As With Many New Year Resolution...

The Guernsey Literary Society

Resolution, the company that swallows life insurance companies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, announced last week that they would not be paying £250m back to shareholders. They describe the reason for this decision  due to the uncertainty over the capital requirements of one of its many subsidiaries (one of the few working  companies - Friends Life). Resolution are currently restructuring their UK life and asset related management sectors in what they call the "UK Life Project". You may have seen Resolution appear at the centre of a Channel Four Dispatches documentary, which attempted to suggest an unhealthy relationship with HMRC and Guernsey. Sadly the reporting was somewhat confused and left many unanswered questions. I also had sympathy for some of the HMRC Board whose faces were shown in a way that implied that they were also somehow "involved", which had that been me, I would have been rather livid at the inference. What disappoints though, is the sense that one gets when a Board member of Resolution said there was no tax reason for having the company based in Guernsey, well there may not be at the moment, but the only purpose of going offshore is to defer tax. For goodness sake just be honest about it. By the way, the wonderful Kate Winslet is due to star in a new Kenneth Branagh film based on the book "The Guernsey Literary Society and Potato Peel Pie Society" a bit of a title! The film is scheduled for next year in 2013.