Caribbean Net News: Kerry sets sights on Caribbean tax havens

LONDON, England: John Kerry, favourite to become the Democratic candidate to take on George W. Bush in this year's US presidential race, has promised to tackle tax evasion at British-owned tax havens.

In a speech to supporters, Kerry singled out Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, which are both British-owned as he promised to tackle tax evasion and banking secrecy.

'There are enough brass-plate companies down in the Cayman Islands to make anybody sick when they look at their own tax bill,' he said.

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war hero, has led an official US probe in the BCCI affair and has written a book about terrorist money laundering, the Observer reported.

However, according to the Niagara Falls Reporter, in late 1983, Kerry, shortly before calling for closure of "crazy loopholes" in the federal tax structure, participated in a questionable Cayman Islands tax shelter scheme involving complicated commodities straddles.

He lost about $30,000 on buy-and-sell contracts totaling almost $239,000 -- but never reported the loss on his income taxes (as he could have for a substantial deduction) nor the total investment on his Senate financial disclosure forms. Kerry's own accountant convinced him the scheme bordered on illegal.

Only last summer did he admit to the Boston Globe's Brian Mooney that he swallowed the commodities losses to avoid political embarrassment. Kerry did vote for the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that eliminated most such shelters.

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