Cyprus-Forum.com

[Filitsa]

Filitsa my dear,

I was a business lawyer for some years, a major part of them working for a major, and I mean MAJOR US company. Tax law was part of my daily routine. We had ofices in every country in Africa and the Middle East. Along with registered offices in Delaware (the tax haven of the USA).

Double taxation laws are a matter of course between nations, ie Cyprus and the USA have agreements that they will not tax their nationals who have alread been taxed in each other's jurisdictions.

So a company registered in Cyprus, doing its business outside of Cyprus will pay 10 per cent corporate tax. This payment precludes it from being taxed in the USA. However, it does not help if the company has premises and business dealings inside the USA.

But, what you do not apparently get, is that after that initial corporate tax the income derived by the shareholders will be taxed at regular Cyprus PERSONAL income tax rates which reach the same levels (give or take a few points) as USA tax. It is not allowed to keep undistributed profits longer than two years and so evade personal tax in Cyprus. At two years after registration the company owners will pay 37 per cent total tax which is comparable to the USA. There goes the tax haven idea!

Cyprus companies must have fully identified persons (legal or natural) as shareholders with fully legalised and apostiled identity documentation, ie there are no "straw man" loopholes, therefore no ways to launder money. There goes the laundering charge.

Can you say the same for US registered companies in places like Delaware and Nevada?

As for the Milosevic money, there was transportation of money, not laundering in the sense that is used in US law, ie turning dirty money into legally useable funds and thus avoid the charge of "invisible means of support". Del Ponte determined that cash was moved by Serbian personnel in their planes, at the request of their central bank. Why did she not issue an indictment against ANYONE regarding these "revelations"? Possibly because there was no crime involved?

Nikitas, again, I am not disputing the the legal agreements.

Was it within Del Ponte's jurisdiction to issue such indictments?

[Filitsa]

Nix

[Filitsa]

Filitsa,

Have you read that piece of garbage in Forbes that you linked us to?

It starts with a long list of unfounded gossip to conclude that since 2004 Cyprus has changed its laws but still offers a low corporate tax rate. SO WHAT?????

Ireland has a low corporate tax rate, but it also has a whole bunch of Irish American politicians in Congress and no one writes that kind of shit about them.

Honestly Filitsa, where do you think it is more likely to find gun running networks, in Ulster or in Cyprus?

What thes bums who write and edit this crap do not tell, and if told the picture changes entirely, is that corporate tax may be lower in Cyprus, but your PERSONAL TAX, still has to be paid on the profits reported and a company registered in Cyprus cannot postpone the allocation of profits for more than two years. Once you add up corporate tax and personal tax from a company the total comes to 35 per cent tax, which is higher than most countries around the world and the figure demolishes the "Tax Haven" title for Cyprus.

Want a tax haven go to British Gibraltar!

Yes Nikitas, I read the article. I've also read a few others that substantiate it. If, per chance, you too care to read a couple of them, I've provided the links below.

In the first link, you might want to pay particular attention to Case Study #3, pertaining to Milosevic's money laundering via Cyprus, which is about a third of the page down. You will find that what you regard as "gossip," Carla del Ponte established as fact during Milosevic's tribunal.

In the second link, allow me to call your attention to the article's subtopic entitled "Cyprus Income Tax." Click on "Double Tax Treaties." There you may learn why Cyprus is so enticing to foreign "entrepreneurs" despite the personal tax.

http://www.drmcc.org/dyndocs/4680ed48d4e5e.pdf

http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/jcy2tax.html

Regards.

There’s far too much junk in your Forbes article to go through. Cyprus’ tax agreements are perfectly legal so if you want to investigate fraud you are perfectly located.

The Forbes article is short. My directions through the links are very simple and straight forward. The legality of the agreements are not in question; the methods of execution and verification are. Your attempt to deflect the issue with your last statement is not relevant to the topic, which involves Cyprus and not where I am "perfectly located." All in all, your response was mighty lame, which begs the question of why you bothered. Nevertheless, I understand you, GR: you'll invest the time to read only if it suits your agenda. In this case, it doesn't ... yet you felt compelled to respond with nothing of relevance. Hmmm ...

No no no no.... there's far too much BOLLOCKS in your article to respond to. Only around 10-15% of what is there is true but I can't be bothered countering all that. I read this pile of shit way before you did ages ago.

Okay, big guy.

[pissouri]

Cyprus should not be harboring dictator’s monies, because we are only talking about a few million here and there.

What they should have done in order to earn billions was as follows:

Befriend a dictator or if you can not find one, finances their election, or if this is not feasible, coordinate the overthrowing of a legal elected government and install your dictator.

Once you have you dictator, supply arms to him. I.e. arm him to the teeth, get him to invade a neighboring country that you don’t get on with, but at the same time supply arms to that neighboring country as well.

Once you have sold as much military hardware as possible, fall out with the dictator. Inform the world that this guy is not nice and he has done bad things (regardless that you install him into power, you armed him, etc., etc.).

Organize a posy and bomb the shit out of that country, hang your previous friend the dictator in public, talking a lot about democracy, etc.

Get your country’s big companies to rebuild that country, that you have bomb into the middle ages. (Bearing in mind that the company’s that get the contract are company’s that you are a share holder in).

Also drain that countries resources goes without saying.

By this time you should have earn a few billion. Time to move on to the next country!!!

[psycho]

Recently I have been trying to locate a part for one of my motorcycles. In the process I contacted two businesses in the USA.

I was somewhat gobsmacked when reading their replies...they went something like this...

"We refuse to have any dealings whatsoever with Cyprus. We will neither accept credit or debit cards or even cash and refuse point blank to ship any goods to that country. This is due to the enormous amount of fraudulent business transactions and credit card frauds originating there. We are sorry we cannot be of service to you."

Ouch...!

Did they state North or South Cyprus? They probably won't ship goods to the North because they know the majority of Turks are there doing nothing but fraudulent business transactions.

[Filitsa]

Cyprus should not be harboring dictator’s monies, because we are only talking about a few million here and there.

What they should have done in order to earn billions was as follows:

Befriend a dictator or if you can not find one, finances their election, or if this is not feasible, coordinate the overthrowing of a legal elected government and install your dictator.

Once you have you dictator, supply arms to him. I.e. arm him to the teeth, get him to invade a neighboring country that you don’t get on with, but at the same time supply arms to that neighboring country as well.

Once you have sold as much military hardware as possible, fall out with the dictator. Inform the world that this guy is not nice and he has done bad things (regardless that you install him into power, you armed him, etc., etc.).

Organize a posy and bomb the shit out of that country, hang your previous friend the dictator in public, talking a lot about democracy, etc.

Get your country’s big companies to rebuild that country, that you have bomb into the middle ages. (Bearing in mind that the company’s that get the contract are company’s that you are a share holder in).

Also drain that countries resources goes without saying.

By this time you should have earn a few billion. Time to move on to the next country!!!

Since we're off topic again, Pissouri, it might be helpful for you to know that there's help out there for your affliction.

[Nikitas]

"Was it within Del Ponte's jurisdiction to issue such indictments?"

YES.

[Filitsa]

How so?

[pissouri]

Filitsa, please explain?

What I stated was fact.

I.e. Iraq, Afganistan too some extent and plans for Iran (hopefully now that Obama has been elected this will not be the case).

Basically what I was trying to point out is that it is OK to profit in the way the USA does from Dictators. But what I must point out as well, is that the majority of illegal funds and in US, Uk and Swiss banks, but you can't black list these country's, can you?. What Cyprus has in deposits is a drop in the ocean.