miramar

Greeting all,

I'm new to the board and hope to learn more about Cyprus as a possible retirement place. My husband and I purchased a retirement home in Portugal, just before the bailout and since then the country has gone to he**.

Vat has increased to 23% on electricity, gas, restaurants, and many foods. Property prices have crashed. Income taxes increased. In short, the country is no longer a desirable place to live. If anyone disagrees, I have a place for you!

Looking at the other bailout recipients- also referred to as PIGGS- Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain- it doesn't look like they are doing well either.

Does anyone in Cyprus have concerns about potential negative consequences about receiving a bailout? Is this talked about in the newspapers?

Thanks,
miramar

Veronica-K

There wil lbe a bit of belt tightening to start with especially as Troika have made a list of savings that have to be made.
However unlike the other countries that have had bailouts, Cyprus has the newly discovered oil and gas reserves which in a few years will start to bring in big money to the island so the future is in fact not as bad as many other countries that are struggling.

miramar

Thank you Veronica for your reply. The oil and gas discovery is indeed promising and an asset that the other bailed out countries don't have. We have lived abroad for many years in different countries and feel Cyprus has so much to offer.

We look forward to coming and looking around!

Kind regards,

miramar

Prometheus1

I think a great deal will depend on who the next president will be.

There are elections in the island in early February this year.

Be a bit patient to find out what the actual measures will be. Nothing is finalised yet, and no contract between Cyprus and Troika has been signed.

So nothing is certain yet about the measures that will follow.

miramar

Thank you Prometheus for your reply.

One question I forgot to mention was, if Cyprus has this new discovery of oil and gas, then why would they need a bailout? Doesn't it seem to be a contradiction?

Potamiou

Apparently the oil and gas won't be available for domestic use until 2016, and available for export in 2017.

zygiman

The latest news is that a new President is in power and he has made the economy his no1 priority. The Troika are eager to resume talks with him, and he likewise. It is going to be painful, but as with Ireland, Cyprus will come out leaner and fitter.

Potamiou

I admire your optimism, although I'm inclined to think it may be a little misplaced. We shall see. Apparently there will be nothing before May, but Germany may still block the bail-out unless we stop laundering Russian money here.

zygiman

There are very legitimate accounting procedures used called transfer pricing. These are acceptable methods for doing business. The majority of the transactions are genuine, but will admit that there may be some "Dirty Money"

Starbucks used a Dutch company for sales in Europe, and charged royalties to nearly equivalent total of their profits. The tax in The Netherlands is minimal for royalties.

Google, Amazon, Starbucks etc all emply these legitimate tax avoidance schemes. What people forget, is how many people these companies employ and pay PAYE for example.