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Newsletter | Articles US TAX HAVEN MEANS NO LEVEL PLAYING FIELD by Tracey Ellis, Guernsey Evening Press GUERNSEY cannot compete on a level playing field while an American jurisdiction follows different rules. Former politician Advocate Peter Ferbrache said the United States selected which regulations to follow, depending on whether it liked them. He cited Delaware as a business centre in the US that did not follow Guernsey's regulatory regime. 'You do not have to say who you are, whereas here if you want to open a business, you almost have to state your heritage going back to 1066,' he said. 'How on earth are you going to have a level playing field?' Speaking at a recent seminar with Jeffrey Owens from the OECD's centre on tax policy and administration, Advocate Ferbrache also raised the question of whether the US would readily exchange information on request, as it should under an agreement signed last year. Mr Owens said he would be disappointed if the information flow was not there and confirmed that Delaware's legislation was an issue that the OECD had discussed with the Channel Islands authorities. In an article in this month's Company Lawyer, director of fiduciary services and enforcement at the Financial Services Commission Talmai Morgan expressed his personal view on the subject. 'A balance has to be struck between the needs for transparency and disclosure on the one hand and appropriate respect for privacy [under human rights legislation] on the other,' he said. The need to avoid disproportionate regulatory burdens and the establishment of a level playing field between jurisdictions must also be desirable objectives.' Advocate Ferbrache also took a swipe at the island's banks, saying that they were too scared of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission to complain about having to carry out know your customer checks. The former conseiller, who has confirmed that he expects to stand in next year's elections, predicted that retention tax would be a bureaucratic nightmare and added that it was going to change in five years' time anyway, once the transition period was over.