Vexed Bermoothes

Politics.bm describes how one US town is providing incentives for an insurer to keep its operations there.

Let’s be clear – this is not an isolated case.

Nova Scotia has provided considerable tax rebates and other incentives to a broad range of the Bermuda companies that have moved back office operations there.  Their team came to Bermuda to chase business.  Ours went to Halifax to chase headlines (and a vacuous MOU).

The Swiss cantons are no slouches either.  Check out the Zug Economic Promotion board (who have also made a few tasty grabs from Bermuda):

We act as a partner for companies interested in moving to the canton. Our services are for free. The people of the Canton of Zug are waiting to welcome you!

Dublin likes taking Bermuda companies so much they grabbed our regulator too!

Ah, you say, it’s easy for those places to give tax incentives because they have taxes, while Bermuda exempts do not.  The fact is that the tax exemption for international companies expires in 2016, and in the face of creaking budgets and the OECD attacks, Bermuda has made no assurance that it will be continued (as has always been done in the past).

On top of that, official Bermuda seems to take an adversarial stance against our own international sector, and that leaves a very sour taste.  Here’s the page that’s tailored to lure those embattled Bermuda-based expats who forgot to say Good Morning.  Oh, and there’s that darn “political stability” phrase again.

Encouraged by our weak political leadership, Bermuda is so busy fighting itself that it has no clue how to compete.  I guess we think we don’t have to because of all that Gold Standard and Platinum Period hogwash.