What will the rich do for Jersey?

the tax they pay as residents predate the finance industry, which began to emerge in earnest 50 years ago.

Indeed, the Island’s appeal to expat settlers can be traced back to the 19th century.

Now, however, initiatives are being launched by Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf to entice a new wave of rich immigrants. Essentially, these moves will limit the amount of tax that 1(1)K residents pay on their international income while ensuring that they pay Jersey a minimum of £125,000 a year. Significantly, they will be required to pay at the rate of 20% on their Jersey income.

As Senator Ozouf has said, this set of rules should mean that the Island’s status as an attractive location for the very wealthy is enhanced considerably. Then, if the target of 15 new tax exiles a year can be achieved, there will be a substantial influx of money which, quite obviously, will help to address the budgetary deficits that we are now facing.

In purely financial terms, Senator Ozouf appears to be promoting a winning formula. If all goes to plan, the increased tax take will be only part of the picture. It is also hoped that an influx of the very rich will produce spin-off benefits that include work for builders and other tradespeople, new businesses and new job opportunities.

That said, although the impact of what our finance specialists call high net worth individuals on infrastructure and resources is comparatively small, their arrival in numbers would pose certain problems. There is, for example, the tendency for those afforded the privilege of buying and occupying large houses set in extensive grounds to ‘prettify’ their property at the expense of the traditional Jersey countryside. There is also the less tangible but perhaps more damaging issue of skewing the Island’s social structure.

This is already a community of two halves, and encouraging increased numbers of the super-rich to settle here under favourable arrangements will reinforce the divisive perception that government is quite happy to feather-bed those at the top while offering precious few concessions to those at the bottom and even fewer to those in the middle.

Like it or not, the ordinary Islanders who believe that in recent years they have seen nothing but tax increases will resent the special treatment offered to potential rich immigrants – though that resentment will be tempered if all the benefits promised by Senator Ozouf actually come to pass.