Bravo! The Premier of Bermuda last Thursday sent an aggressive, masterly detailed, but polite letter to Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the British Labour Party, defending Bermuda’s international reputation.

After years of infuriating off-handed jabs about Bermuda as a “secretive tax haven”, we are fighting back. Michael Dunkley, the Premier, has once again stepped up in defence of our international reputation and our way of life.

The attacks on our island and our international financial centre have been ongoing, forever, it seems. Mention anything today about tax evasion, money laundering and the same old very tired, indeed, adjectives are trotted out once again, generally, by those who have a vested interest in making headlines.

Media reporting: the cynical, sometimes, very laissez-faire headlines about Bermuda, put there to bring attention to the individual, firm, political party or government in order to promote and sell their products, border on misleading at best, and truly irresponsible salaciousness at worst.

Type “Bermuda tax haven” into any search engine and more than 250,000 results pop up. Examples found, just on the first search page:

Headline: “Bermuda, Cayman Islands are top tax havens for US firms, Gannett Washington Bureau, June 8, 2014

“WASHINGTON — Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are the top tax havens for American corporations to legally reduce their federal tax liability, a study by US PIRG and Citizens for Tax Justice concludes.”

If the process is legal, why are we labelled a tax haven?

Headline: “10 Best Tax Havens in the World” by the Motley Fool

“Offshore accounts, shell companies, tax havens — it might sound questionable, but these are all legal methods US companies and individuals can use to lower their tax liabilities. ‘Investing through a trust or company organised in a tax haven is a perfectly legal thing to do,’ said Stewart Patton, a US tax attorney who specialises in taxes for Americans living and investing abroad.”

If the process is legal, why are we labelled a tax haven?

The best defence is an excellent offence. But more needs to be done, we need to fight harder, we need as a country go on the offensive, to protect our reputation — every single time Bermuda is slandered. We should be outraged. The reactionary defence, while necessary, wastes our valuable time, and one wonders whether in the longer term if it even dampens these attacks.

I strongly suggest an innovative marketing campaign touting the reputational business benefits of our island.

Think about it.

The campaign message, the script is already in place. Witness the wonderful message of international sophistication, global and jurisdictional compliance, and positive overtones that Premier Dunkley composed for his most recent message of last week.

It is a brilliant piece of marketing.

Bob Richards, the Minister of Finance, has done his share as well with his addresses to various groups supporting Bermuda (“the dot in the ocean” speech last year) and further, brought positive affirmative attention for our island with his refusal, backed by our Government, to kowtow to other governments and NGOs to institute a public beneficial ownership register.

That demand alone pointed out to me that these countries and politicians bleating on about perceived lack of transparency did not even know that Bermuda has had a corporate register of beneficial ownerships for more than 70 years.

Such an aggressive marketing campaign needs to be placed everywhere. Webinars, YouTube displayed on every Bermuda business website, individual and tourist-related websites, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and every other social media outlet — blanket them all and kept there on a permanent basis. Updated as necessary.

We need to saturate major newspapers, electronic media, such as Huffington Post on a routine basis as well. We should blanket politicians, political and public interest action groups and any related critical observers.

We should never let up this campaign. It should be as relentless as the attacks on our reputation.

We want to establish once and for all that we will not be pushed around, that we have had a strong coherent transparent sophisticated jurisdiction and constitution in place for hundreds of years. We must evoke our business reputation as a serious place of integrity, doing business the right way.

We’ve got the money to spend on the tourism campaign. I suggest that we ramp up the budget for the Bermuda Business Development Agency to produce a global marketing campaign that reaches all industry and citizenry, wherever they may reside.

Additionally, perhaps, we should start litigation process for slander and libel of our hard-earned reputation against self-interested individuals, companies, political parties, and governments.

Will such a campaign work?

I’m no marketing guru, but taking pre-emptive action sure beats having to present our standard defensive position again when another strike is sent across our proverbial bow.

Some of you may recall that I went on a rant in about “being tired of being called a tax haven” on June 8, 2013. Link here. http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20130608/COLUMN07/706089999

That article received the most reader comments ever — something that I never envisaged. But, nothing has changed. We are still a target, but we are learning to fight back vigorously and expeditiously!

Let’s do more, be more, and get ahead of the curve. Let us be what we are — leaders and innovators of a highly regarded international financial business centre.

What do you think?

Comments are welcome.

Martha Harris Myron CPA PFS JSM: Masters of Law, International Tax and Financial Services. Contact: martha@pondstraddler.com