The European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EVCA) undertook a comparison between 21 countries on the tax and legal environments they offer for the private equity and venture capital industry. EVCA collected information on 13 criteria for each member state, valid as of February 1, 2004 or later. Equal weight is accorded to all of the 13 criteria when calculating the composite score. Some criteria are based on more than one factor, in which case the average is used for the score. The total score of each of the 21 countries is shown in the table below. Iceland’s score is added to the table, strictly calculated according to EVCA’s methodology. The lower the score, the more favourable the environment.

The latest EVCA comparison is from December 2006. Iceland´s performance will soon be measured against those results. (See the 2006 EVCA results in pdf format).

Source: Iceland - The Base for Your Business (pdf) and EVCA