While we wait for Harold Ford to explain how he’s avoided filing a New York tax return while working in New York, he’s preparing to jet off for Bermuda. To address a group that lobbies for tax evaders, er, avoiders. Shadow New York Senate candidate Harold Ford spent all week mushing through the snow pretending to know where he lives . But next month he’ll be relaxing in the warm sun of Bermuda and speaking to a group that works to preserve the small island as a haven for American companies looking to avoid paying taxes, without all that stigma of being a “tax haven.” On March 4, Ford is slated to be the keynote speaker at the Bermuda International Business Association’s annual meeting , to be held at the luxury Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel (pictured below). He’ll talk, according to a BIBA press release, about “the challenges and opportunities that face America and how Bermuda can play a vital role in the U.S. and global economy.” The vital role that Bermuda currently plays in the U.S. economy is that it doesn’t tax corporations , which may explain why nearly a third of foreign profits reported by U.S. corporations in 2003 came from Bermuda and two other low-tax countries , and why 13,000 international corporations, most of them American, are headquartered there. It’s sort of like an international version of Tennessee, which doesn’t have a personal income tax, and which is where Ford presumably claimed to have lived for the past three years while he made money in New York without filing a state income tax return. BIBA’s primary argument seems to be that Bermuda is not a “tax haven” (which sounds bad) but merely has a ” favorable tax structure ” (good!). Here’s how BIBA’s former chairman described companies who set up a Bermuda P.O. Box in 2002 to a Knight Ridder reporter: “It’s not tax evasion,” said Raymond Medeiros, past chairman of the Bermuda International Business Association and a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “No one is doing anything illicit or criminal not to pay taxes. It’s tax avoidance, and that’s legitimate.” Sounds familiar! And it actually clears up a little matter in Ford’s legislative record. Ford voted to ” end offshore tax havens ” in 2004 as a congressman, which would make him a strange choice for BIBA’s keynote speaker. But it’s clear that he’s all for tax avoidance , which is totally cool. Meanwhile, now Ford has fewer taxes to worry about avoiding — he’s been suspended as an MSNBC analyst while he mulls his Senate bid to avoid conflicts of interest.
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Harold Ford to Bring His Expert Knowledge to the Sunny Tax Haven of Bermuda
