Business

(CNS Business): The UK’s revenue and customs office is on the trail of hundreds of wealthy individuals and companies as well as their accountants and lawyers who they believe are using complex offshore structures to conceal assets from the tax man. HMRC confirmed Thursday that it is working with the United States and Australian tax administrations (the IRS and ATO) on some 400 gigabytes of data that indicates the use of companies and trusts in a number of territories around the world, including the Cayman Islands. Officials said in a release yesterday from the UK government that the information is still being analysed but early results have already identified over 100 people who benefit from these structures and some are now under investigation for offshore tax evasion. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS Business): Despite continuing declines in kilowatt-hour (kWh) sales, CUC has announced improved earnings for the first quarter of the year compared to 2012. Grand Cayman’s monopoly power supplier stated that the company’s continued focus on controlling costs and improving efficiencies throughout the organization had helped with the significant increase in net earnings of $2.9 million, an increase of $1.0 million, or 53%, when compared to $1.9 million for the three months ended March last year. Given the hardships endured by CUC’s customers in Cayman, however, the firm’s efficiencies, lower general, administration and financing costs and increases in other income may not seem so impressive. Read more on CNS Busness

(CNS Business): The Internal Revenue Service has obtained a federal court order that will allow them to access bank records of US taxpayers suspected of hiding accounts at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB), a Barbados-based bank with branches in 18 Caribbean countries, including the Cayman Islands, but with none in the US. The court authorized the IRS to serve a John Doe summons on Wells Fargo Bank related to a US correspondent account maintained by FCIB, directing it to produce records of deposits and payments by check and wire that will allow the IRS to identify US taxpayers with accounts at FCIB and other banks that used FCIB’s Wells Fargo correspondent account. Read more and comment on CNS Business

(CNS Business): The failure of government and the private sector to be able to pull together new corporate governance standards in time to collect newly proposed fees on hedge fund directors is partly to blame for government’s revenue predictions now falling short of the anticipated $80million surplus as had been required by the UK in this year’s budget. Speaking about the issues on Thursday at the Cabinet press briefing Rolston Anglin said that some of the $30million of revenue the government hoped to earn, but didn’t, was dependent on the fees that will eventually come from the hedge fund industry and new regulations. Read more on this and other new stories on CNS Business

(CNS Business): In a dispute between a member of the Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association (CIREBA) and a non-member over commission in a high end real estate transaction, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ruled that Remax, one of the defendants in the case who acted for the sellers, “could not stand behind the CIREBA rules to keep the full commission for itself” and ordered them to pay the agents for the purchaser, Cayman Realty Consultant (CRC), one-half of the 5% of commission on a US$6.6 million transaction instead of a “referral fee” of US$30,000 that it said it was restricted to pay according to CIREBA rules. The judge said there was no reason in the public interest to justify invoking the CIREBA rules to block an award that was otherwise justified. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS Business): Outspoken local attorney and chair of the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange, Anthony Travers, is the first person in Cayman to respond to the UK chancellor’s warning that he is clamping down on both Cayman and the British Virgin Islands as Europe ramps up its anti-tax haven campaign. While there has been no response yet from the Cayman government or the local industry associations, Travers, the former chair of Cayman Finance, has called George Osborne to task about his comments, criticizing him for promoting misinformation about both Cayman and the BVI and accused him of assisting the French and Germans in their quest to "irretrievably damage the City of London’s global dominance".Read more on CNSBusiness

(CNS Business): A bidder involved in the tender to generate 36MW of power for Grand Cayman has called for an open enquiry following the reports of possible wrongdoing at the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA). Navasota Energy, a Texas-based firm issued a release Tuesday afternoon stating that it was disturbed by the recent public disclosures alleging inappropriate behaviour by ERA officials and bidders in the recent solicitation process and pointed out that this throws the fairness of the tender process into question. On Friday, as a result of the allegations made by Joey Ebanks, the former MD of the authority, since he was suspended from his job in the wake of his arrest over financial irregularities, ERA officials announced plans for a probe into the bid. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS Business): Government pushed through eleventh hour legislation on Monday that will allow Cabinet to designate certain positions, jobs, types of work or business areas as the sole purview of Caymanians. An amendment to the immigration law does not specify any role or business which should be reserved for local people, leaving the next administration to carve out the occupations dependent on its policy decisions. But despite its lack of specifics, the law came in for criticism from across the crowded opposition benches as mere “electioneering” and “unnecessary political window dressing” that will not solve the fundamental immigration problem of boards not enforcing the law. Read more on this and other stories on CNS Business

(CNS Business): The Cayman Islands Government has finally signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Republic of Brazil. This is the 31st such tax greement the government has signed and the deal is expected to not only help with Cayman’s goal of increased transparency but will also help build on business relationships that are already in place. It will provide a springboard for future collaboration on areas of mutual interest that can facilitate economic growth and development in both countries, officials from the financial services ministry stated. The deal was signed in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday 19 March by Rolston Anglin, the minister responsible for the financial services sector. Read more and comment on CNS Business

(CNS Business): The Cayman government has announced how it plans to handle the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), set to be implemented at the beginning of 2014, which targets non-compliance by US taxpayers using foreign accounts. The Cayman Islands will be adopting a Model 1 intergovernmental agreement (IGA), which was signed by the UK in September 2012. The minster responsible for financial services, Roslton Anglin, said that after “considerable consultation” with the industry and discussions with US officials, this agreement between governments for the exchange of information would ensure that Cayman businesses would continue to operate and compete effectively with its global counterparts. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS Business): The property on Cayman Brac owned by Divi Resorts Group is not for sale and the firm is committed to re-developing the resort when the global economic business environment supports such development, according to President & CEO, EJ Schanfarber. Divi Tiara Beach Resort, a 51-room hotel with 12 timeshare units, closed on the 23 September 2006 with the loss of 37 jobs on the island. But the hotel chain, which has a number of resorts in Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, St Croix, and St Maarten, does plan to rebuild on the Brac, especially since it offers the opportunity to build an eco-friendly resort from the ground up that is integrated with the fragile environment of the island. (Left: Divi Tiara in better days) Read more on CNS Business.

(CNS Business): Representatives from the financial services ministry in partnership with Cayman Finance will be heading to Rio Da Janeiro next week as sponsors of the 3rdannual Hedge Fund Brazil Forum, scheduled to take place on the 18 & 19 March. Officials said there would be a strong contingent from the Cayman Islands attending the event including Rolston Anglin, the deputy premier and financial services minister, despite his scheduled sentencing hearing for his recent drunk-driving conviction. Other government officials going to Rio include Dax Basdeo, the financial ministry’s chief officer and Heather Smith from CIMA. Read more and comment on this and other stories on CNS Business

(CNS Business): More than eight months after it began an investigation into the Cayman Islands Branch of HSBC Mexico SA and some four months after the bank’s parent company admitted the money laundering at the subsidiary registered in this jurisdiction, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has finally pulled its Category “B” Banking License under the Banks and Trust Companies Law (2009 Revision). “CIMA concluded that the Cayman Islands Branch of the company is conducting business in a manner detrimental to the public interest, the interest of its depositors or of the beneficiaries of any trust or other creditors and that the direction and management of its business has not been conducted in a fit and proper manner,” the authority said in a 27 February statement. Read more and other stories on CNS Business

(CNS Business): The first cruise ship for five years will stop at Cayman Brac next week. The MS Delphin, operated by Passat Kreuzfahrten (Cruises), which has its headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, will have 300+ passengers onboard and 119 crew when she arrives off the coast from Scotts Dock in the West End on Tuesday 5 March, staying for five hours between 8am - 1pm, according to a spokesperson for District Administration. Passengers will have the opportunity for an island tour pre-booked by the ship and there will be an information booth, a craft market as well a few samples of local food, she said. The ship will tender its own passengers. Read more on CNS Business

(CNS Business): As the battle between local lawyers and government’s latest version of the proposed Legal Practitioners Bill continues, research commissioned by the Law Society has revealed that in 2012 just nine local firms’ foreign law offices practicing Cayman law overseas generated US$28 million in 2012 for government coffers. In the previous year these international branches brought in around US$24 million in fees, figures that the lawyers hope may persuade government to change course over the requirements and the restrictions that the law firms say it is trying to impose on them with the new legislation. Read more on CNS Business.