According to the Sunday Times, Irish based Setanta has been able to reduce it’s VAT bill by relocating its subscriber service to Luxembourg:
Setanta said: “Many of the main broadcasters are based in Luxembourg as it offers an attractive fiscal incentive. We established this European base for the company as it becomes more international and expands into mainland Europe.â€
This is one of those EU anomolies where a service to consumers is charged based on the service location and not the point of delivery. I can’t wait to hear Richard Murphy opine on this piece of EU nonsense.
As an aside, the article claims half of Setanta’s employees are in Ireland. Where are the other half? Where is the true economic activity?
UPDATE: Richard does indeed provide an opinion. Worth reading.
