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Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

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Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#51

Post by gndk »

rwmj wrote: post #42
hnhg wrote: post #17

I am surprised to see Germany so high. Germany is a hostile place to start a company, especially if you are not German, not least because there is the issue of a very harsh and inflexible exit tax. Should you decide to leave Germany, even temporarily, you will be faced with a tax of around 30% of the current valuation of your worldwide holdings in companies. The rules for this became even harsher in 2021. I have obvi…

I wonder why the EU hasn't clamped down on it? Surely it is incompatible with the Internal Market (unless by "leaving Germany" you meant "leaving the EU").

Because nobody has sued the German tax office and taken it up to the EU courts yet. From my understanding and anecdotes from my tax advisor, most of these cases get settled by the tax office before going to court to avoid creating a precedent.

The tax office just lost a case at the highest German court against an entrepreneur who moved to Switzerland, which will force them to accept an unlimited interest-free deferral in most cases. See https://winheller.com/blog/keine-sofortige-wegzugsbesteuerun... (in German)

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#52

Post by resolutebat »

porkbeer wrote: post #26

India still needs to reign in its human rights abuses a LOT before being taken seriously. I certainly can't invest there in good concience.

This is a business ranking, human rights don't factor into the equation. If anything it's easier to make money without pesky annoyances like labor rights or OSHA inspections in the way.

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#53

Post by resolutebat »

coldtea wrote: post #47

Looks more like a ranking of "what neoliberals reforms have been made to make the place a hellscape for workers" than actual "improving business environments" if the latter means more jobs, an actually improved economy, less desperation, and so on.

Desperation = low wages = more profit!

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#54

Post by BillyTheKing »

algo_trader wrote: post #48
BillyTheKing wrote: post #5

I'm half Greek, so obviously a little bias. But would love to see a more thriving tech scene in Athens. It's a cool city, with great night-life, great restaurants, and stunning places nearby, not yet super gentrified and obviously also has some archaeological sites. But it's not just 2000 years old history (yes, it's partly also pretty run-down, bureaucracy is a night-mare, etc.) Generally speaking, it's usually sunn…

Do you have thoughts on Patras as a less crowded alternative for English-speaking nomads and setting up a remote office? I guess the weather is also sunny and beachy ?

I've been to Patras a few times (usually while hopping over from Italy).. I'd say, the Peloponnese is amazing. If I could just work remotely from a quiet place I would probably try and find a seaside village or so on it.

But Patras, as far as I remember it's pretty industrial, it has a large-ish port, 2 nice-ish squares, but otherwise didn't really strike me as a particularly exciting/pretty place.. Weather will be good though.

If you wanna try out something different, maybe a smaller city with a more remote vibe but with quite a bit of life nevertheless and good weather - maybe give Syros a try :) It has a beautiful old venetian town, cool restaurants/bars - some nice beaches and great nature - and all the other aegean islands with varying vibes around it! But it's also not as village-y or seasonal as the other islands - definitely can recommend!

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#55

Post by 4gotunameagain »

The_Colonel wrote: post #7
codingcodingboy wrote: post #2

Great to see Greece improving, meanwhile Italy is speedrunning its demise.

I remember being very negative about the Greek's long term outlook ~10 years ago. I mean, it was obvious that there will be an economic downturn for many years in basically all scenarios, but I was very worried about the political uproar, turn to populism and authoritarianism (which would further worsen the economic woes). IIRC there was an election in ~2015 which Syriza won, back then pretty radical in its anti-aust…

The problem of Greece is that due to decades of nepotism and corruption, there is no real political hope. The ruling party is one of the two that has brought Greece to where it is now, and the prime minister comes from a family with a long tradition in politics and power thirst.

His best man is the biggest gangster in Greece, Marinakis. They found a ship of his containing 2 TONS! of heroin, and nothing happened.

Because the Mitsotakis family controls the court system in Greece.

https://newrepublic.com/article/159252/noor-one-vampire-ship...

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#56

Post by zem »

jdmoreira wrote: post #19
derelicta wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some neoconservative politician roleplaying as an anarchist reached the country's top office. He's privatising everything on a speedrun, weakening all labour regulations, waging an economic war against China, the country's top economic partner, and promised he would forfeit the country's currency to the Americans by switching to dollars. So ig for foreign investors its now or never to plunder what's left of Argentina…

He was democratically elected with this agenda. Maybe the people there were tired of the same old crony socialist disaster and rampant inflation plus accelerated loss of quality of live. I don't know, maybe what a country with great demographics and decent territory needs in this situation is a healthy dose of western/american capitalism. I would also much rather be allied to US agendas than to Chinese agendas ANY DA…

trump and modi were democratically elected too, so by itself that's no real measure of fitness for office.

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#57

Post by TheCapeGreek »

pyvpx wrote: post #24
TheCapeGreek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is always the strategy of finding non-Greek companies to work remotely for, who will have a better work culture and remote ethic. For the economic argument, you'd still be bringing money into the country and stimulating the economy (and paying taxes), so it's not all doom and gloom that you aren't working for a Greek company to make Greece better.

except there is absolutely zero anything on permanent establishment rules. The Greek tax authorities could write one memo saying “hiring a director in Greece does not trigger permanent establishment” and that digital nomad visa program would really pop off. alas…nothing

I don't condone nonlegal actions, but do they really check your source of income? Usually with such sorts of tax authorities I'd imagine they'd only pay attention if they notice large incomes or many people citing the same contracting source.

IANAFA and not clued up on Greek tax myself.

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#58

Post by faeriechangling »

gndk wrote: post #45
vram22 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the reason for this?

It was initially introduced by the Nazis and mainly used to seize assets from jews before they were rounded up for the holocaust. So today, smart entrepreneurs do what smart jews did in the 1930s - leave Germany (and the EU), before it's too late. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Flight_Tax

That link says that law was introduced by the Weimar Republic, who was debasing the Reichsmark and thus had a need to prevent capital flight, not the Nazis.

The Nazis seemed like they ramped it up rather than introducing it.

The law was also repealed in 1953.

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#59

Post by JumpCrisscross »

yorwba wrote: post #46
hnhg wrote: post #17

I am surprised to see Germany so high. Germany is a hostile place to start a company, especially if you are not German, not least because there is the issue of a very harsh and inflexible exit tax. Should you decide to leave Germany, even temporarily, you will be faced with a tax of around 30% of the current valuation of your worldwide holdings in companies. The rules for this became even harsher in 2021. I have obvi…

It's probably generally a bad idea to start a company in a country you intend to leave permanently. What's the point of having a company in Germany if you're not in Germany yourself? Most companies in Germany are probably started by people who intend to stay, or are subsidiaries of international conglomerates, or have not gained enough in value to cause a significant tax burden, so the edge cases affected by the exit…

> bad idea to start a company in a country you intend to leave permanently

Agree if the intention is there from the beginning. Disagree that the inflexibility doesn’t have a cost. Even if you fully intend to stay in Germany, are you 100% sure that’s the best decision for your business? If the answer is no, the law incentivises moving preemptively.

Re: Greece, Argentina and India are the fastest improving business environments

#60

Post by coldtea »

resolutebat wrote: post #53
coldtea wrote: post #47

Looks more like a ranking of "what neoliberals reforms have been made to make the place a hellscape for workers" than actual "improving business environments" if the latter means more jobs, an actually improved economy, less desperation, and so on.

Desperation = low wages = more profit!

You can have desperation and low wages without profit or any business boom - case in point Agerntina and Greece.
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