Ahoy there!

Jun 3, 2008, 17:43 PM

Authors : Richard

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Post date : Jun 3, 2008, 17:43 PM

Just so that Mike Truman knows that he's still in our thoughts while he bobs around the North Sea briny (on a ship, the water's not that warm yet), we were getting worried that if fog came down and the navigation was a few degrees off he could come to grief on the sovereign nation of Sealand.
Actually, if he liked it while he was there he could put in a bid for place - or perhaps we should say 'principality' - as I understand that it might still be up for sale.
In addition to then providing the kudos of being able to invite people round to your own country for the weekend (beats the Cotswolds cottage I would guess), it has the added advantage of being a tax haven.
Well, I think it's a tax haven; better get an e-mail off to HMRC to check on this (so don't sign on that dotted line yet, Mike) as, last I heard, the department had other thoughts about this.
Also, I understand that you can't actually buy a country. It would just be a transfer - something along the lines of Hong Kong, I would guess, but without the Chinese (but probably with the rain) - so exactly what you are buying seems a little unclear. Goodwill perhaps?
I'd like to see the capital gains tax computation for that. Then again, you're living in your own tax haven, so who cares about the capital gains tax computation?
Perhaps Taxation could relocate there, but then again it's a tax haven. What would we write about? I would guess that the tax jobs market there might be limited, especially as it's only 550 square metres in size.

'Thar she blows!' For a closer view of this week's Taxation off to leeward, click here.

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