december-2009

ILLUSTRATION © ROBERT HANSON II/EYECANDY.CO.UK
NO
SAYS ROSIE CARR
LET’S GET ONE thing straight: not
everyone who has a Swiss bank account
is a drug-dealing money launderer or a
dictator. But it’s always easier to build
support for a crackdown on certain groups
when you depict them as unsavoury. And
so Swiss banks are routinely portrayed as
hiding money for criminals and cheats,
rather than hard-working business people
fed up with handing over their money for
someone else to spend.
I don’t doubt there are some dubious
people among the clients of Swiss banks.
But that’s not the reason why governments
are furious over laws that prevent them
from discovering who’s been diverting
money away from their control. Their
determination to tear down the protection
that Swiss banks offer is not driven by
anger over moral issues. It’s not even driven
by the lost tax.
What it is about is control. Governments
can’t bear the idea that their tax inspectors
might hit a brick wall that stops them
knowing exactly how much money we have
and how much we earn from our savings
and investments. What governments want
is for us to meekly hand our money to the
politicians who think they know best how
to spend it. You see, governments have
an insatiable appetite for tax. They need
money to fund their long lists of grand
schemes and lavish promises to loyal voters.
But why wouldn’t high earners be
indignant about the demands made
on them? They already pay more tax
than anyone else and in the wake of the
economic crisis many countries have
introduced special higher rates of tax for
the highest earners. Clearly we all need to
pay tax. Without that revenue, the state
we live in could not afford to educate our
children, look after the sick and the poor,
BIG DEBATE | SWISS BANKING
pay the police and armed forces, supply
clean water and waste services, or build
roads. But we must also be allowed to
retain most of our income to spend how we
choose. We are not the slaves of the state
and we should not be treated as such.
These so-called tax evaders and cheats
already pay large amounts of tax, but
the greed of the state knows no bounds.
Look at Britain – under a high-spending,
tax-loving Labour government, new laws
force almost everyone to spill the beans on
everyone else where income is concerned.
Britain has also changed its tax laws so
that its high earners will have to pay tax
on every penny they earn – their tax-free
allowance has been withdrawn entirely. No
wonder governments are keen to end secret
bank accounts when they give taxpayers
incentives to hide their money!
We should all pay tax, but no
government has the right to trample
over our right to privacy or to mug us at
gunpoint in its unseemly haste to get its
hands on our money.
Rosie Carr is deputy editor of Investors
Chronicle magazine
DECEMBER 09 | TRAVELLER | 97