Dear Editor,

I have a simple question for Dr Peter Phillips: Is having an international business company registered overseas illegal?

I am a businessman and I choose to arrange my business affairs by taking advantage of a more modern legislative framework and better tax environment in an overseas company in Hong Kong.

To my certain knowledge, most of my business associates in Jamaica have structured their businesses this way, some for privacy, some for estate planning, others to take advantage of tax treaties and some for ease of doing business when registered with an internationally recognised jurisdiction.

I feel obliged to ask this question of Dr Phillips, because he is the minister of finance and should know that this is the reality of the business world. Personally, I don’t care where the leader of the Opposition chooses to register his companies, or how he chooses to arrange his private affairs. All I care about is that he declared his company transparently to whatever authority the law requires, that his business affairs are not illegal and have nothing to do with the taxes I pay.

As minister of finance, Dr Phillips should not be casting innuendos, he has the power to gather and present evidence, rather than to seek political benefit from the cover of questions.

If the minister of finance can use his office in this way, what would prevent him from asking similar questions and casting innuendos at me? The irony of the situation is that Peter Phillips earns approximately the same salary as Andrew Holness.

Dr Phillips doesn’t live in a shack, so his house, too, would cost multiple of his yearly earnings. So it’s not only Holness that should answer, Peter Phillips should answer as well! In fact, all members of parliament can be asked this question and they should answer this question.

As a hard-working and enterprising businessman who came from humble beginnings to achieve my success, I feel insulted by paper pushers who don’t understand business, posturing as moral gatekeepers and making successful people out to be villains.

The minister of finance is heading down a dangerous path. All of a sudden I now feel that because I have offshore companies, I have done something wrong. I don’t know where Mr Holness registered his company; what is clear is that the investment in his house is quite visible here in Jamaica, and he can’t very well move it to St Lucia.

He would have had to pay his property tax and employ lots of Jamaicans to build it. Same for me. Most of my investments are physically here and I employ over 200 Jamaicans. So I don’t want my decisions to structure my business to be frowned on by people who don’t know what it is to meet a paybill every fortnight.

I have always been a Peter fan, however, the more I think of it, with all the taxes, especially the new transfer price tax, no growth after four years with the lowest oil prices in decades, and now this nasty attack, the more I am convinced that Andrew Holness and his wife are the right people to lead this country. He has ambition, he builds big things, embraces wealth creation, and he understands how business works.

Businessman

St Andrew