German Court Orders Gay Tax Equality in Blow to Merkel

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Deborah Cole, June 6, 2013

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (AFP Photo)

Berlin. Germany’s top court ruled Thursday that same-sex partners in civil unions are entitled to the generous tax benefits granted to married couples, in another landmark step for gay rights in Europe.

The decision marks a bruising setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives less than four months ahead of a general election, as the opposition blasted her party as out of touch.

The Federal Constitutional Court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said denying gays and lesbians in so-called registered partnerships tax breaks extended to married people violated their civil rights.

The scarlet-robed judges said their ruling applied retroactively to August 1, 2001, the day on which Germany established civil unions for same-sex couples — a status that falls short of marriage under the law.

The court said that gay and lesbian couples must now be granted the same tax benefits as heterosexual married couples because there were no “substantial grounds for unequal treatment”.

It ordered parliament to quickly pass appropriate legislation.

Married couples who have a big difference in salary, or where one partner does not work, benefit from having their incomes pooled in the calculation of their individual tax bills.

Same-sex couples had been denied such a tax break and the ruling will mean that the German tax authorities will have to reimburse millions to gays and lesbians in civil unions who overpaid over the past 12 years.

All parties in the Bundestag lower house of parliament had expressed their support for such a policy with the exception of Merkel’s conservative Christian Union bloc.

“What a joy — another step toward equality,” Katrin Goering-Eckardt, a candidate for chancellor from the opposition Greens, tweeted in reaction to the decision.

“And another embarrassment for the Merkel government.”

Germany’s openly gay foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle from the Free Democrats, who are junior partners in Merkel’s government, also hailed the ruling.

“When loving people take responsibility for each other, the state must not discriminate against them,” he told news website Spiegel Online.

“It is time that German tax law become as modern as our society.”

And the Lesbian and Gay Association, a national rights group, said the ruling represented another case in which the federal court had been forced to “tutor” the government on constitutional rights.

Merkel said in a newspaper interview in December that she did not favour putting gay couples on the same tax footing as heterosexual ones because the constitution “sees marriage as directly linked to the family and both are under special protection of the state”.

The chancellor has moved her party steadily toward the centre since taking power in 2005 but gay rights remains one of the few issues on which Merkel differs sharply from the centre-left opposition.

The Social Democrats have complained that Merkel has repeatedly co-opted their issues during this year’s campaign, most recently with a proposal to cap home rent increases.

Their chief whip Thomas Oppermann said the court’s decision showed that Merkel’s government had long discriminated against same-sex couples and had a “pre-modern view of society”.

Family affairs minister Kristina Schroeder of Merkel’s CDU party broke ranks, saying that the ruling is “good and correct and clarifies something that is self-evident to more and more people in Germany”.

Political scientist Gero Neugebauer at Berlin’s Free University said the decision “did not make the CDU look good.”

“It could create the impression that it is not leading and lets other institutions take decisions for it when there’s a conflict,” he told AFP.

Thursday’s decision followed a ruling in February which found that gays in a civil partnership should be allowed to adopt their partners’ adopted children.

Gay couples are still forbidden from adopting children together in Germany.

Neighboring France legalized same-sex marriage last month amid a bitter controversy over the issue, making it the 14th country to do so and the seventh in the European Union.

Nine US states as well as the capital Washington have also granted gays the right to marry.

Agence France-Presse

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'Woman in red' sprayed with teargas becomes symbol of Turkey protests

Images of a smartly dressed woman being sprayed with teargas by a riot policeman during protests in Istanbul's Taksim Square have been shared on social media around the world

guardian.co.uk, Lewis Williamson, 5 June 2013

A Turkish riot policeman prepares to use teargas against a woman as people
 protest against the destruction of trees in a park brought about by a pedestrian
project, in Taksim Square, Istanbul.

Istanbul's police chief had said his forces would only use teargas as a last resort. But the images seem to show the officer targeting an unarmed woman. 

The woman's hair is blown upwards as she turns away from the officer. 

The officer closes in on the woman.

The officer continues to use teargas as the woman turns away.

 

All photographs: Osman Orsal/REUTERS

The woman covers her mouth as the officer goes on to spray the crowds of demonstrators behind her.

The images have been widely shared on social media and have spawned cartoons and graffiti across the country and beyond.

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"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  Government

Let us speak of government. We're not speaking of your government, but of any government - the way it works, how it survives, how it has survived, the way it campaigns, and how it elects leaders. It's going to change.

Years ago, I told you, "When everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no secrets." Up to this point on this planet, government has counted on one thing - that the people can't easily talk to each other on a global scale. They have to get their information through government or official channels. Even mass media isn't always free enough, for it reports that which the government reports. Even a free society tends to bias itself according to the bias of the times. However, when you can have Human Beings talking to each other all at once, all over the planet without government control, it all changes, for there is open revelation of truth.

Democracy itself will change and you're going to see it soon. The hold-outs, the few countries I have mentioned in the past, are doomed unless they recalibrate. They're doomed to be the same as they have been and won't be able to exist as they are now with everyone changing around them.

I mentioned North Korea in the past. Give it time. Right now, the young man is under the control of his father's advisors. But when they're gone, you will see something different, should he survive. Don't judge him yet, for he is being controlled.

In government, if you're entire voting base has the ability to talk to itself without restriction and comes up with opinions by itself without restriction, it behooves a politician to be aware and listen to them. This will change what politicians will do. It will change the way things work in government. Don't be surprised when some day a whole nation can vote all at once in a very unusual way. Gone will be the old systems where you used to count on horseback riders to report in from faraway places. Some of you know what I am talking about. Government will change. The systems around you, both dark and light, will change. You're going to start seeing something else, too, so let's change the subject and turn the page. …”

Latvia is headed for the eurozone

Deutsche Welle, 5 June 2013

The European Commission has given the small Baltic state of Latvia the go-ahead to join the eurozone next year. Skeptics are concerned that might boost the influence of the country's wealthy Russian minority.

At the Amberpines showroom in the Latvian capital Riga, wallpaper samples decorate one corner, a wall is covered in glazed multi-colored tiles, and a fire crackles in a wood-burning stove set up in front of tall stacks of firewood. Real estate agent Тamara Raine is working at her laptop computer, answering customer requests. Three years ago, the government gave foreigners the opportunity to acquire a permanent residence permit if they bought real estate - which saved her agency from bankruptcy.

"When the crisis hit, we had problems selling apartments, just like everyone else," she says. "Latvia's Law on Foreign Investment was a great help." Latvians were deeply in debt during those years and in no position to invest, "so we concentrated on foreigners."

Attractive perk for foreign investors

New vacation homes in Jurmala....

Foreigners, in this case, refers mainly to Russians. As a former Soviet republic, Latvia has a large Russian-speaking minority. Raine's business model is based on rich Russians who buy a condominium or vacation home on the Baltic Sea in Latvia.

Among them are Yelena and Sergei, both doctors from Moscow, who bought a home in the Amberpines vacation village project in Riga's seaside resort of Jurmala. The advantages are obvious, says Sergei. He and his wife enjoy the area, everyone speaks Russian, and there is no trace of the resentment against Russians that lingered after Latvia declared independence from Russia in 1990, when many Latvians refused to speak Russian at all. Added to that comes the permanent residence permit: "If we want to travel in Europe, we no longer need to go through the elaborate process of applying for a visa."

A magnet for Russian money

...right on the scenic Baltic Sea in Latvia

Critics, however, say this very generosity that applies to all foreigners who invest more than 100.000 lat (140.000 euros, $182 800) in real estate as a weak point. There is concern the Law on Foreign Investment could enhance Russia's influence in Europe, or let the country's banking sector develop in the same way as the banks in Cyprus.

Inna Steinbuka, who heads the EU Commission's Latvian office in downtown Riga, does not share these concerns: "Russians can buy real estate or invest in Latvia because we have liberal investment rules," she says, but adds the flow of assets by non-Latvians to the country's GDP is not high. "It may be higher than in neighboring countries, but it is much lower than the European average. Whereas in Cyprus, the banking sector held assets equivalent to seven times the nation's GDP, in Latvia, it's not even 1.3 times."

Euro boosts economic growth

Latvia stands to benefit from the
euro, says Andris Strazds

Latvia is still grappling with tax evasion, corruption and money laundering - but apart from those issues, the EU has now confirmed that the country fulfils the Maastricht membership criteria required to adopt the single currency next year.

Its public debt is around 40 percent of GDP, inflation is at less than two percent and people are buying government bonds that were unmarketable just four years ago. Latvia also posted the fastest economic growth in the EU with more than five percent over the past two years.

According to Andris Strazds, chief economist for Latvia at Bank Nordea, the benefits of introducing the euro are evident. "Studies show that membership [in the eurozone] could increase revenue from foreign sales by ten to 15 percent in a few years." It would no longer be necessary to convert lat into euros - "and that means fewer expenses for the economy."

China opens probe into EU wine imports

Deutsche Welle, 5 June 2013

A day after the European Union announced levies against solar panels imported from China, China has announced a price dumping investigation into wine imported from the EU – adding a new layer to a trade spat.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced on Wednesday that it was starting an investigation against wine imported from the European Union to check if prices are undercutting domestic markets.

"The Chinese government has initiated an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation procedure into wines from the European Union," said Shen Danyang, a spokesperson for the commerce ministry, in a statement.

There were few details about the wine probe other than the fact that the commerce ministry "firmly opposes" the EU's levies against solar panels.

On Tuesday, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that an average levy of 11.8 percent would be applied on solar panels from June 6, with the levy rising to 47.6 percent on August 6, unless a solution could be agreed.

The EU accuses China of subsidizing the solar products, the European Commission claiming that panels were being sold at 88 percent below cost price. The industry association EU ProSun says China now holds about 80 percent of the EU market, with European companies having suffered in the face of the cheaper Chinese imports.

The introduction of tariffs is not supported by all EU members, with Germany - the bloc's biggest player in the solar sector - among the skeptics.

France was in favor of the levies on solar panels. Chinese customs figures show that France is the single largest wine-supplying nation to China.

mz/kms (dpa, AFP)

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Cameron calls in tax havens ahead of G8 summit in June

Leaders of overseas territories, including Bermuda and Jersey, summoned to London in move to tackle tax evasion

The Guardian, Patrick Wintour, political editor, Tuesday 4 June 2013

Jersey, in the Channel Islands, is among overseas territories being asked by
 the government in Westminster to share tax information. Photograph: Chris Coe

David Cameron has asked the senior ministers of all Britain's overseas territories – including Bermuda, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands – to London on the eve of this month's G8 summit to urge them to root out the multibillion-pound evasion industry by signing up to agreements to share tax information.

Britain has made a clampdown on corporate and individual tax avoidance the central theme of its chairmanship of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on 17 and 18 June, and Cameron has decided that he cannot be a credible chair of the summit if he is not seen to be trying to put Britain's own house in order.

The intensity of the pressure that Cameron will place on the 10 crown dependencies and overseas territories to be more co-operative has, however, not yet been determined, amid signs there are some disputes between Downing Street and the Treasury on what to demand, and whether excessive public pressure will lead them to refuse to co-operate.

Cameron wants British offshore havens to sign an OECD convention to give mutual assistance in tax matters, which provides for the sharing of information between countries, seen as key to ending evasion.

Some of the British havens have agreed to the automatic exchange of information with some western economies, but not as widely as prescribed by the convention.

The prime minister plans to chair a tax and transparency conference alongside Nick Clegg on the weekend before the G8 summit itself. Cameron is looking at the possibility of the UK dependencies and overseas territories formally signing the OECD convention in the cabinet room on Saturday, but government sources said the plan could yet unravel in the face of hostility from the overseas territories.

The precise constitutional relationship between the UK and the overseas territories is a matter of dispute, but some aid agencies claim the UK can in effect force the crown dependencies to close down the tax loopholes.

Cameron wrote to the crown dependencies and overseas territories in May saying he wanted the G8 to "knock down the walls of company secrecy" to reveal who really owns and controls firms.

The letter calling for action on tax information exchange and beneficial ownership was sent to leaders in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Many of them are furious at being labelled tax havens, and fear the basis of their economies is being threatened, and that they will be put at a competitive disadvantage.

ActionAid claims nearly one in every two dollars of large corporate investment in developing countries was routed through a tax haven. It claims 98 of the FTSE 100 multinational groups have companies in tax havens.

Melanie Ward, head of advocacy at ActionAid UK, said: "It is perfectly possible to achieve a G8 deal to tackle tax dodging that works in the interests of rich and poor countries alike. The prime minister has said that he will do this, but the question is whether he has the clout to achieve it.

"The first test is in the UK's own backyard, and is whether he will pull all 10 of the UK's own tax havens – the overseas territories and crown dependencies – into line.

"At the pre-G8 tax and transparency event on 15 June, David Cameron must ensure that all 10 sign up to the existing multilateral convention on tax information exchange."

Brenda Cox, spokesman for the If campaign, a coalition of 200 groups campaigning in the run-up to the G8, said: "Cameron has to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. By getting the UK house in order, he will have the opportunity to make a wider breakthrough at the summit itself on the issue of beneficial ownership, the way to get behind the anonymous shell companies."

Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, are still gauging how far to push the G8 on measures to make it easy to establish the real owners of companies and assets, in the face of hostility primarily from America and Canada.

Osborne is also facing a push-back from business about imposing excessive regulatory burdens on companies to report their profits on a country by country basis.

Ahead of the summit, Cameron will meet the European commission president, José Barroso, this week, prior to a nutrition summit this weekend.

In the week running up to the G8 summit itself, Cameron will set out his vision of Britain's role in the world and the continuing relevance of the G8.

Offshore Secrets

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Minds are a changin in France: Dylan to get honour after all

Yahoo – AFP, 3 June 2013

US folk singer Bob Dylan performs during the Vieilles Charrues music
festival in Carhaix-Plouguer, France, on July 22, 2012.

Bob Dylan's pot-smoking and protesting past will not, after all, prevent him from receiving France's highest honour.

The US veteran folk singer has been nominated by Aurelie Filippetti, the culture minister and an avowed Dylan fan, to be awarded the Legion d'Honneur.

The move was thrown into doubt last month when Jean-Louis Georgelin, the Grand Chancellor of the Legion, blocked the nomination, reportedly because of reservations about Dylan's use of cannabis and anti-war politics.

But Georgelin said on Monday that Dylan's candidacy had since been approved following a review by the Legion's board of the "chaotic life and lyrics of an exceptional artist who is recognised in his own country and throughout the world as a major singer and a great poet."

"The board has now transmitted a favourable opinion to the president of the republic and the minister of culture will shortly be able to appoint Bob Dylan to the Legion d'Honneur," Georgelin told Le Monde.

The army general acknowledged that he had opposed Dylan's nomination being approved without a proper review of the singer's past.

"I could see no justification for bypassing the normal procedure," he said.

Presuming he accepts the award, Dylan will be following in the footsteps of former Beatle Paul McCartney, who received the Legion d'Honneur in September 2012.

Established by Napoleon, the Order of the Legion d'Honneur honours individuals who have served France in various ways.

Foreigners do not formally become members of the order but are decorated with the insignia of the legion in recognition of service to France or work that is deemed to uphold the ideals of the country.

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"THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

..  Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.. ..."

Muslim religious leaders condemn holocaust deniers

Al Arabia - AFP, Tuesday, 4 June 2013

President of the Islamic Society of North America, Imam Mohamed Magid joined
other Muslim leaders to condemn holocaust deniers. (Photo courtesy: Youtube)

Muslim religious leaders and scholars from around the globe issued a joint statement Monday condemning any attempts to deny or justify the Holocaust in which six million European Jews perished under Nazi Germany.

“We bear witness to the absolute horror and tragedy of the Holocaust where millions upon millions of human souls perished, more than half of whom were people of the Jewish faith,” said a statement signed by 10 leading Islamic figures including President of the Islamic Society of North America, Imam Mohamed Magid and India's Chief Imam, Umer Ahmed Ilyasi.

“We acknowledge, as witnesses, that it is unacceptable to deny this historical reality and declare such denials or any justification of this tragedy as against the Islamic code of ethics,” they said, adding they “stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish brothers and sisters in condemning anti-Semitism in any form.”

Imams and Muslim intellectuals from Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States knelt in solemn prayer for Holocaust dead at Auschwitz on May 22, their foreheads touching the ground before the notorious Wall of Death at the former Nazi German death camp in southern Poland.

They offered the traditional Muslim “salat” prayers facing south towards their holy city of Mecca, shoes removed, as part of an anti-genocide program which also saw them meet Holocaust survivors and their saviors in an emotional encounter at Warsaw’s synagogue a day earlier.

“With the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hatred, rhetoric and bigotry, now more than ever, people of faith must stand together for truth, peace and justice,” their Monday statement said.

“Together, we pledge to make real the commitment of ‘never again’ and to stand united against injustice wherever it may be found in the world today,” it concluded.

Their visit was part of a Holocaust awareness and anti-genocide program organized in part by the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom.

Operated by the Nazis from 1940, Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945. It was part of a vast network of concentration camps across Europe, set up as part of Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution” of genocide against Europe’s Jewish population.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

"... Conclusion

This is the message of the day. The recalibration of awareness is going to change systems, education, government and finance. Those who don't choose to be spiritual at all will still move with a new awareness, for they will be aware of something that they are not aware of now - a softer way of living.

We close with a trite statement that we've given before, but that many have stated in jest: "If women ran the world, they would never send their sons to be killed on a battlefield."

Many laugh. How trite, how simple minded. Indeed, there have been women leaders who have put wars together; they had to. They sent their sons, so that's not really a correct statement. However, it's more right than you may think, dear ones.

So now I will make the statement I have made over and over in these recalibrated channellings: "When recalibrated Humans run the world, there will come a day when they will never send their sons into the battlefield." You see, awareness will change all of that. They will eventually see the wisdom of unification, new ways to settle issues, and the intuitive attribute of putting things together instead of tearing them apart.

There will be a time when government armies will not need to be large, and weapons will not be as powerful. Slowly, government won't need them. Slowly, slower than you want, these things will happen as the old soul carries his light and looks at the masters of the planet and emulates them.

You've all heard it: There will come a time when the masters will come back to Earth, and there are many who are waiting for this. However, it has already happened! They couldn't come back until the alignment was right and now it is right. This is what you are feeling in 2012 and beyond. It's starting to happen, and they're back. But they're not back as corporeal Human Beings. They're back as the energy of recalibrating of the awareness of God.

I wouldn't say these things unless they were true. Watch for these things, dear ones. Remember where you heard them first and when some of them start to occur in your news. And when you see the earth working in this fashion, dear one, maybe you'll realize that what I have given today is real.

Be circumspect. There is no perfect timing. Humans will create all this at their own pace. Do not be in fear of the things that might follow, for I say it yet again that the old energy will show itself soon in survival mode and it won't be pretty.

In this beginning of new energy, stand tall and turn on your light. Darkness will shirk before you. That is the truth of the day. ...”

Gibraltar tries to lure London hedge fund bosses with promise of low taxes

Peninsula launches campaign weeks after David Cameron asks overseas territories to 'get houses in order' over tax

The Guardian, Rupert Neate in Gibraltar, Sunday 2 June 2013

Gibraltar is home to 150 hedge funds, managing £3bn of assets.
Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Rex Features

Gibraltar is launching a campaign to persuade hedge funds to ditch their plush Mayfair offices for the low taxes of "the Rock".

Fabian Picardo, chief minister of the British overseas territory, said multimillionaire hedge fund managers should quit London for Gibraltar because it's "much cheaper", while promotional material promises they are "unlikely to be liable for corporation tax".

Picardo, who has made attracting hedge funds a key aim of his administration, last week invited hedge fund managers to the peninsula where they were told income tax could be limited to £30,000 a year no matter how many millions they earned.

Gibraltar also boasts no VAT and social security payments of just £120 per family a month. In the UK the top rate of income tax is 45%, VAT is 20% and national insurance is levied at 14% of weekly earnings above £797.

Gibraltar's campaign to attract hedge funds by means of low taxes comes just weeks after David Cameron wrote to Britain's crown dependencies and overseas territories ordering them to "get our own houses in order" as he pushes for international action to tackle "staggering" losses from tax avoidance.

Picardo denied Gibraltar was a tax haven and said the territory complied with all European Union tax and transparency regulations. He said he was delighted the UK was "finally going to crack down on tax evasion", which he said was good for Gibraltar which already has "the toughest regulation".

However, promotional material given to hedge fund managers said: "Gibraltar's tax laws are central to its position as a thriving fund domicile.

"The profits of any branch or permanent establishment of the investment manager are not subject to tax in Gibraltar, to the extent that those activities are undertaken outside Gibraltar." Corporation tax on activities undertaken on the rock is levied at 10%, compared with 24% in the UK.

Hedge fund managers were told their income tax bill could be reduced still further if they were granted "special tax status" as a "high executive possessing special skills". Such a status caps an individual's tax bill at £30,000 no matter how much they earn. The territory was unable to say how many hedge fund managers have the status.

Picardo, who was partner at the local tax specialist law firm Hassans until he was elected chief minister in 2011 and will return to the firm when he leaves politics, has been on a road show of hedge funds in London's Mayfair and Knightsbridge to promote Gibraltar's "low-cost efficiency".

As well as holding the territory's first Gibraltar Funds and Investments Association black-tie dinner last week, Picardo has thrown a promotional party for hedge fund managers at Merchant Taylors' Hall, down the road from the Bank of England in the City.

The chief executive and chairman of one of London's leading PR firms have also been engaged to promote Gibraltar to London's fund managers.

Picardo said the recruitment drive was going well with "a number of people that used to operate out of Mayfair now in Gibraltar" and "a number more" in discussions with the government. "This is a process that is going to continue. Gibraltar presents a serious advantage in the interest of shareholders," he said. "At the end of the day it is in the interest of shareholders that hedge funds maximise revenue."

Philip van den Berg, managing director of Taler Asset Management, said he chose to relocate to the rock after 13 years in the City because "Gibraltar came out the best for tax and compliance [with regulations]".

"I used to go on holiday to Spain. One day I thought I could live here, I like it," he said. "And it's cheaper."

The number of funds on the 6 sq km peninsula has grown from 20 in 2006 to 150 today, managing £3bn of assets.

Gibraltar's latest available budget shows financial services is, jointly with tourism, the territory's biggest source of income, accounting for 33% of GDP.

Spain has accused Gibraltar, which has been British since the signing of the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, of being a tax haven that allows companies and citizens to avoid hundreds of millions of pounds of tax a year.

Picardo said Gibraltar complied with all EU regulations and "does not want to be associated with money that stems from tax evasion, fraud, money laundering or from any other source that is not absolutely acceptable".

He said Spain "really needs to buck up its ideas if it's going to prove those allegations". He accused Madrid of taking a "very belligerent" approach to Gibraltar and "annoying Gibraltarians on an almost daily basis". He said Gibraltar's reputation as a tax haven was "attributed to us by people that want to politically destabilise us".

However, hedge fund managers were told: "Ultimately, these investment funds are unlikely to be liable for corporate tax as Gibraltar levies tax on a territorial basis on income accruing in Gibraltar, whereas the fund's investments will ordinarily be located outside the jurisdiction."

Picardo said that even without the tax advantages, Gibraltar was still a "much cheaper place to work". Its zero VAT on products or services means hedge funds can engage lawyers and accountants for at least 20% less than they would be charged in London.

"Why come here?" Picardo asked in his palatial office in 6 Convent Place, the Gibraltarian equivalent of 10 Downing Street. "Turn around and look outside – that's one of the 300 days a year of constant sunshine.

"We're linked to the place that most people in London spend 340 days a year saving up to spend the remaining days enjoying a round of golf in the sunshine."

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