Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The fellowship of the tax-cut

The governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus has an opinion piece in Wednesday's Financial Times, the backdrop being the long delay in the country getting its EU bailout approved. Among the defences to the criticisms of the country that are circulating --

Taxation is another issue misunderstood by some. We have one of Europe’s most competitive corporate tax regimes – but there is a big difference between tax havens and low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus. The former often have zero-tax, lax company registration processes and avoid signing double-tax treaties that would require an exchange of information between tax authorities. None of these characterises Cyprus.

Credit where it's due. The quicker path to Franco-German ingratiation might have involved saying we're not as dodgy as those Irish.