Double tax deal

NICOSIA Cyprus and Spain signed Thursday a double-taxation treaty between the two countries.

The agreement was signed tonight during a ceremony at the residence of Spain’s Ambassador in Nicosia, Ana Salomon Perez who, said that after eight years of negotiations “we are finally going to sign a double taxation agreement between Cyprus and Spain”.

"Here we are signing this important agreement which will certainly facilitate investments from Spain to Cyprus and from Cyprus to Spain and strengthen economic relations between our two countries", she noted.

She expressed hope that the business communities of both countries will take advantage of the opportunities that this agreement will provide.

The Spanish Ambassador said "the Spanish authorities showed a considerable amount of flexibility in order to reach an agreement", expressing the gratitude of the Spanish government particularly of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Foreign Affairs who made major efforts to complete all necessary domestic procedures so that the signatures could take place before the term in office of Minister of Finance Vassos Sharly and the current government came to an end.

Finance Minister Sharly said that "the set has been set" and "what you need is a commitment that you believe in what you are doing and everything else falls into place".

He said that double tax agreements do not progress simply because you have commitment but you need a partner and in this context "we had a very good partner to work with".

"We did it and we are doing a lot but we need friends and in Spain we have a very good friends which we always believe in and I hope that this relationship will develops from a double tax agreement at the moment to become a great strength in the relationship between us", he noted.

Minister Sharly also referred to the agreement of an MOU with Troika. "My greatest satisfaction in this respect is not so much that we managed to agree an MOU with Troika it was to agree an MOU with the Cyprus politicians and to get them to Parliament and on every occasion to see that they will all say `yes`. Hardly anybody ever said `no`. And I think being a Cypriot, my pride is that we have achieved all of us a kind of a unanimous approach towards resolution of a problem and again this comes from a commitment", he concluded.