Speeches by Scott Pearman, MP

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

7 words

Sorry. Did I mishear that? [Inaudible interjections]

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

9 words

Oh, I apologise. I . . . I— [Laughter]

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

11 words

Sorry to elevate you too soon. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

8 words

There we go. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

782 words

Yes, well, we are not going to deal with retractions. Let’s stay on a good line, shall we, Minister Hayward? One fundamental will be the identification of tax credits. And you will be hearing . . . we will be hearing a lot about tax credits just as the Premier’s son has heard so much about it that he now …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

7 words

So in terms of — [Inaudible interjections]

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

5 words

I am going to continue.

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

78 words

I am told by the Premier that I am building straw men. What I am actually doing is setting out the facts because I do not tend to speak in hyper-bole and make false promises. [Inaudible interjections] B ermuda House of Assembly Mr. Scott Pearman: There will need to be assets held in reserve in order to pay the tax …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

6 words

—of whether the tax material materialises.

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

609 words

So the Premier quite rightly said that these tax credits, these QRTCs, (please forgive the jargon) have benefits over other tax credits. No doubt that is true. But to be fair, they also have detriments over other tax credits. One is that they are complicated, and again, I don’t think that this is really a debatable point. But two, they …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

573 words

And if tax revenue does not materialise, and we don’t know if it will and we don’t know if it won’t, but if it does not, this is an infrastructure that we are going to create at great cost. So, we like the fact that it is independent. And we recognise that there will be cost involved, but we need …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

20 words

So, not too long ago, in the 1980s , it was said that we were at the end of history.

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

57 words

We were remarking on the fact that peace had s uddenly broke out across the globe and we had put as ide the human behaviour that was so terrible. And we dec lared victory. And of course, how premature that was, Mr. Speaker, because now we stand here today with two major war conflicts in the world.

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

94 words

And what I draw from that, as awful as that is, is that human nature can be variable. So, if people paint an overly simplistic picture, please be wary. It is complicated. There are twists; there are turns. The benefits may come, and we hope they do. But the potential for them is highly speculative. And historic mismanagement has not …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

117 words

So beware. If you hear, No one will leave. Stop. Think. Of course, some will leave. If you hear, This will solve all our problems and you will never have to pay tax again because IB will pay. Stop. Think. Maybe, maybe if things go well. But also maybe not. As I said, tax credits are the key here. They …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

292 words

Indeed. So, it is not an inevitability. And anyone who says that it is an inevitability, I think I would ask them to rethink. That is a very easy argument to make. But it is not necessarily accurate. Again, I point to what I pointed to earlier —the United States, Cayman, Switzerland and now perhaps the UN, who might weigh …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

350 words

And again, because this is not a black -and-white, cut -and-dried issue, it is an issue with complication, let me say the key point against. The key point against is that there may well be a departure of international business for jurisdictions who say to t he OECD, No, we won’t. And at this moment in time, and it could …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

330 words

Nobody . . . and I hear Thank God!, from the MP Jache Adams from behind me. Well, I am sorry that this was boring for you, sir. I will end where I started. Nobody wants more taxes. Yes, these taxes will be applied to a limited section of the international business sector. But as I have said, international business …

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

49 words

Well, all I can say, it was in there. We did receive some amendments. I do not know if it is no longer, but I thought that there was a Corporate Income Tax Authority in there. It was certainly discussed in the briefing. Is it not in the Bill?

15 Dec 2023 House of Assembly

Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly

97 words

If I am wrong about that, I will absolutely accept that I am wrong about that. Certainly we have been told that there would be an independent Corporate Income Tax Authority (or agency) and we certainly . . . well, administration I am told by my colleague MP Susan Jackson. I had thought that that was in an earlier draft …