| Regulatory compliance: how the UK can help Irish firms overcome skills shortages |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
| The rising tide of regulation is leading to a high demand for compliance officers. However, there is a distinct shortfall of such people, and this is reflected in the plethora of adverts for suitable people in the business press this year, writes John Kelly. As a short-term solution to finding the right compliance person, he suggests that companies consider interim managers. |
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| Retail hedge funds likely to appear on Irish market in medium-term |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
| Ireland looks likely to follow the lead set by Germany and the UK by offering retail investors the chance to buy into hedge funds for the first time. |
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| Taxing choices for overseas property investors |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
| Ireland has changed from a country which sends its job seekers abroad to one which sends its capital abroad – often in search of overseas property investments. Irish investors in overseas properties range from those investing in large scale commercial developments, to those buying a second dwelling. The key issue in overseas property investment is not taxation so much as location and price. But a good location and a good price can be ruined by a bad tax surprise, writes Mike Gaffney, in this month's KPMG Tax Monitor. |
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| The 2005 pensions regulations - new rules for occupational pension schemes |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
| The scope of Ireland’s new pension regulations giving effect to the EU Pensions Directive, is far reaching, writes Paula Kelleher, who says that Ireland’s wish to portray itself as an investment friendly location, and its willingness to create a suitable environment to make this happen is demonstrated once again in the new Pension Regulations giving effect to the Directive. In this article, she examines some of the key pension regulations, including the areas of the qualification of pension trustees to act in that capacity, their authorisation to operate cross border schemes, as well as the investment and borrowing regulations which have now been introduced. |
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| The principles of Islamic finance |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
| Islamic banks appeared on the world scene as active players over two decades ago. But many of the principles upon which Islamic banking is based, have been commonly accepted all over the world, for centuries rather than decades. |
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| View for 2006 |
Issue: 01 / 2006 |
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| A Day in the Life: Jim Power, chief economist at Friend First |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| Jim Power, chief economist at Friends First, starts his day on Eamon Dunphy’s breakfast show where he presents the Business Review. From there he goes on to give a presentation for Friends First where he says who the true originator of the term ‘Celtic Tiger’ is, and then finishes his day lecturing to a group of MBA students at Smurfit Business School. |
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| Additional Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are set to take off following ‘teething’ problems. |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| ‘There has been a renewed impetus to the Irish Public Private Partnership (PPP) market over the last six months, following a number of teething troubles with pilot PPP projects,’ Shane Lyons, a director at Price WaterhouseCoopers and member of the IBEC PPP Council, told attendees at a function held at the British Embassy in conjunction with the International Project Finance Association (of London) on December 7th. |
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| AIB launches healthcare fund |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| AIB Corporate Banking Ireland has launched a new €300 million fund to be made available for the healthcare sector. The move follows the Government’s announcement in the recent Budget that it would continue its tax incentives for psychiatric hospitals, private hospitals, day care facilities and specialist clinics. |
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| Barclays arranges €40mn loan for Airtricity |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| Airtricity, the renewable energy company, has closed a debt facility arranged by Barclays Capital, worth over €40 million. The deal will support the further development of Airtricity’s wind farm portfolio in Ireland, the UK and the USA in the coming years. |
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| BOI Global Markets to target US market |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| BOI Global Markets has launched a new growth strategy, which will see the treasury/ capital markets division of Bank of Ireland, aim to double its profits over the next five years by expanding internationally. |
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| Budget 2006 |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| Popular reaction to the budget has been predictable. Spending measures are welcomed and the taxation measures needed to finance them resented. Such an attitude cannot lead to useful critical review of government plans. Some spending is both necessary and good, but some government spending is wasteful. Some tax is necessary to pay for desirable spending but some of the current level of taxation is undesirable and damaging. But any significant change in tax has to commence with a review of spending. Will we ever learn? |
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| Budget 2006 - end of the employment offshore nest egg? |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| One new measure in the Budget 2006 will not have found favour with many foreign financial services companies operating in Ireland. This was the abolition of the ‘remittance basis’ of taxation for employment income. |
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| Business and the Budget |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| Apart from business measures dealt with in other articles in this issue, what the Minister did not say in the budget may be more relevant to business than what he did say. SSIAs were not mentioned. Research and development credits, Local Authority efficiency, VAT impact on tourism, professional service retention tax, sub-contractors withholding tax, and CGT rebasing are amongst business topics that did not feature. |
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| Capital tax abolished |
Issue: 12 / 2005 |
| The financial services industry has welcomed the move by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen TD to make Ireland more ‘capital’ friendly, by removing the capital duty on shares in this year’s Budget. |
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