Visitors to the Palm House at Kew often stop to marvel at the seed of a Coco de Mer. The so-called "Seychelles Nut" has the doublefold honour firstly of producing the biggest seeds in the world, weighing in at a sturdy 17 kilos, but also looking remarkably like a curvy lady's bum.
However today's news revealed they now have a further claim to fame, playing a crucial but slightly unexpected role in a current significant case concerning British tax law. Millionaire businessman Robert Gaines-Cooper is claiming that since the seventies he's actually been resident in the Seychelles, despite the fact that his wife, son and vintage car collection all reside in homely Oxfordshire.
The bit of the case that made me sit up, though, is where Gaines-Cooper claims that it's his coco-de-mer plantation that really proves he is committed to the Seychelles. "there would have been no point in his planting a notoriously slow-growing coco-de-mer tree at Plantation Bois Noir in the 1970s if he had intended to move on", say his lawyers, according to today's Times.
I love the idea that planting slow-growing trees proves that's where you "really" live. And that British tax law is so complicated that you have to prove where it is that your heart is, to find out where your home is.
And if I were a lawyer with HMRC, I would have countered with "so your spouse and children, plus your expensive vintage car collection are disposable enough to be kept in a 'temporary' location?"
Can't fault his lawyers for trying though - inventive!
Posted by: Paul | Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 02:43 PM
That means I live in South Wales then - having spent a number of years planting hundreds of trees on mine spoil heaps in chilly November. Why, I even have a portion of hillside named after me, so it must be true.
Posted by: VP | Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 04:57 PM
Good heavens VP - whats is called Bryn VP ? (Bryn = welsh for hill).
Very amusing Emma - although as I read, I am shaking my head in disbelief!
K
Posted by: Karen - An Artists Garden | Tuesday, 28 October 2008 at 08:42 PM
I don't think I have ever been so excited by the sight of a nut. Marvellously well formed.
I planted a lot of trees in Essex, but I'm not sure there are any tax benefits to that, sadly. Even though the notoriously slow growing English Oak was an integral part of the planting....
Posted by: matthew wilson | Wednesday, 29 October 2008 at 01:47 PM
Perhaps it's time to try reassuring my one really anal lot of neighbours that my overgrown garden simply proves my long-term commitment to the area. Rather than I am just a horticultural slut.
Posted by: emmat | Wednesday, 29 October 2008 at 03:09 PM
I kicked myself later suddenly realising I'd missed a golden opportunity to do some jokes about how we knew all about MW's efforts to plant his seed all over Essex. Sigh.
Posted by: emma townshend | Wednesday, 29 October 2008 at 06:46 PM
What a beautiful nut. And a nice diversion from waiting for the polls to close here in the US.
I would've loved to have heard some of those jokes......
Posted by: Carole | Wednesday, 05 November 2008 at 12:08 AM