Friday 26 December 2014

Well yes, apart from...

DC emailed me a link to an article about Luxembourg. Somebody had leaked/published details of tax deals arranged between PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Luxembourg. Instead of doing something about the tax evaders, Luxembourg charged the whistlebower with theft and other criminal offences.

The countries who think they've lost out are all complaining like mad and demanding that Luxembourg stops this nonsense, but the best part is right at the end of the article:

Luxembourg’s finance minister, Pierre Gramegna, struck a conciliatory note on the international stage, telling a meeting of European finance ministers: “We are a country that wants to combat abuse … If we want to find solutions to this issue we have to tackle it together.”

Speaking to a domestic audience, however, he has described the affair as “the worst attack Luxembourg has experienced in its history”.


Reminds me a bit of the famous George W Bush quote from 2002:

My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific.

3 comments:

DP said...

Dear Mr Wadsworth

The companies are tax avoiders (legal) not tax evaders (not legal), therefore the unnamed individual is a naughty boy.

DP

Mark Wadsworth said...

DP, true.

But I still don't think this is the worst attack on Luxembourg in its history, not even in living memory.

DP said...

Dear Mr Wadsworth

I'd tend to agree with you on that.

They do appear to have been invaded during World War II and World War I, which might have been a bit worse.

Instant history lesson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_in_World_War_II

Hope you and yours had a happy Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2015.

DP