Dear Stuart Thanks for reaching out on this forum to state your...

Dear Stuart

Thanks for reaching out on this forum to state your reasons behind the departure from the Nearmap business.

As Birdman alluded to earlier, after you left Nearmap there was uncertainty and anxiety in the market regarding the Spookfish business. It was serious enough for Nearmap to instigate legal action against Spookfish to protect its IP. While the litigation was subsequently resolved it did leave lingering doubts about the ex-Nearmapper's motivations.

The irony is never lost on me when I hear about entrepreneurs who leave Australia to escape the CGT net. What these ex-pats don't acknowledge is the level of government support they received in the early days of their ventures – Commonwealth subsidies like RnD funding and export development grants to name a few.

In 2017 the Australian government collected $14.5Billion in capital gains tax and allocated $7.6 Billion to RnD in the Federal Budget. Without taxes like CGT at the back end there wouldn't be the level of subsidies available for start-ups.

While you’re in Europe check out Greece - complete basket case. Corrupt tax system, low tax collections, debt dependent, 884M Euros on Rnd spending in FY17.

Regards

Nachode

https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=GBARD_NABS2007