Gold Magazine February - March 2013, Issue 23 | Page 81

end, the support of the Government, the House of Representatives
and the authorities is expected to continue.
I strongly support the creation of a Special Tax Advisory Council,
involving technocrats from the Ministry of Finance and the private
sector, to provide consulting in relation to reforms in the tax system
after analyzing the measures/laws implemented by other competing
jurisdictions so that Cyprus remains an attractive business centre. This
Council will also have the responsibility of supporting the negotiating
team for new double taxation agreements.
Gold: What is your reading of the tax measures included in the
MoU with the Troika?
A.G.: In the original document provided by the Troika in July, there
was a clause which prohibited the Cyprus government from changing
the tax base, i.e. to allow specific types of expenditure as a deduction for tax purposes. Such a measure would not allow Cyprus to
provide tax incentives in response to changes imposed by competitive
jurisdictions. This was spotted by our tax team and communicated in
a letter to the Ministry of Finance. Fortunately, when we received the
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