It was a hot, windless afternoon in August 1995 and the atmosphere in my office in Saint Helier, Jersey, was stifling. I was economic adviser to this Channel Island tax haven, one of many offshore satellites of the City of London, and I was sitting opposite a multi-millionaire and his wife and their six financial and legal advisers. I asked him why he had not paid a penny of income tax in five years. His defence was this: my millionaire friends pay no tax and my financial advisers told me I do not need to pay tax – so why should I?
His defence could almost be a manifesto for the world’s wealthy: ‘We’re rich, we’re different – and taxes are for the little people.’
