JEP Misrepresentations

I'm sure Nick won't mind me putting this on my blog. I've been busy - having read in detail what candidates say, and how the JEP soundbited them, putting the record straight with what they mean when the JEP says "supports capital gains tax".

This is his email to the JEP:

Dear Sir/Madam,I enclose a copy of a post I made today on one of the Island's online fora. I think whoever boiled our views down into soundbites went a bit too far."

In today's J.E.P. they have, on pages 16-17, "Who stands for what". This purports to give a guide to "Senatorial platforms and promises".Unfortunately, they give the reader a very wrong impression of my position by reporting that I "wants (sic) capital gains tax on residential property".

This is incorrect. I have said, in answer to questions about replacing GST with something else, that one option would be to tax property SPECULATION i.e. the buying and rapid selling or the development of, then early selling of, property primarily to make money.

Any capital gains tax would be tapered off completely over, say, 10-20 years, in order not to penalise people who actually live in their property. The taper would fall off rapidly so that the earlier one sold one's property for non emergency or social reasons, the more tax would be paid."I think you must agree that your 7 word précis is misleading - could you correct this please?

Nick Palmer