Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2016, Síða 2

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Mark Asch
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Ragna Ó. Guðmundsdóttir
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Rebecca Scott Lord
Steindór Grétar Jónsson
Valur Gunnarsson
York Underwood
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The hot button issue this issue is offshore tax shelters. This
subject has been very prominent in the headlines lately, as
it has come to light that the wife of our Prime Minister has
a pile of money in a holding company called Wintris Inc, lo-
cated in the British Virgin Islands, which is a very popular
tax shelter. Wintris also happens to be a claimant against
the Icelandic banks to the tune of half a billion ISK. What
makes this particularly galling, apart from the rest of us
having to deal with capital controls, is that our Prime Min-
ister has spent a lot of time and energy touting the value
and stability of the Icelandic króna, while describing the
Icelandic bank claimants as “vultures.” But the Prime Min-
ister isn't alone in this–both the Minister of the Interior and the
Minister of Finance have revealed they have money in offshore
accounts. The matter has blown up in the government's collec-
tive face, prompting the opposition party to call for early elec-
tions, and for the people to organise a mass protest in front of
parliament. Early Icelandic Elections v. 2.0 may be right around
the corner, but until then, offshore tax shelters are the current
hot button topic in the Icelandic news. SHARE: gpv.is/hots1
Offshore
Tax
Shelters
Leisure
Space
Flight
THE HOT
BUTTON
FRESH
IN THIS ISSUE
PM & PANAMA PAPERS P:16
The Panama Papers affair, The Wintris timeline, the po-
litical fallout, and the protests that rocked Iceland.
SAFETY UNLEASHED P:14
Avoiding certain death in Iceland
+ Growing old in Iceland, Islamophobia & the weather
DJÚPAVÍK:
POPULATION 2 P:50
+ Hidden Borgarnes and the best article on horse riding
we've ever read.
KÆLAN MIKLA P:30
Iceland's underground hopefuls
+ Sóley, Hospital, Boogie Trouble, Jaakko Eino Kalevi
The Hot Button column
looks at an single issue
that's had Icelanders'
chins wagging recently.
This week, confusion
arose when wife of
outgoing PM was mis-
takenly identified as a
possible buyer of a ticket
into space with Richard
Branson's Space Tourism
company. In reality, the
alleged customer was
Dorrit Moussaieff, First
Lady of Iceland. Space
Tourism is all the rage in
Reykjavík this month.
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 4 — 2016
2
FEATURE
ANALYSIS
MUSIC
TRAVEL