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Jersey's politicians are to be asked to prevent new super-wealthy immigrants from moving to the island next year.
Last month it emerged that the government was reviewing the criteria for allowing so called '2(1)Es' residents to come to the island - now the Leader of Reform Jersey, Deputy Sam Mézec, has officially submitted plans to bar them altogether, while that review happens.
In a recently published amendment to the forthcoming Government Plan Deputy Sam Mézec wants the High Value Residency scheme to be closed to new applicants in 2023.
He said that the review was a sign there was concern over the "appropriateness of the terms and operation of the scheme" and that it should not continue until the issues were resolved.
As of the end of last year, there were 184 people living in Jersey who had been granted 2(1)E status since 2005, while 23 applications were approved during 2021. From 2018 to 2020, an average of 19 applications were approved each year.
Pictured: Deputy Sam Mézec is proposing that the scheme allowing 'high-value residents' to move to the island be suspended.
Deputy Mézec said that many Islanders questioned the level of supposed economic benefit from such residents to Jersey.
"On top of this, many have ethical concerns over the morality of a scheme which provides extremely wealthy people with a preferential tax and housing status, allowing them to skip the queues other immigrants must join and enabling them to avoid paying tax in their home jurisdictions," he said in his amendment.
Currently, those offered 2(1)E status pay 20% tax on their first £725,000 of income – totalling £145,000 – and 1% on all income above that amount.
Deputy Mézec, who was formerly a member of the Housing and Work Advisory Group, said he had previously raised his own concerns about the scheme.
"Over time I noticed a pattern where several applications came through for people who were associated with a particular business which had relocated to Jersey a few years previously. These people were not entrepreneurs but were just very well-paid employees of that business. They should not have been coming to Jersey as 2(1)Es, but rather as licensed members of staff for that business. This would also have required them to pay their full share of tax," he said.
"Later in my tenure, we received, on more than one occasion, applications which did not contain complete police checks. Despite not meeting this basic requirement, the officer recommendation for the applications was to approve them anyway," he said.
Last month, he Chief Minister confirmed that her newly established ‘Population and Skills Group’ – a team of Ministers tasked with “a central political forum for matters relating to population policy, the employment market and the skills needs of the island” – had been specifically tasked with “reviewing the criteria”.
Meanwhile, Treasury Minister Deputy Ian Gorst went a step further during a grilling by Scrutiny when he suggested that there could be “changes in the Government Plan” – due to be unveiled this week – allowing for so-called high-value residents’ (HVRs) minimum tax contribution to rise.
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