Late Lunchtime Links: No one's got a clue what's going on next with the UK tax system, nor do they appear to care
The City of London Corporation has produced a report about the UK tax system.
It reveals that, despite the fact that no one's got the slightest idea what's happening next with UK taxes, hardly anyone's actually leaving. So far, it says tax-induced departures have been restricted to:
- Four insurance firms
- One fund manager (Henderson's gone to the Netherlands)
- Bluecrest (now has a Geneva office with 70 analysts and traders)
- Alan Howard and seven traders (gone to Geneva. Alan Howard has Swiss wife, so may
have ulterior motives).
- Moore Capital (senior people recently set up an office in Zurich).
The Corporation also undertook a survey of '26 leading financial services firms' in London which found that almost everyone thinks the UK tax system has got worse and that unpredictability is a huge issue. Complexity is also a bigger deal: between 1960 and 1964 there were 200 pages of tax legislation in the UK; between 2005 and 2007 there were 2,097.
Tax free pension pots are now limited to 1.5m are there no plans to increase this in line with inflation. (Financial Times)
Actually, no one took Tullett Prebon up on the offer to relocate abroad to avoid UK taxes. (Financial News)
Declaring war on the bankers won't get us out of this mess. (Telegraph)
Options Group thinks overall compensation will fall 20% this year. (NY Post)
UBS says it's been in talks with dozens of prop traders who want to set up hedge funds. (Bloomberg)
"When you look at JPMorgan, the message was that it was a slow quarter. But I don't think anyone is going to cry." (Reuters)
The incredible youth of people working at Blackstone. (CNN)
Citigroup accused of sacking women to save the jobs of worse qualified men. (Telegraph)
The FSA is warning of people retention risk and personnel stretch. (Telegraph)
US boutique Lincoln International is expected to start hiring debt advisory bankers next year. (Financial News)
"You had people putting zero down to get massive houses they couldn't afford to be in, but now they want to stay. And the government wants to let them stay, because they're voters." (Observer)
