this is the unit through which it conducted its business in exotic financial instruments — in other words, repackaged debt.
Merrill can use the losses to offset its tax liability — by as much as £4.3billion — in future years. Accountants say the bank is fully complying with tax law.
Robert Willens, a tax expert, said the move is not common. “Merrill will have to be able to say that the UK subsidiary was the owner of those securities. . . . It does not matter where the derivatives unit is based or where the trades were executed. The only thing that matters is who was the owner of the securities.”
It has now been calculated that if Merrill starts making profits again at the rate it did in 2006 – a record year – it still won’t have to pay any corporation tax for the next 50 plus years.
If the move is followed by rivals it could have a huge impact on government coffers. This week New York mayor Mike Bloomberg said that many Wall Street firms will pay no tax this year due to their losses.
So far this year financial companies across the world have reported writeoffs totalling £250 billion. Economists say this figure could double before the credit crunch comes to an end.
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”NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”. We should withdraw our taxes and other stealth tax, until the indigenous British man and woman gets a fair deal. I’m starting with the propaganda tax (BBC license)
Somebody better informed please correct me if I’ve misunderstood the situation.Wasn’t all this sub-prime mortgage debt repackaged into triple A rated securities and then sold on to an unsuspecting globalised banking fraternity? Isn’t this just plain fraud? Why is it so different from a boiler-room scam? Surely if Joe Public trader was to knowingly and purposely misrepresent his product/service he is subject to the full force of the law. Why are the perpetrators of this gigantic scam just carrying on regardless, despite the untold misery they are causing to honest and hardworking people? Heads need to roll.
Only poor people pay tax, and the poorer you are the greater the percentage of tax you pay from your disposable income
The government will tell you different. THe richer you are the more you pay. Not so. Rich people claim tax-deductable expenses. An example, first class travel to and from appointments (This means to and from work).
If a poor person is lucky enough to have a job and has to commute, their strap-hanging journey has no tax relief at all.
So Merril Lynch racks up great losses gambling on the stock market and dodgy mortgages. No matter, we the tax payers will give you time to recover.
Fred Bloggs loses his week’s wages on the horses, tough Mrs Bloggs and all the little Bloggs will have to tighten their belts. O K. Fred should have not gambled, quite right, but it is exactly the same with M.Lynch. What this government has forgotten is not only do the poor have to pay for the big banks’ errors. They also can vote. That’s why we the BNP are on the up and they are finished.
“Tescos: After meeting their tax director I’m convinced they avoided UK corporation tax, and stamp duty too”
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2008/03/12/tescos-after-meeting-their-tax-director-im-convinced-they-avoided-uk-corporation-tax-and-stamp-duty-too/
£1 BILLION’s worth apparently, the author of this blog is very good, he was consulted by the press widely over the NR fiasco
Tesco, like so much of greed crazed, shareholder value driven, rip-off Britain is a seriously unpleasant organisation:
“Having travelled to many countries to meet farmers it was very clear that supermarkets treated all farmers equally - unfortunately that is equally badly and it was the name of Tesco which came up time and time again. If we are to have a future as farmers and sustainable agriculture then we need to control supermarket power.” Michael Hart, chairman of Small and Family Farms Alliance”
http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=184
The book “Tescopoly” by Andrew Sims is well worth a read. Tesco sucks the life out of our communities. Profits are remitted to corporate headquarters and services provided at the behest of the centre. As a result of which small businesses and the professional services which support them have been driven to the wall, as our Chairman has pointed out these are what should provide the bone structure of a free society and a real democracy.
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For “eco-towns” read ‘Tesco-towns’.
Tess Cohen owns the dupes. - Ed
It’s only in very recent years we’ve finally paid back the USA for the second World War. How come this, then. Huh?
So Merril Lynch will pay no taxes this year, or the next 50, they really must be s##t scared of the BNP gaining power in the not too distant future. One of the wonders of the WWW is that you can find information on all sorts of things that the press dare not write about, or even hint at. For over 300yrs, the family Rothschilds, plus Rockerfeller,Warburgs et al, have been waging war on the rest of the world in a very sutble way, like backing both sides in world wars, and running different countries’ central banks. No one can say anything about it, as it would be ‘anti-semitic’. Let us not forget that Jesus, on entering the Temple at Jerusalem, first threw the money lenders out, he knew what was going on all those years ago. What is needed now is, more of the same medicine. When our own BNP gain power, just like the early years of the Labour Party, the money will leave the country, I do hope someone in the party has thought about all of this. It will not be easy to start, but, hey, we will have our freedom back, which surely must be worth fighting for.
I have something to say and I hope this might be a place to say it.
I am recently retired and like many of my age, regret what is happening to our Once Great Country and to the floods of Immigrants appearing here daily, and of course to the EUSSR. Therefore I support The BNP.
Now My Son has a good job and holds a fairly Senior Management Position in a company in Britain heavily engaged in the defence industry. He lives some way from me and I do not see him all that often. We have always got on well together and have some lively discussions often of a political nature.
He was up to stay with me this last weekend and we spent an enjoyable time as usual and had our usual discussions. This time though I noticed a somewhat different approach to my point of view from my Son. Although he did not actually rubbish what I said, there is no doubt he treated what I did say as irrelevant. His attitude was effectively “you would say that wouldn’t you?”
I then brought the term ‘Common Purpose’ into our conversation. He became very evasive and what he said from then on, I thought, was very cliche ridden.
The point of what I am saying is this. I think he is involved with ‘COMMON PURPOSE’. He would not confirm or deny this.
I won’t go into it any more other than to say I am intensely worried and I wonder if any one else who visits The BNP Web Site has the same experience. From everything I have read or heard about Common Purpose, his position in his Company seems to precisely fit their requirements.
I do know though, that my son will not now, unless things change, conceive of any other way forward other than that promulgated by COMMON PURPOSE!!!
Editor, if this is not the place to insert this, I would be happy for you to decide where it goes as I feel this is quite important.
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We appreciate how worried you must be, this is as good a place as any to discuss it - Ed
Oh dear, those poor things. I know what, lets cut back on what our pensioners are given and give it to the City fat cats instead. All in favour? not.
Less tax reciepts from businesses means more tax from those on normal wages.They might however decide to take it from the motorist again.These so called politicians really must hate us,THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION,and if you are old you are in real trouble with this Labour excretia.The BNP is our only chance so go for it.
These Global Banks are defrauding us, even our Money, now that it is not backed by Gold is simply worthless Paper, Credit is simply thin air that we must pay interest on.
If we default, they reposess the car, house or business.
Like Nick Griffin says in one of his speeches, it’s a shell game.
If it were up to me, as a One off, I’d wipe off all Mortgage debt so people can keep their Homes during the coming credit crisis, Punish the Bankers, not the British People, credit is thin air anyway they lent us Nothing.
If the Global Banks want to throw their toys out the pram, let them, we can set up real Banks to serve the British society, not themselves.
Whether this document is genuine or not is irrelevent, it is as close to the truth as we are going to get about the way Our Banking system works.
We are being farmed.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11635.htm
@Whiskyindia
I suggest you continue to have your political debates with your son and leave it to his Conscience to decide as you can’t force a change of mind.
Knowing what I do of common purpose I can only begin to imagine how I would feel if it were my son but you have to let him make his own choices and hope that truth prevails.
Keep firing those questions at him but use tactfulness. Good luck.
Sorry Ed, Posted the wrong link though the above video is still worth a watch, confirming what we all know about Globalisation.
Here is the Article I meant to post, I originally saw it on the Battle For Britain website ( i think)but give the direct link here.
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/silentweaponsforquietwars.htm
http://bfbwwiii.blogspot.com/
I don’t believe companies should pay tax anyway, they don’t physically consume anything.
If anything Britain should have ZERO tax on companies, and every damned company would shift its headquarters here generating untold jobs which do pay tax, vat and so forth.
Bully Boy labour is constantly trying to stitch up easy targets, and the Corporates have insulated themselves now.
Don’t tax more, just spend a lot less. No money for foreign aid, no asylum, No EU, no free healthcare to non British and so forth.
This reminds me of a movie i watched, Its called Shooter, In it the senator said to the shooter, The have’s and the have nots. they have it all, (the big boys,) we have nothing, the working classes,
Tommy-”If anything Britain should have ZERO tax on companies, and every damned company would shift its headquarters here generating untold jobs which do pay tax, vat and so forth.”
Foreign governments wouldn’t let them. It is a particular UK trait that our companies are tossed about like chips in a gambling casino. I have zero confidence in the British Corporate sector and even less in the City of London. The only thing that can be confidently stated is that they will fill their pockets.
Since Thatcher what has happened is that our industrial base has been all but destroyed, the rich have got ever richer - and the gap between rich and poor has never been so wide; with disasterous effects on real social cohesion and solidarity. All this talk of “trickle-down” we used to hear was so much self-serving hypocrisy. Much of the population have now been reduced to debt serfs.
Germany has an effective rate of Corporation tax of 30-33% apparently, and they are the world’s greatest exporters. A BNP government could not simply sit back and hope the City and the corporates will perform, they won’t. We are going to have to drive through change ourselves; and refuse to take no for an answer. We will have to use the machinery of the state, streamlined and reformed, to put the nation back on its feet - this is what other nations do!
It would be an excellent idea to exempt the retained profit of manufacturing companies from Corporation Tax, to let them grow and create real wealth - and we will also need to make sure that they have long-term finance from investing institutions. All this hedge fund gambling should be firmly knocked on the head.
“Now an economics professor at Harvard University, Mr Rogoff said. “We’re not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months, we’re going to see a whopper, we’re going to see a big one, one of the big investment banks or big banks.”
He added that efforts by Asian sovereign wealth funds to bail out US banks were not the solution. “The financial system has become very bloated in size and needed to shrink,” he said.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/08/19/bcnken119.xml
It needs to shrink and it needs to be replaced by creative and productive enterprise; manufacturing, energy, agriculture.
Senior bankers made appalling decisions of judgement in exposing their shareholders to risks which were misrepresented - exactly as nildesperandum contends. What is not clear is whether these decisions were illustrative of crass incompetence or motivated by huge kickbacks. Indeed the structure of city bonuses sometimes blurs this line anyway.
The point I would like to make is that the problems of the banking sector were created by banks internal policies and the actions of senior individuals. You can’t punish the banks as such, since they are institutions. Their assets are ours in the form of deposited funds and shares we might hold either directly or through pension funds.
One problem is that too few people own equities directly and actively hold company boards to account. Instead we use OICs, pension funds and savings schemes of every imaginable sort which dilute our links with our own investments. Professional fund managers are too cosy with their director chums and too involved in the game. They cannot be relied upon to deal with the investments they manage on behalf of others with the same diligence and single-mindedness of purpose with which one manages ones own money.
Some (I stress only some) city directors ought to be removed from their posts; not with golden parachutes but with extreme haste and the sort of reference from their bosses (we shareholders) that would ensure they would not find a similar position elsewhere.
It always amounts to a question of accountability and it is quite bizarre how wealthy certain people can become through taking poor decisions with other peoples money.
You can’t make a fortune from your own small business unless you get it right. We need reform to ensure the same applies to those who manage our largest businesses.