It's time to write, we are all the same but all different...the Overseas Territories need a voice and a literature.

In recent weeks both I and Harriet Brown (consultant to Hassans) have put our microphones down for a rest and have started thinking about the similarities and differences between the tax laws of the British Overseas Territories (BOTs).

Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, St Helena and nearly all the other remaining BOTs have a tax system which began life based on a single document the “Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Income Tax in the Colonies Not Possessing Responsible Government”. In that document one can find the ancestor of tens of income tax systems all around the world, from Kenya to Cyprus to Malta to the Falklands and Gibraltar.

We are specifically interested in some technical points about the development of the concept of permanent establishments in the systems which have grown out of that one base document. As part of our research, yesterday we met with the Head of Corporate Taxation of the Falkland Islands and what an absolute breath of fresh air to speak to someone who struggled with the same issues of legislative drafting and issues that small jurisdictions have trying to implement all the international standards with limited capacity.

What was very apparent was that we are much closer in our law than we ever imagined. Secondly we all agreed that more needs to be written about these small jurisdictions, and that is something that Hassans is very willing to promote and encourage. Hassans' involvement in the GATA Gibraltar Tax Essay Prize is something of which we are very proud, and if you really need a soporific you can tackle the numerous publications on Harriet's and my profiles on this website.

So, this is a call to my colleagues all over the British Overseas Territories to get together and see if we can work up a literature on tax for us all to use as a reference. Without a literature we will never fully have a voice in these matters.

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