It is a general rule of thumb most understand: if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it must be a duck. But few ever think or care what kind of duck. The same might be said of a mounting challenge Bermuda is facing. Tax haven or offshore financial centre? Tax evasion or tax avoidance? Illegal or immoral? Aggressive or defensive?I don’t know about you Mr Acting Editor, but from all I am reading it does not look like too many people out there (both washed and unwashed) are interested in fine distinctions any more. There is no question that there is a gathering storm. A sample of recent headlines make the point:“Chancellor warns British tax havens to comply with international tax laws or lose Crown dependency status”“PM to Territories: Get your houses in order”“Cash-strapped Governments take aim at tax havens”“Bank chairman pledges to significantly reduce activities with tax havens (et tu, HSBC?)”In the face of such reports, increasing in both frequency and intensity, this is hardly a problem that is going to blow over any time soon. We need to be realistic, too, about what is at the heart of the matter.Public attitudes are changing. The financial crisis and subsequent recession across much of the world has quite naturally led to increased scrutiny of offshore centres, tax havens or not. Struggling with growing deficits, and severe budgetary gaps of their own (sound familiar?) governments are driven to cast their nets wider. No SAGE Commission for them. Tax evasion, tax avoidance, illegal or immoral, aggressive or not, is very much in their crosshairs.Growing deficits, rising unemployment and increasing taxes for individuals is more than just unsettling, it is generating pressure for action for more than just the name and shame dog-and-pony show which we recently witnessed in Washington with Apple. Now the talk is of closing loopholes and revamping ineffective tax rules, theirs and ours.The big G8 countries will be tackling the issue next month at a summit in Britain. UK PM David Cameron has given us a pretty good indication of where he thinks we ought to be heading. “We need global rules that prevent tax evasion and aggressive avoidance,” he wrote in advance of the meeting, “to enable governments to collect the taxes they are owed”. He is thinking not just Apple, but Google and Starbucks and he is thinking billions of dollars his government could use.Money and more money has always been a strong motivator.The irony here is that companies have long employed what may also be termed creative and/or ingenious means to keep costs and taxes down, yes to maximise profit, but also to remain competitive by keeping prices down. Surely this comes as no big surprise. As others more knowledgable than me have pointed out, the principle that you should make the most money you can, provided you do not break the law, is the operating software of modern capitalism.Finding ways to lower taxes and enhance the bottom line is not the exception, it is more likely the rule if the CEO wants to keep his or her job and meet the expectations of shareholders. The success of your pension fund or your health insurer may depend on it.Whether it is all a question of balance, and it is, there is this stampede and if not trampled, holds likely consequences for Bermuda, whether intended or unintended.Meanwhile, back here at the ranch, there was a recent wonderful upbeat piece in the Bermuda Business magazine about our Government’s plans on getting Bermuda back to business. But, arguably, and sorry to say, that was so yesterday. We need to know now what the action plan is for Bermuda and our future on this front. It used to be the big elephant in the room no one talked about, but now everyone else talks about. What we don’t want is that we find ourselves reduced instead to one of a number of little elephants littered around the globe because we failed to act.