GSD Say Tax Treaty Is Having Harmful Effects On Business
The GSD say they have been warning for months that the Treaty "was bad for jobs and bad for business".
A statement from the GSD follows below:
The news that a major gaming company is advising employees not to work from home if they live in Spain is a direct effect of the negative and harmful Tax Treaty entered by the Government. The GSD has been warning for months that the Treaty was bad for jobs and bad for business. It is a disincentive to doing business from Gibraltar and to the attraction of inward investment. It has been reported that the action taken by this major gaming company is only “one of several locally based companies which are taking action in response to the Tax Treaty signed with Spain.”
GSD Leader Keith Azopardi said: “These developments are not surprising as businesses will be taking advice as to how to adapt to the negative effects of the Tax Treaty. The Government brushing this aside as not changing traditional tax rules is nonsensical. The Tax Treaty with Spain does not apply international tax laws in a standard, neutral or fair way. It is very far removed from the international norm which would be found in the OECD Model Convention. The Tax Treaty with Spain is nothing like the recent agreement announced between the UK and Gibraltar or indeed the Tax Treaty that the UK signed with Spain for itself in 2013.”
To dismiss the negative effects on business, our economy or on ordinary Gibraltarians on the basis that these rules are normal is to completely try to pull the wool over people’s eyes. The Government needs to defend its position from a position of reality. Anyone comparing the Gibraltar Tax Treaty with other international OECD Model arrangements can see they are nothing like it. This is not about preserving the status quo or applying management and control issues in a standard internationally accepted way.
