Geoff Cook
Geoff Cook is the chief executive of Jersey Finance, the powerful lobbying arm of the States of Jersey.
Background
Cook is the ex-Head of Wealth Management for HSBC Bank, based in London, where he was responsible for the delivery of Financial Planning Services to the 10 million HSBC customers in the UK.[1]
Jersey is not a tax haven
In 2009 Cook told the Guardian newspaper that Jersey had 'helped lessen the impact of the credit crunch by ensuring cash is "sent upstream" to the City of London. He defended the island against its tax haven label:
- "We are not a tax haven. We do not have banking secrecy, we are a cooperative transparent, well regulated centre. We are tested by outside organisations and we have been found not wanting. If anybody thinks otherwise let them name names, bring evidence and I will happily notify the authorities."[2]
It is an oft-repeated mantra. In October 2011 Cook also declared:
- In a career spanning over 30 years in financial services, which has taken me across the globe, I have discovered no jurisdiction that has such a commitment to truth, transparency and integrity as Jersey. Our reputation is everything, we guard it jealously, and defend it vigorously.
Why Britain needs tax havens=
The Jimmy Carr tax scandal in 2012 came just days after Jersey had notched up yet another top industry award as ‘best international finance centre’. Once again Cook did his PR rounds, appearing on the BBC and other radio and TV news defending tax avoidance and trotting out the distinction between it and its illegal relative, tax evasion. He penned letters to the Guardian in protest and blogged on the Adam Smith Institute’s website on why the UK needs tax havens, and the well-worn but disputed argument ‘that small international finance centres such as Jersey are accelerators of global economic activity’. Cook called Prime Minister David Cameron's comments over Carr's legal tax dodging ‘unwise’, and swiftly pointed out the irony of how, just days beforehand, Cameron had said Britain would welcome France's 75 per cent tax for French high earners as Britain could benefit from them bringing their money here – meaning of course, our generous non-dom residency rules that allow rich foreigners to use Britain as a tax haven. [3]
Notes
- ↑ Meet the team, Jersey Finance, accessed Dec 2011
- ↑ Nick Mathiason in St Helier, Jersey fears for a future without tax schemes, The Guardian, Monday 16 March 2009, acc 30 June 2012
- ↑ Geoff Cook, Tax avoidance boon or bane, Adam Smith Institute,
