The Fair Tax Town (FTT) movement (also called the Powys tax rebellion ) is a movement established by several shop owners in

Crickhowell Crickhowell (; cy, Crucywel , non-standard spelling ') is a town and community in southeastern Powys, Wales, near Abergavenny, and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. Location The town lies on the River Usk, on the southern edge ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Documentary

During the establishment of the movement, a documentary was made by the BBC along with it. This documentary, narrated by

Heydon Prowse Heydon Prowse (born February 1981) is a British activist, journalist, satirist, director and comedian. He is best known for writing and performing in BBC Three's Bafta-winning ''The Revolution Will Be Televised'' alongside Jolyon Rubinstein. As ...

is called ''"The Town that went Offshore"'' or ''"The Town That Took on the Taxman"'' and was first shown in January 2016. The movie follows the business owners as they decide to establish an untaxed Manx company which designs and owns a brand (''Crickhowell Fair Tax''), use the brand in their advertising and pay royalties for using this brand, as big companies do with their own brands. Their Manx company sets up a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

subsidiary which receives the royalties and sends them to the Isle of Man, since Britain would tax royalties sent directly to a tax haven, but charges no tax on royalty payments to the Netherlands, and the Netherlands charges no tax on royalties sent to tax havens. Thus their money accumulates tax-free in the Isle of Man, and the movie suggests ways to use it for expenses in Wales, such as borrowing it. The movie also discusses customer relationship managers which tax authorities assign to big businesses to ensure their tax arrangements are valid.

Spreading the movement

The movement's aim is to persuade governments to change their tax regulation so that small businesses get the same level of tax as multinationals and other large businesses.FTT website FAQ
/ref> To help achieve this, FTT has started to share their expertise on how to make businesses engage in

tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdi ...

. Since then, many other towns have adopted the scheme.

Passing the baton

After spending two years developing and publicizing the project, the Crickhowell businesses decided not to proceed. Prowse, the documentarian, said he hoped another group of people would take the idea another step, "If you want to put your money through a scheme like that, you’ve got to expect that the taxman’s going to contact you and you’re going to have to defend yourself, possibly in court."

References

{{reflist

External links

Fair Tax Town
website
Heydon Prowse
website Tax avoidance Political organisations based in Wales Economy of the Isle of Man