Philippos Aristotelous (Business Strategist)

<p><i>Bold move</i></p><p>Philippos did a bold move in his career three years ago. After being a tax partner in the leading law firm in Cyprus for many years he became a business consultant and coach. We spoke about his feelings and reasoning behind this jump from a stable, highly remunerated environment with a responsibility for the family with three kids into uncertainty, excitement and adventure. Philippos admits he is happier, but it’s not easier now. </p><p><i>Happiness</i></p><p>Then we float away from tax for a while to speak about Philippos’ new book MARVEL of Happiness. MARVEL is a motivational acronym that stands for Meaning, Autonomy, Relatedness, Values, Experience and Learning. Those principles are relevant at least for team and business leaders. Whereas the book on happiness is a broader try to help anyone feel better in their lives. It’s a combination of philosophy, personal stories, psychology. We also spoke on the reasons why lawyers suffer from depression on average four times more than others, why they are gifted with a blessing and a curse, why many of them become even addicted to cocaine.   </p><p><i>Moral side of tax</i></p><p>Philippos reveals that creativity of designing tax structures gave him joy of working with tax. This is no surprise, as his creativity can bee seen in his podcasts, books, even songs he has composed. And a cherry on the cake was the client satisfaction. On the other hand with the structures come a moral dilemma of potentially reducing the country’s tax revenues, in the country you live and would like to be prosperous.. A similar moral dilemma is in a tax litigation when a lawyer cannot really tell at the beginning if the client is a tax fraudster or not, if he does not want to represent fraudsters. </p><p><i>Tax story</i></p><p>It was connected with a Russian money in a structure that ignored all the latest tax developments that introduced all sorts of anti-avoidance provisions and continued to do the business like in the good old times. They kept on paying EUR 30k/yea