The tarnished halo of “Saint Bob” Geldof

Francis Carr Begbie

In 2013 Bob Geldof was awarded the Freedom of the City of London for his outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace.

Strangely there was no mention of his services as a corporate mouthpiece for the financial services industry, which is an odd omission.

For at the time Geldof was in the throes of launching his own hedge fund and he was supporting what the Wall Street Journal  called, a “huge private equity push into Africa,” Geldof’s 8 Miles Fund boasts a distinguished team of advisors,  concentrates on African investments, and has attracted the support of J P Morgan.  Typically, he deflects awkward questions with a joke, calling himself a “private equity whore”.

But Geldof’s partner in this venture could hardly be more respectable.  Merchant banker Mark Florman is a former Conservative Party fund raiser, BBC trustee and, when not working on philanthropic ventures,  is busy defending the City of London from regulation via his other role as head of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

With Geldof the gap between image and reality grows larger all the time. Last September Geldof claimed he would house four refugee families and emoted in his usual way,

I can’t stand what is happening. I cannot stand what it does to us. … We must have the politics and the humanity to deal with it. It makes me sick and a concert won’t do it.”

It is a monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be; we are in a moment that will be discussed and impacted upon in 300 years time.

Yet many months later there is still no sign of any refugees at any of his homes, a situation which has led to widespread comment.

Presumably he expects these refugees to be paid for by the taxes of those who cannot afford elaborate offshore tax avoidance companies in the way that he does. Geldof is notoriously touchy on this subject and shuts down television inquiries by launching into the usual foul-mouthed spate of expletives. When asked about his tax arrangements, he says “My time, is that not a tax?.” A curious argument — not recommended for anyone dealing with the tax authorities.

As an Irish national, he is entitled to use that favorite UK tax avoidance loophole: the status of “non-domicile” taxpayer. This enables individuals with nominal overseas connections to legitimately avoid paying large sums of tax on overseas earnings. He also exploits off-shore tax avoidance companies in the British Virgin Islands to ensure that his two properties, a mansion apartment in London and a rambling twelfth-century priory in Faversham, Kent, are both exempt from property and inheritance taxes.

WikiLeaks Strikes Again: Leaked TISA Docs Expose Corporate Plan For Reshaping Global Economy

Leaked Docs reveal that little-known corporate treaty poised to privatize and deregulate public services across globe

by

Sarah Lazare, staff writer

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“It’s a dark day for democracy when we are dependent on leaks like this for the general public to be informed of the radical restructuring of regulatory frameworks that our governments are proposing,” said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now. (Image created by Common Dreams)

An enormous corporate-friendly treaty that many people haven’t heard of was thrust into the public limelight Wednesday when famed publisher of government and corporate secrets, WikiLeaks, released 17 documents from closed-door negotiations between countries that together comprise two-thirds of the word’s economy.

Analysts warn that preliminary review shows that the pact, known as the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), is aimed at further privatizing and deregulating vital services, from transportation to healthcare, with a potentially devastating impact for people of the countries involved in the deal, and the world more broadly.

“This TISA text again favors privatization over public services, limits governmental action on issues ranging from safety to the environment using trade as a smokescreen to limit citizen rights,” said Larry Cohen, president of Communications Workers of America, in a statement released Wednesday.

Under secret negotiation by 50 countries for roughly two years, the pact includes the United States, European Union, and 23 other countries—including Israel, Turkey, and Colombia. Notably, the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—are excluded from the talks.

“It’s a dark day for democracy when we are dependent on leaks like this for the general public to be informed of the radical restructuring of regulatory frameworks that our governments are proposing.”
—Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now

Along with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, which are also currently being negotiated, TISA is part of  what WikiLeaks calls the “T-treaty trinity.” Like the TTP and TTIP, it would fall “under consideration for collective ‘Fast-Track’ authority in Congress this month,” WikiLeaks noted in a statement issued Wednesday.

However, TISA stands out from this trio as being the most secretive and least understood of all, with its negotiating sessions not even announced to the public.

Coalition says kidnap risk means wealthy need tax reporting exemptions | Australia news | The Guardian

The Abbott government is pressing ahead with plans to exempt about 1,000 Australian-owned private companies from tax transparency measures after claims wealthy owners could face kidnapping threats.

After the kidnapping suggestion was raised at a Coalition party meeting in March, the government confirmed it was looking to amend the disclosure rules in part due to concerns about risks to personal safety.

On Thursday the government released an exposure draft of legislation to wind back Labor-era laws that require the publication of basic tax information of corporate entities with at least $100m in annual turnover.

Labor vowed on Friday to oppose the changes, saying the exposure draft was evidence the government was determined “to shield some of Australia’s biggest firms from reasonable disclosure about whether they’re paying their fair share”.

The proposed change would exempt private companies – such as those controlled by the billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart – from disclosures that were due to be published by the Australian Tax Office the first time later this year.

But the ATO would still be required to publish details about companies listed on the stock exchange and multinational corporations operating in Australia.

The proposed exemption would spare about 1,000 of the 2,300 companies that were to be subject to the disclosure obligations, according to the latest government estimates. Previously published estimates suggested the exemption would benefit about 700 out of 1,600 affected companies.

The former Labor government’s tax transparency laws required the publication of the total income, the taxable income or net income, and income tax payable of corporate tax entities with $100m or more in total income.

Explanatory notes accompanying the Coalition’s draft bill say the proposed changes are designed to ensure the public release of information “does not affect the privacy and personal security of the ultimate owners of Australian-owned private companies” and does not harm “market environments”.

“The government has a number of concerns with the [existing] laws,” the notes say. “Privacy concerns exist for the Australian owners of closely held companies where the disclosure of the companies’ information effectively discloses information about the owners’ financial affairs.

“Many private companies have raised legitimate concerns about the commercial sensitivity of the information and the impact of disclosure on their personal privacy and security. The nature of the information disclosed can be misleading in that it ignores the residual liability on the owners for personal income tax payable on the company’s distributed after tax profits.

via Coalition says kidnap risk means wealthy need tax reporting exemptions | Australia news | The Guardian.

“Dig Down 8 Inches & You’ll Still Find Oil” – Judge Finds BP Guilty Of Extreme & Wreckless Behaviour | Collective-Evolution

September 21, 2014 by Arjun Walia. No Comments.

Oil spills are constantly occurring all over the planet, massive ones at that, many of which we do not hear about through the media. The deep water horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the other hand was so large that there was absolutely no hope of the petroleum giants keeping it out of the public eye (as they constantly do with other spills).

Pictures of it were even taken from space satellites, all of which determined it as one of the biggest environmental disasters in the history of the human race. It can easily be put in the same category as the recent nuclear disaster in Fukishima, Japan.

via “Dig Down 8 Inches & You’ll Still Find Oil” – Judge Finds BP Guilty Of Extreme & Wreckless Behaviour | Collective-Evolution.