The unanswered Ashcroft questions return

strapworld

Never forget that this man created the only charity dedicated to catching criminals! CRIMESTOPPERS UK - which came from Community Action Trust - started in 1985 because of the Broadwater Farm murder of constable Blakelock.

People should remember this, and his other good works,before kicking this man.

How do impecunious labour politicians become owners of more than two houses? Have farms etc when they couldn't ub two pennies together?

If there is to be an enquiry into taxation. Let the people have a clear account of what each MP pays in tax! That would identify a few stories - methinks!

Travis Bickle

The questions may be legitimate but when so many of us are losing their jobs and the economy goes to hell in a handcart I doubt your average man on the street who give a stuff over someone most of them, if asked, would probably think was the lead singer from The Verve.

samuel

Ashcroft will stay in tax-exile until as late as possible before the election, keeping every pound he can out of the treasury coffers, until he finally switches back to avoid embaressment to the party during the GE.

And we will all feel better about that?

cuffleyburgers

Cameron is doing us all a disservice by not nailing this one straightaway.

Neil

James,

Every time this comes up I despair as so many journalists fail to understand our tax system.

Rachel's article quotes Ashcroft as saying that his home is Belize. So he is likely domiciled there.

Whether he is resident in the UK depends upon whether he spends more than 91 days in the UK per fiscal year over an average of four years.

If you want to find out his residency status thenfollow him!

THX1138

Anyone who donates millions of pounds to any political party has sinister motives.

Chuck Unsworth

@ THX1138

So my £2-50 to an unnamed political party is OK, then? Good. I'm in the clear.

dennis

Lord Ashcroft may well have a legal duty to let Customs and Revenue know about his status.

He may well have a moral responsibility to keep his end of the agreement he made before he became a peer.

What Lord Ashcroft most certainly does not have, however, is any responsibility, legal or moral, to tell Rachel Sylvester about it.

Lord Ashcroft has many reasons to distrust journalists, Tom Baldwin being the main one.

If I were a billionaire I would find better ways of amusing myself than keeping the media guessing about my residency status, but if that's what makes Lord A happy..............

THX1138

Chuck yep you're in the clear. I doubt your £2.50 buys you a corner office in Central Office or lets you keep your tobacco advertising on your racing cars.

But on the bright side you're spared an afternoon on your yacht with George Osborne

Gustavo Gutierrez

From Belize News Today

"Telemedia Loses in Court Again
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It doesn’t make much of dent in the vast volumes of litigation involving the government and Market Square, but tonight, government does have at least a moral victory to celebrate. This morning the Chief Justice struck out a case brought forward by three Michael Ashcroft companies stemming from its multi-million dollar quarrel with Belmopan over business tax arrears. Belize Telemedia, BTL Digicell and Business Enterprises Systems Limited had asked the CJ to make three declarations of unlawfulness related to eighteen judgement debtor summonses and twenty-one assessments between February and August of this year, alleging that the Commissioner of Income Tax had strayed from the statutory regime set out in the act; had failed to comply with the provisions of the act and moreover, had acted irrationally or with improper motive in assessing the taxes owed by the companies and then seeking to collect those sums.

Last week, the companies’ attorney, Eamon Courtenay argued that his clients’ attempts to have the Commissioner review the assessments as well as their efforts to take their challenge to the income tax appeals board had been unsuccessful because there had been what he called a “breakdown of the statutory scheme.” But the Attorney General’s representative Lois Young rejected that, telling the court that an appeals board has been in existence since “living memory” but that Telemedia and its sister companies had not used the considerable resources at its disposal to take their case before the board.

This morning, the Chief Justice agreed with Young, saying that he had been convinced that the appeals board was an alternate remedy and had been and is available to the companies. Furthermore, the CJ found that while the Accommodation Agreement’s validity was not being questioned in this case, it was at the heart at the matter as the three companies used it to base their claim that they do in fact have a credit with the government for any taxes that they may owe.

Following the proceedings in court this morning, Young told us that while today’s decision will bring some relief, the Ashcroft-sponsored litigation continues to pile up.

Lois Young, Attorney for Government
“It really cuts down on the amount of litigation, that’s all it does. Right now between Telemedia and Belize Bank there are twenty cases in this Supreme Court. 20 ongoing cases and what this does is just to cut down on one of them but we’re still there with every month having to fight for business tax from Telemedia.”

Janelle Chanona,
Does this now open the doors to the appeals board that you wouldn’t have to go to the Magistrate’s for summons enforcement?

Lois Young,
“No we still have to go because remember you need to pay and then appeal and so they won’t pay, at all. Even though they may be appealing and they have to go by way of the appeal route, they won’t appeal. But the critical thing too about appealing is that the Chief Justice has made this clear, the question here is the validity of the Accommodation Agreement and Telemedia has said that is before arbitrators in England. They don’t want the courts here or the appeals board to deal with their Accommodation Agreement because they say that is subject to their arbitration.”

Janelle Chanona,
Now will the AG be looking at bringing the Accommodation Agreement before the CJ?

Lois Young,
“I don’t know if the Attorney General, remember there is a problem that the Accommodation Agreement was signed between the government of Belize and Telemedia so you can’t have the government challenging its own agreement. Even though it is a different political party in government, it is still the government. Maybe another group will do it, I don’t know.”

And it’s notable that the CJ also awarded costs to the Attorney General. Young and Courtenay have since agreed that that figure will be twelve thousand dollars.