The Anonymous Widower

The Money-Go-Round

I must admit that I’ve borrowed this title from the nickname of a rather dubious tax-saving scheme thought up in the 1980s by a company called Rossminster Group. Little is found on the Internet about this company, although there is a bit in the obituary of one of Mrs. Thatcher’s ministers, Peter Rees. I became aware of Rossminster through my bank manager and friend, David, who was also bank manager to the Group. He explained what they did as moving money between large number of onshore and offshore accounts, so that it was difficult to say, where it was for taxation purposes.  You have to remember that in those days of the 1970s, tax rates were very high and moving money to say the United States to start a subsidiary there was so impossible it was virtually banned. The latter is one of the main reasons, why so few small, but very profitable private companies were successful before the 1980s and 1990s. Any success, especially in a technological field was to be envied and not nurtured, especially if it was in competition with one of the government’s pet projects.  And if it was successful, it had to be taxed to the hilt.

My association with Rossminster was rather limited, but I was asked to quote for a computer system to manage all those accounts.  I didn’t do much, as I had bigger fish to fry.  But David did a lot of business with Rossminster, as all those transfers meant a lot of bank charges in those days. In the end, as he once said he had a good run with the company, but eventually someone offered Rossminster a better deal.

January 1, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Business, Finance & Investment | Banks