135,000 views of social media video for Deputies Parkinson and McKenna as they bid to go viral
A VIDEO made by two deputies who want companies in Guernsey to ‘pay their fair share’ has been viewed more than 135,000 times in the past week.
Charles Parkinson and Liam McKenna released the two-minute video on Facebook in support of their Budget amendment which proposes a new territorial system of taxing company profits.
They believe it would raise tens of millions of pounds a year without damaging the island’s economy, avoiding the need for income tax rises and a goods and services tax.
‘The reaction to the video has been incredible and reflects a depth of feeling among islanders that politicians would be well-advised to consider as we take decisions on taxation this week in the Budget,’ said Deputy Parkinson.
His previous efforts to pursue company tax reform have been consistently defeated.
Several deputies have agreed that the island would move to a territorial system one day but not unilaterally without Jersey and possibly the Isle of Man doing the same.
Deputy Parkinson said the island’s finances had been unstable since the introduction of the zero-10 company tax regime in 2008, since which the tax burden on households had risen considerably, and he suggested that the problems would be resolved only when zero-10 was replaced with a fairer and more lucrative system.
‘I think our video has really struck a chord with islanders who recognise the problems we are describing – young people being forced to leave the island by the high cost of living and, especially, the cost of housing,’ he said.
‘They know these problems are partly caused by the additional tax burden imposed on resident individuals since zero-10 and agree that companies doing business in Guernsey should pay their fair share.’
In the video, Deputy Parkinson criticised Policy & Resources’ proposal to put up income tax as ‘probably worse’ then its predecessor committee’s multiple unsuccessful attempts to introduce a goods and services tax, and warned that the rising cost of living would ‘kill our community’.
Standing alongside him in the video, Deputy McKenna said he believed companies doing business in Guernsey needed to pay more to relieve some of the tax burden added to households in recent years.
‘If you earn your profits in Guernsey, and you do your business in Guernsey, you pay in Guernsey,’ he said.
