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03 Sep, 2013
As a landlocked country with a small economy but great geographical positioning, the Czech Republic continuously attempts to attract foreign investors. In order to speed up the process of the internal employees transfer of foreign company's branch located in the Czech Republic, the accelerated visa procedure named "Welcome Package" has been developed earlier this year and entered in force last month.
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22 Aug, 2013
Switzerland has had some bad press lately, partly due to the readiness of its banks to help Americans escape the IRS, and partly due to the doings of a lunatic fringe of "populist" (read "socialist" or worse) activists who have been pursuing a xenophobic, "little Switzerland" agenda via referendums which require only 100,000 signatures to take place, and then generate large quantities of heat and light, usually to no effect at all.
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15 Aug, 2013
Competition is the number one operating principle between countries as between species, individuals and companies, so Switzerland and Luxembourg are demonstrating their evolutionary fitness by seizing leadership of the continental European Renminbi market. Of course, the very assets that have allowed them to become two of the most successful "offshore" jurisdictions are the ones that are making it easy for them to make the running in renminbis: low tax rates, flexible corporate forms, openness to international business flows and a high level of financial expertise.
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01 Aug, 2013
It's all happening in trade at the moment with the United States gaining its second star in a week after reporting good progress with the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, after a successful opening to the US/EU TTIP talks last week. Japan has now officially joined the process, which also includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
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04 Jul, 2013
Do you remember how during the 2008 financial crisis Dubai suffered a hard landing? It hit fast and it hit hard. The majority of companies suffered severe cuts. The airports were full of abandoned cars from people who dashed for the exits. The malls were empty.
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02 Jul, 2013
The UAE offers a economic model distinctly different from anywhere else in the world: no direct or indirect taxes on personal or corporate income, no forced contributions to a social security or pension scheme, very low import duties (5%), no taxes on luxury goods, de facto free immigration (for anyone with a job), limited interference in labour markets, and unilateral free trade.
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04 Jun, 2013
In the previous newsletters we discussed the new regulations politicians use to try and counter what they consider unfair tax advantages. At first this seems morally just. It is easily sold to the public. However, there are some unintended consequences to this line of thinking.
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30 May, 2013
Amid complaints from businesses in particular about the horrors of the US Tax Code, and in an interval between the ongoing shenanigans on the Hill over attempts to change things, it is pleasant to be able to report that US investors have the world's best investment regime in terms of transparency, fees and choice; and this despite the fact that the US scores low on the taxation front, with higher taxes on savings and investment than most other countries. Perhaps I shouldn't be including investment in a business friendliness review; but people start businesses in order to make money, and if they weren't successful they'd stop and get a job, so it's important that they are able to put their money somewhere it will be safe and productive.
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09 May, 2013
One swallow doesn't make a summer, and we can't herald an outbreak of competition in the European Union just because the UK has announced an expansion of its fiscal support for film-making. But coming on the heels of the announcement of the Patent Box, and further reductions in the rate of corporation tax, it does show that there are ways for a country to compete even within the strait-jacket of the EU's State Aid rules. It seems illogical and even perverse that Brussels allows a range of national corporation tax rates from 10 percent to 33 percent, yet will not allow say an SEZ in the waterlogged fens outside Cambridge with an incentive rate of 10% for technology start-ups. Of course that situation is not the Commission's choice – they would prefer a harmonized tax rate across the Union. Let's hope they never get their wish: it would be like entering a boxing match with your hands tied behind your back.
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11 Apr, 2013
While Egypt seems to be splintering in front of our eyes, the members of the neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), that's Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, are hoovering up FDI at a great rate. Some of these countries have their unpleasant aspects, and are emerging from the Arab Spring with tarnished democratic credentials, if they had any in the first place, but economically speaking they are doing well, making good use of their oil wealth and even spreading some of it around their own citizenry.
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