Cayman lands on Dutch tax haven blacklist

| 31/12/2018 | 46 Comments
Cayman News Service

EU and Dutch flags

(CNS): As the Cayman Islands waits on confirmation that it has escaped blacklisting by the wider European Union, following the passage of new legislation just before Christmas, it has found itself on a new blacklist. Cayman is one of 21 jurisdictions on a list of low-tax jurisdictions released over the weekend by the Government of the Netherlands. According to officials, the list has been created to “combat tax avoidance”. Several British Overseas Territories are on the list, as well as the UK’s Crown Dependencies and the existing five EU blacklisted countries. 

Despite passing a new law paving the way for offshore companies to have an economic or substantive presence in the Cayman Islands and creating a new regime for much of the financial sector, the laws do not appear to have saved Cayman from the latest move by the Dutch. According to the Netherlands government website, the list will be used in relation to other measures.

“By drawing up its own stringent blacklist, the Netherlands is once again showing that it is serious in its fight against tax avoidance,” said State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel. “And that’s just one of the steps we’re taking.”

From 1 January 2021, the list will also be used to implement a conditional withholding tax on interest and royalties. This means that from 2021 on, companies registered in the jurisdictions on the Dutch list will pay 20.5% tax interest and royalties received from the Netherlands.

The Dutch officials said this would prevent funds being channelled to tax havens. The list was subject to a consultation from 25 September to 22 October, with 16 responses being submitted, but none led to the list being amended.

This latest list is bound to cause significant controversy and fuel allegations of hypocrisy, as the Netherlands has often been labeled as a tax haven in its own right as it has a relatively low business tax regime.

CNS has contacted the Cayman Islands Ministry of Financial Services for comment on the latest knock to Cayman’s offshore sector, and we are awaiting a response.

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Category: Business, Financial Services

Comments (46)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Simple response to this – freeze the assets in every bank account registered here that’s attached to any address in either the Netherlands or one of their overseas territories. Do that and I bet they’ll lift the blacklisting overnight. This is just playing popular politricks by the Dutch government. It’s also worth checking out the Compass editorial today – love them or loath them you’ve got to admit it’s a good one.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Glad to hear that the drug dealing capital of the world don’t want to do business with us!

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  3. Sinterklaas says:

    The Indies have always been on Zwarte Piet’s black list, nothing new here.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    F&&& them !

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  5. Hakim De Bored says:

    Poor Cayman still buying the European Colonial Dream. Colonial masters still believe they are incharge?? When they do not even control their Homelands now . How Sad, God Is Great!

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  6. 4D Glasses says:

    Wha all that money Mademoiselle Rivers and her moles spent traveling to Brussels and back wha guying on Tara?? i thought you and Alden sorted this $#@! out Its pretty clear Tar Tar that you and our dear leader had minimal effect if any ???? Please stop wasting our money on these European Pariahs and stop signing and buying their rubbish equipment. Stop letting the UK Fleece us with their “Gifts” and bogus advice also.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Cayman is very very foolish to damage its business model
    in the hope of foing business with the E.U. They are not important economically and sliding rapidly in importance. They will never stop blacklisting or threatening Cayman. Just tell them to go to hell. Our future lies elsewhere. As does that of the UK.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    That’s ok. We’ll just double the import duty on clogs in retaliation.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    The French has put us also on their list, secretly as well, and the UK has Cayman residents banned also, be so dumb as to make an investment in the UK and try to withdraw the proceeds as a Caymanian so not really any news here, just CIMA not fighting for it’s citizens.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Netherlands has a 5% tax rate on profits for Intellectual Property/Royalties business. That is below their own criteria for the blacklist. So if this in fact had anything to do with fairness, they would have to blacklist themselves.

    They are just trying to take the business of multi nationals, IP and tech companies themselves. While Cayman is a sitting duck…

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  11. Anonymous says:

    It is about time!

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  12. Anonymous says:

    The Netherlands is in Cayman blacklist

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Dutch blacklist! Who cares? What a joke!

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Noted.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    LOL, what a joke! Look at all the Dutch territories like Bonaire and St Maarten that are crime-ridden s*** holes and then tell me this makes a lick of sense! I did the round trip from Schipol to Bonaire via Curacao some years ago and they had uniformed police officers on the aircraft in case any of the locals on board started kicking off.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I went to Aruba about 15 years ago. Even back then every house with any kind of worth had a concrete wall as high as the house surrounding iit with a locked gate so narrow you almost had to enter sideways to enter. I can only imagine how the nice islanders are living now.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The ABC islands are reckoned to be one of the main drug smuggling routes out of the South and Central Americas.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I went to Curacao in 2004 and must state I felt very safe there . They have oil transhipment business as well as tourism and it could be they have an illicit drug transhipment business due to their proximity to South America.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Unless the UK sees sense and pulls out of Brexit, the global momentum of the inevitable EU blacklisting could be very dangerous as the UK becomes ever more isolated.

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    • Richard Wadd says:

      The UK didn’t need the EU member states to become ‘Great Britian’ and they certainly don’t need any of them now. How quickly we forget that if it was not for for the strength and resolve of the UK that they would ALL be speaking German and be ‘united’ under a flag that looks different to that which they have today.
      We know that ‘Brexit’ won’t be an easy road nor happen overnight, but the UK will not surrender to the rising wave of modern Fascism being pushed by Germany and her allies within the EU, and which they (the EU) so desperatly wish to impose on the UK and her territories. Germany may dominate the EU member states, but they will never dominate the UK nor her territories. They are the reason that our forefathers went to war and sacrificed everything, so that WE could have the right to choose our own way.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Vacuous inane populism tinged with nostalgia based on fiction.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Glad you were there to share your valuable experience with us.
          How ironic that you would use the word “vacuous”.
          This is a classic case of projection from an overly-pompous, left-leaning windbag.
          Mr. Wadd is correct.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I suppose it’s only 10.30am on 1st January, but well done; you’ve made the most moronic comment of the year so far.

        Maybe start by googling the etymology of ‘Great’ Britain…

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        • Richard Wadd says:

          Google is a tool for sourcing information (both good and bad) it is not a substitute for fact, reason or common sense. What makes the UK ‘Great’ today is different from what made it great a century ago, and so-on. The human race is different today because PROGRESS has changed our social and political viewpoints. Reflection on the past is what drives change in all things. For example, expressing your disapproval under a Nazi (fascist) regime would have gotten you killed. You are only able to do so without the fear of reciproscity BECAUSE the UK and her allies fought to protect those rights. Britian has earned the title of ‘Great’ because history has shown that they are not affraid to stand up to the bullies, make the hard choices, nor make the ultimate sacrifice. BREXIT is just that, a hard choice today that will benefit our children tomorrow.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Dick is the sort of angry out of touch Little Englander that makes it embarrassing to admit to being a Brit in these Bresit times. You can’t reason with that sort of delusional self righteousness. Who really thinks the “Grast” in the geographical term Great Britain means all that FFS?

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        • Anonymous says:

          Brexiteers do not need facts. Facts often do not suit their bigotry.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Remoaners seem to be rabid, left-leaning, reptilian brained, cold-blooded entities who have no concept of eternity.
            What part of “You lost” do you not understand?
            If you don’t like referendums, don’t have them. I do not remember Hitler having any referendums.

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      • BeaumontZodecloun says:

        I have never read the issue stated more succinctly. Yes, there will be growing pains, but the people have spoken, and their will must be done for the greater good of the UK.

        Thank YOU Sir

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      • Anonymous says:

        Lol really! Would be speaking German if it wasn’t for the US and Canada coming to the rescue.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Germany was fascist under Hitler but it is if anything now too left leaning. I do not see it though as any more left leaning than British Labour party.
        Hitler was a terrible “human” and he cast a bad image on Germany but to be frank, Germany never was involved in the Atlantic slave trade unlike England, France, Spain etc.
        Furthermore it never eradicated the Dutch or Danish languages from its neighbours as England did to the Celtic languages of its neighbours

  17. Anonymous says:

    Zzzzz……..

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Holy shit!

    One of the EU’s leading money laundering and terrorist-financing centres lists other countries as such.

    Don’t worry we don’t intend to legalise drug use and prostitution. Not to mention your institutionalised racist practises/traditions.

    What a crazy old world.

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Can’t please everyone.

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