Monkey boy

I was under the impression it was a flat rate of 20% for earnings over the personal allowance (which is what £10-£11K ish now?). Unless you qualify for the tax cap in which case it's likely to be considerably less than 20%.

The problem with your analogy Wrighty is this, the "spent accordingly" of the government high roller has been spent on him/herself, whereas the "spent accordingly" of the builder has been spent on the customer's kitchen. My old mate Wooley is completely correct (he's obviously developed some sense in my absence) If somebody earning enough to qualify for a £300K lump sum can't struggle by with £75K windfall and £25K pension till they drop, then what hope is there for the rest of us? I do have some sympathy for your predicament, but we live in times of austerity, and although it would be nice to honor a commitment to pay someone who's been in receipt of a 3 figure salary for many years previous their King's ransom lump sum, such largess is no longer affordable.

When are the census results out?

Two.

Get Manx Tax Payer to do it for you, he's an expert at plumbing (among many other things) and it'll keep him off here for a while.

Yes, only cold water at the kitchen sink

Better for getting the shit off the pan.

Lots of DIY type jobs are not notifiable under part p so you could still do them. I've seen some DIY disasters but I've also seen some very good DIY electrical work before.

So as well as having ridden more miles than anyone else on this forum you have extensive experience in both plumbing & electrical work! You're so awesome.

Ah yes Lord Lisvane, well known man of the people, never one to go along with the institutional norm. What a joke.

I agree I was amazed by the result at the time. Paul is a good egg, I was taught by his brother John at Ramsey Grammar, also a top bloke, intelligent & hard working. With hindsight though he'd be wasted in politics.

Absolutely, the rank & file police on the ground did everything they could, it was not their fault, many even had the moral courage to criticise their senior officers in the statements they gave, unfortunately these were altered by senior officers as part of the cover up.

Couldn't agree more Max. How no one has ever been imprisoned is a bloody disgrace. The police officer quoted as saying, on taking a statement from a bereaved family in the early hours of the morning having just identified the body, " you'll be telling me he was a virgin next" on being told that he didn't drink or smoke! If 96 police officers had been killed at Hillsborough there'd still be people in prison today, as it is 96 innocent football fans died and the establishment who were entirely responsible & lied for almost 30 years to cover their tracks have received no punishment whatsoever.

About what you'd expect from them.

The thing with it is, Allan Bell, Notwell etc. bang on about that we shouldn't have a public register but always fail to mention why? There must be a bloody good reason for Bell to finally grow a pair in his dealings with the UK.

You just find it easier to write off anyone disagreeing with it as stupid than to defend it then?

It's pointless. You've really no idea or understanding of things. Easier to be condescending than defend the indefensible eh?

Well why shouldn't you? We're talking about the beneficial ownership of a company, ie. who benefits from it financially, why is it so unreasonable to know that? Judging by the last couple of week, it's is undoubtedly in the public interest so why not? I don't keep the company who I am a financial beneficiary of (ie. who I work for) a secret, I can't imagine why anyone would want to unless they were up to no good.

You're not comparing like for like. A more correct comparison would be Manxie 44 not wanting anyone to know who he worked for, which, unless he was a dodgy fucker, would not be something he'd want to keep secret.

Most people on here seem to think that our government is corrupt, that our Chief Minister and COMIN are incompetent,I can go with incompetent but not corrupt. There is not a single shred of evidence which even hints that someone has took a backhander. Yes there's that Mount Murray horseshit when Karran alleged corruption and then dug through dictionaries to find a definition about failed systems which suited his allegation, however there's no evidence of any corruption in the sense that we all understand.If there was evidence and they are as incompetent as we claim, then surely there would be traces of it. You do not have to take back handlers to act in a corrupted way. Indeed no money has to change hands in corrupt behaviour at all. That is a somewhat naive attitude. You can be ideologically corrupted, strategically corrupted (eg: influence decisions to create certain outcomes), or just be generally corrupt by ensuring that the interests of the few in your own circle outweigh the interests of the many. No money has to change hands. You seem to be protesting far too much when I made it clear that this is the perception that people pick up from reading posts on here. Those are not my direct words. They are an observation based on the content which is daily posted up on here. I do apologise ... Allan. There's your problem. There are so many clueless people on here who think everything is a conspiracy, there must be a back hander, everyone is incompetent in government etc etc etc etc etc Most of the whinig about Mount Murray was simply because Albery Gubay was involved and plenty of people don't like him. There have been far worse things on the island than Mount Murray. You really are like a stick of rock aren't you? If someone cut you in half they would find the words "Manx Establishment" running right through you.

I admire Jeremy Corbyn, I like his politics and I think he is good for the UK. I also have a lot of sympathy for his opinions on tax havens & why he mentioned them being taken under direct rule. As a proud Manx man I would also like to see the island move away from what I see as its over reliance on tax dodging, e gambling and other similarly dodgy sectors. I would also like the island to move toward far greater independence. Neither are remotely likely to happen with the status quo, so as far as I can see Corbyn's plans are more likely to further both causes, good luck to him.

I respect the sentiment as sincerely held although totally impractical.How very British - the planet is littered with examples of its practicality but best keep a stiff upper lip old boy and reassure the latest upstart colony that they'll never make it without blighty what!

Why does the world need offshore finance centres?

I understand your view. My standpoint is that there is no social contract (I think I have said this before in another thread) because that assumes that tax money is more often than not spent wisely for the benefit of society as a whole. Rarely does that happen. If it was a proper social contract then I'm absolutely 100% in agreement with what you said and that we should all pay in more and that there would be a moral argument against not doing so. But any extra taxes raised are unlikely to be spent on increased benefits for the poor, or for better services for the vulnerable, or on improved public services for all. In Western Eurooe they're more than likely to be pissed away on civil servants salaries, massive pension liabilities, cheese mountains, and fighting wars and funding committees and quangos that nobody needs. If we ever got into a social contract situation I would change my view completely as that would be a sort of co-operative system that took money from the rich and made the lives of everyone else better. But I don't believe we will ever get there in any Western system. Edited: In fact I would like to see a social contract in the IOM. People would, I am sure, be prepared to pay more if it wasn't pissed away and was actually spent to change lives and improve services. At the moment if you want to establish a social contract donate to charity or give your time to a good cause as it all goes right to the best possible thing that you want it to and it will probably improve someone's life. What will paying more tax here do in the short term? Probably go towards plugging a pension liability that's out of control anyway. It won't (unfortunately) go on roads, schools, and the Police or the NHS. I think you make some very good points & have a lot of sympathy with what you say. The only problem with it is that opportunities to avoid taxes are not the same for everyone & those who can afford it most are in a much better position than those who can't, which is wrong on every level.

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