Tony’s Statement.

[Sexual Ealing]

The trouble is, and as the documentary showed, with overseas cash it's incredibly easy to disguise its source, and therefore also very difficult for authorities to do proper due diligence. I deal a lot with offshore structures, and until there's a global standard for company and ultimate beneficial owner information, stuff like this will always happen, and not just with football, obviously.

I'm probably being naive here but I don't understand why onshore states that like to collect taxes allow these offshore operations to continue. Is it just that the people in charge also want to hide their money there?

Well, there's a move now for a minimum global company tax rate of at least 10%. The theory at the moment is though, that a country is free to set its own tax rate. So the UK is lower than France, Ireland and Malta are lower than the UK and so on. Usually it's a balance between attracting companies to operate in your country, and actually needing to raise money through taxation. Offshore places like the IOM, Gibraltar, Jersey and BVI etc don't really have anything else much they can offer, so they set out to attract companies there with a 0% rate. The IOM's biggest industry is online gaming, and although they don't get any company tax, the thousands of people employed all pay income tax and buy houses etc. There are also a lot of funds and pesnions based in such places, as you don't really want people's pensions being whittled away by tax.

There's also the fact that a lot of places offshore are a lot less transparent in terms of information, as to who shareholders are, and having to publicly lodge accounts. As I say though, there's a huge amount of pressure to move away from both the low tax and secrecy aspects. Ireland in particular, isn't keen on the low tax thing being abolished.

Thanks for the info. I get the corporation tax thing, it's the secrecy bit that baffles me.

[Risso]

The trouble is, and as the documentary showed, with overseas cash it's incredibly easy to disguise its source, and therefore also very difficult for authorities to do proper due diligence. I deal a lot with offshore structures, and until there's a global standard for company and ultimate beneficial owner information, stuff like this will always happen, and not just with football, obviously.

I'm probably being naive here but I don't understand why onshore states that like to collect taxes allow these offshore operations to continue. Is it just that the people in charge also want to hide their money there?

Well, there's a move now for a minimum global company tax rate of at least 10%. The theory at the moment is though, that a country is free to set its own tax rate. So the UK is lower than France, Ireland and Malta are lower than the UK and so on. Usually it's a balance between attracting companies to operate in your country, and actually needing to raise money through taxation. Offshore places like the IOM, Gibraltar, Jersey and BVI etc don't really have anything else much they can offer, so they set out to attract companies there with a 0% rate. The IOM's biggest industry is online gaming, and although they don't get any company tax, the thousands of people employed all pay income tax and buy houses etc. There are also a lot of funds and pesnions based in such places, as you don't really want people's pensions being whittled away by tax.

There's also the fact that a lot of places offshore are a lot less transparent in terms of information, as to who shareholders are, and having to publicly lodge accounts. As I say though, there's a huge amount of pressure to move away from both the low tax and secrecy aspects. Ireland in particular, isn't keen on the low tax thing being abolished.

Thanks for the info. I get the corporation tax thing, it's the secrecy bit that baffles me.

The worst culprits are the US (especially Delaware), so until they get their act together, there's no absolutely chance of getting the smaller jurisdictions into line.

[purpletrousers]

Tony Xia is one of the great Villa stories.  It is only a matter of time before somebody points out that you have never seen him and the African Car Reverser in the same photograph.

Brian I expected better of you than conspiracy theories.

I think we all know odds are it was his Uber driver. Obviously visiting in his fan days three years before ownership. And a couple of years before Uber came to Brum. So when you think about it that’s quite some getaway preparation on all parts, it definitely smells of prophecy and the supernatural. No wonder he could evade the fit and proper test eh?

[brian green]

What I want to know is why doesn't anybody ever mention that Tony's trainers had elevator soles?  That for some probably nefarious reason  he wanted to look taller than he in fact was? We could see the grey holes in his brown cardboard belt.  We could see the elastic holding his tie in place. But of the fact that a five foot three inches tall man was trying to pass himself off as five foot five one - not a dicky bird.  The one shot we have of the African Car Reverser shows him looking through not over his steering wheel.  What is referred to in car insurance circles as a short arse driver. We have to decide whether the African Car Reverser passes himself off as Dr Tony Xia or does Tone pretend to be the ACR?  Who knows? Who cares?

[Jon Crofts]

The trouble is, and as the documentary showed, with overseas cash it's incredibly easy to disguise its source, and therefore also very difficult for authorities to do proper due diligence. I deal a lot with offshore structures, and until there's a global standard for company and ultimate beneficial owner information, stuff like this will always happen, and not just with football, obviously.

I'm probably being naive here but I don't understand why onshore states that like to collect taxes allow these offshore operations to continue. Is it just that the people in charge also want to hide their money there?

Well, there's a move now for a minimum global company tax rate of at least 10%. The theory at the moment is though, that a country is free to set its own tax rate. So the UK is lower than France, Ireland and Malta are lower than the UK and so on. Usually it's a balance between attracting companies to operate in your country, and actually needing to raise money through taxation. Offshore places like the IOM, Gibraltar, Jersey and BVI etc don't really have anything else much they can offer, so they set out to attract companies there with a 0% rate. The IOM's biggest industry is online gaming, and although they don't get any company tax, the thousands of people employed all pay income tax and buy houses etc. There are also a lot of funds and pesnions based in such places, as you don't really want people's pensions being whittled away by tax.

There's also the fact that a lot of places offshore are a lot less transparent in terms of information, as to who shareholders are, and having to publicly lodge accounts. As I say though, there's a huge amount of pressure to move away from both the low tax and secrecy aspects. Ireland in particular, isn't keen on the low tax thing being abolished.

Do Ireland still have that ridiculous zero taxation for 'artists' that seemed to allow people like Damon Hill to live tax free on the Emerald Isle?

[Mister E]

Just watched the documentary. Fascinating stuff

which documentary?

got a link please?

See page 161 of this thread.

Page 161? - I'm only on p.49!
Can someone re-post the link - perleasssse?

[KRS]

Will any of these snakes face criminal prosecutions as a result of the documentary or will they just flash some back handers and slither away free to do it all again using one of their many schemes to hide their involvement?

[Jon Crofts]

Just watched the documentary. Fascinating stuff

which documentary?

got a link please?

See page 161 of this thread.

Page 161? - I'm only on p.49!
Can someone re-post the link - perleasssse?

It’s on Al Jazeerah and it’s called The men who sell football.

[Mister E]

Yeah, thanks. Just watched it, thanks.
Not a good look, but hopefully all in the past.

[Sexual Ealing]

This is a very long, but eye-opening piece on how the IOM deals with dodgy Asian betting companies to facilitate PL sponsorship (including ours).
http://josimarfootball.com/the-trillion-dollar-gambling-game/

[FrankyH]

Just watched the documentary. Fascinating stuff

which documentary?

got a link please?

See page 161 of this thread.

Page 161? - I'm only on p.49!
Can someone re-post the link - perleasssse?

https://youtu.be/ldgTCXpDEgk

[Risso]

This is a very long, but eye-opening piece on how the IOM deals with dodgy Asian betting companies to facilitate PL sponsorship (including ours).
http://josimarfootball.com/the-trillion-dollar-gambling-game/

Ooh, I know two of the people in that article quite well.

[Sexual Ealing]

I thought you might! Got to be a small world over there, right?

I used to deal with lawyers all over the world, and used to hate it when I was given Hong Kong because you couldn't play them off against each other because they all socialised with each other on a seemingly nightly basis.