Cyprus surprise - Cypriot depositors to take a 'haircut'

cepheus

I wonder how many people with offshore accounts who have not declared them to HMRC have been caught out

http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers.com/2012/08/18/uk-tax-man-targets-offshore-bank-account-holders/id=0012422

John_Pierpoint

grizzly1911 wrote: »

As far as the North South divide goes how will that work out once Turkey are in the EU?

Not a snowball's chance in hell now.
For a time there was a chance that the Turkey of Aturturk might logically have joined the liberal western democracies in a wider not deeper outward looking EU.
But the Greeks got there first and blackballed any chance.

Meanwhile the population has continued to balloon, and the refugees (political & economic) have continued to crowd in, and all round the South and East of the Mediterranean there has been a lurch towards a medieval religion.

Be realistic substitute Turkish in the following headline:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/19/romania-bulgaria-immigrants-benfits-britain_n_2715049.html

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I think you will find the wealthy are paying the price to keep you in low interest rates, to service your debt and the inflation to erode it.

I think the truly wealthy are sufficiently fleet of foot to have body swerved into equities ?
I am expecting further confiscation in the budget - and the certainty the the economically illiterate "proles" will vote in a "socialist" government next time, in the vain hope it will have any power to make a difference.

socrates wrote: »

To be honest - going with the Russians on the Natural Gas Reserves is a sensible move - it means that Turkey will not be able to muscle in on the finds - which they have already made noises about

However our President who is very Right Wing will never work hand in hand with the Russians

It is already planned out just like the invasion in 1974

Am in incorrect in thinking that once upon a time 20 - 30 percent of the island's population was Turkish and they now have a bit more than their fair share of the island?

Why should they not enjoy their share of the gas reserves.

Mind you, while this sort of in-fighting continues it makes it certain that the clever ex pats in North of the Island, won't have the problem of a Greek turning up and demanding back grandfather's field and the nice new villa on it at any time soon. Like the West Germans in East Germany.

I blame it all on Richard the Lion Heart losing sight of his objective.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1191cyprus.asp

Joke ?;):D

socrates

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I think the truly wealthy are sufficiently fleet of foot to have body swerved into equities ?
I am expecting further confiscation in the budget - and the certainty the the economically illiterate "proles" will vote in a "socialist" government next time, in the vain hope it will have any power to make a difference.





Am in incorrect in thinking that once upon a time 20 - 30 percent of the island's population was Turkish and they now have a bit more than their fair share of the island?

Why should they not enjoy their share of the gas reserves.

Mind you, while this sort of in-fighting continues it makes it certain that the clever ex pats in North of the Island, won't have the problem of a Greek turning up and demanding back grandfather's field and the nice new villa on it at any time soon. Like the West Germans in East Germany.

I blame it all on Richard the Lion Heart losing sight of his objective.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1191cyprus.asp

I have to go out now I will send you a response to this later

And explain how the British Tax Payer is paying out for the Turkish Cypriots

wotsthat

socrates wrote: »

Firstly do you understand the concept of losing your home, your land and all your possessions and being made a refugee?

I understand the concept but have been fortunate enough not to live through this myself. Not sure it's relevant to discussions on a proposed 6.75% tax on deposits. In terms of scale of magnitude they are worlds apart.

socrates wrote: »

As for the savings rates - there are all sorts of accounts you can compare - they probably compared a 5 year savings account with an instant access savings account - you can dress the figures up how you want if you want to prove a point

I wasn't trying to dress anything up. Just tried to find out what a standard deposit rate was in Cyprus. From the same article..

German deposit rates fell to 1.5 percent in January of this year from 4 percent five years earlier, Bundesbank data show, as the European Central Bank lowered interest rates. Deposit rates in Cyprus increased over the same period to 4.45 percent from 4.25 percent.

Other European savers have been bailing out their governments by stealth for five years. Cyprus chose not to take this path and depositors are now being asked for a 'one-off' contribution instead.

Pincher

What they could have done was to "sell" a bailout bond, a similar idea to war bonds, with special terms.

They take EUROs 1,000 from you at gun point, and give you a bond with a face value of EUROs 1,000, paying 0.01% interest. The bond will only be redeemed, i.e. they give the bond holder EUROs 1,000 back, when CYPRUS recovers, decided by a panel of the bailout participants.

The bond will be tradable, and there will always be speculators willing to take a punt. If you buy a bond for EURO 1, and then CYPRUS starts recovering, so there is hope of redemption, the price can easily shoot up to EUROs 100 in minutes. When redemption is certain, you can sell it for EUROs 990.

The idea is that you are now a STAKEHOLDER, and it is in your interest to rebuild Cyprus, pay your taxes, and make Cyprus a better place. So you can get your money back. What's paying taxes, they ask?

StevieJ

Maybe they could have a one off tax (of say 20%) for all accounts where the depsitors name ends in OF, EF, SKI and ICH. Arbitrary I know but should raise a few quid

ChiefGrasscutter

Lets start thinking 'out of the box' as the management consultant put it.

Cyprus negotiate with the Putin given that with the EU they seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Russia offers to bail out the situation - which would stabilise any thought of Russian money vacating the island when the banks re-open: haircut or no haircut.
Not sure where the bank bondholders would figure in this - The banks could be nationalised as per Iceland and immediately re-opened, exterminating their holdings.
Russia gets ownership effectively of the country - inc oil/gas reserves.
They get a secure access to a med' shipping port given that their small port in Syria is looking less secure by the day.
Indeed they could now use Cyprus to re-inforce Syria if the West starts to arm the rebels.
The EU/NATO get told to remove their bases.
I reckon in this scenario the EU/IMF/NATO would come up with an alternative solution fairly quickly - No?

The way I see it is that even if the current plans are approved in one or other of the suggested variations, the longer the banks and stockmarket remain closed the less likely that anything will return to normal afterwards.
Companies and people (seemingly mostly finance/offshore stuff and tourism) will be very wary of doing business in Cyprus - meaning the downward spiral becomes self fullfilling - just like Greece, in a few months time another bail out/in will be required.

socrates

wotsthat wrote: »

I understand the concept but have been fortunate enough not to live through this myself. Not sure it's relevant to discussions on a proposed 6.75% tax on deposits. In terms of scale of magnitude they are worlds apart.

I stated that Cyprus had been shafted twice the invasion being the first time



I wasn't trying to dress anything up. Just tried to find out what a standard deposit rate was in Cyprus. From the same article..

I know its not you dressing it up I am talking about them


Other European savers have been bailing out their governments by stealth for five years. Cyprus chose not to take this path and depositors are now being asked for a 'one-off' contribution instead.

You have still not understood what is ACTUALLY going on have you

Answers/comments in red

socrates

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

Lets start thinking 'out of the box' as the management consultant put it.

Cyprus negotiate with the Putin given that with the EU they seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Russia offers to bail out the situation - which would stabilise any thought of Russian money vacating the island when the banks re-open: haircut or no haircut.
Not sure where the bank bondholders would figure in this - The banks could be nationalised as per Iceland and immediately re-opened, exterminating their holdings.
Russia gets ownership effectively of the country - inc oil/gas reserves.
They get a secure access to a med' shipping port given that their small port in Syria is looking less secure by the day.
Indeed they could now use Cyprus to re-inforce Syria if the West starts to arm the rebels.
The EU/NATO get told to remove their bases.
I reckon in this scenario the EU/IMF/NATO would come up with an alternative solution fairly quickly - No?

The way I see it is that even if the current plans are approved in one or other of the suggested variations, the longer the banks and stockmarket remain closed the less likely that anything will return to normal afterwards.
Companies and people (seemingly mostly finance/offshore stuff and tourism) will be very wary of doing business in Cyprus - meaning the downward spiral becomes self fullfilling - just like Greece, in a few months time another bail out/in will be required.

The only problem is this should have been done when we had a Communist party in charge a matter of weeks ago

Now we have an Ultra Right Wing Leader he has no intention of doing anything of the sort

wotsthat

socrates wrote: »

You have still not understood what is ACTUALLY going on have you

Cyprus has been economically mis-managed which makes it vulnerable to not only bankruptcy but political manipulation too?