Tax report puts Cayman in negative spotlight
(CNS): The report published Friday by the Tax Justice Network identifying the Cayman Islands as the single biggest jurisdiction for global tax losses led to a flurry of negative headlines over the weekend. The government issued a brief statement Friday evening, in which officials said that Cayman supported fair tax systems and noted that it shares information with legal tax authorities worldwide.
The report by the TJN, which stated that $70 billion of avoided tax dollars goes through Cayman, accounting for 16% of tax lost by governments all over the world, undermined recent efforts to change the negative image of Cayman as a tax haven.
Although the report pointed the finger at jurisdictions in the onshore world as the greater offenders, the fact that the UK is now at the centre of the campaigns for a fairer tax system has also helped sully Cayman’s name again.
As an overseas territory, Cayman’s name is now doubly blackened as a result of being itself the top of the list for where missing tax dollars go and because it is seen by many as part of the “spider’s web” of territories and dependencies, with the UK at the centre, which are collectively responsible for sucking up over 37% of the missing public cash.
To counter this image, the financial services ministry stated that Cayman supports the development of a fair tax system that enables countries to collect their rightful tax revenues according to their sovereign tax policies.
“That’s why we joined the OECD’s Inclusive Framework in 2017, whose more than 130 member countries work together to support global tax compliance by continually improving a shared set of standards,” officials said in response to the report.
“It’s also why Cayman collects and shares information with tax and legal authorities all over the world. The intention remains that tax systems become increasingly efficient and beneficial for governments worldwide and their citizens,” the ministry added.
Category: Business, Financial Services
The “international Tax Justice Network is run out of someone’s home.
They are a legend in their own minds.
Here’s the address on their website:
38 Stanley Avenue
Chesham,
Buckinghamshire
HP5 2JG, United Kingdom
Here’s a link to Google’s photo of their International Headquarters:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/38+Stanley+Ave,+Chesham+HP5+2JG,+UK/@19.3048959,-81.3729264,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48765d09984d4f4d:0x7a84335898a47faf!8m2!3d51.709328!4d-0.6157595
The TJN should look up the significance of December 16th in terms of a deadline for our Financial Services industry then enjoy a light read entitled “The US-Cayman IGA” dated as of November 29, 2013.
Maybe also go on a field trip to Delaware and Nevada whilst they are at it?
Look, we live in a country that excels at providing tax efficiencies for the global elite. Whether people like it or not, wealthy people don’t go out of their way to pay tax. So we help them avoid paying too much and certainly aim to enable them to pay as little as possible. No doubt there is some tax evasion here, not as bad as before, but mostly its avoidance. Most people avoid to simply keep their wealth to themselves, others do it for privacy (fear of the wealthy kids being kidnapped, etc).
Of course, the knock on effects of tax efficient jurisdictions globally are tragic for the onshore locations that are seeing outflwos of capital – they all end up short funds to invest in their own infrastructure, etc, etc, and then try to fix it by raising their internal taxes…and a never ending cycle of first to the bottom continues.
The only way around it is for a global tax rate and for loopholes to be ended. But sitting here on my Unicorn waiting for that day…..not likely, not ever. It’s human nature to keep what we perceive to be our rightly earned wealth. And its not human nature to give it all away.
A global tax rate would fossilize the world economy at the level of Greece or Russia.
What a crock. This is another attempt by the larger nations of the world to prevent their citizens from investing their money offshore. This just another attempt to eliminate the offshore tax competition. Same old story.
States within the United States compete with EACH OTHER to attract wealthy residents and corporations by offering lower tax rates. How the hell is that ANY different from nations competing in the same way? I’ll tell you how; it isn’t!
So what’s your point?
Patience Tax justice network, Just let Cayman do your work for you. Soon they will have to tax everything here out of existence to have a hope of paying their bills and surviving.
Wait till Biden takes office and we are on the top of the tax haven rampage list again.
TJN is a useless organisation that needs to justify its funding by recycling these assessments of Cayman based on reviews done in the 70s. Every time a news house headlines their reports it just legitimizes their useless existance. Best to ignore them.
Stay mad.
“Cayman’s name has been blackened”. Here we go again with racist connotations of the word black. Now even fools know that black people have nothing to do with trillion dollar tax evasion schemes. Black people are the victims in the whole history of capitalism, used to generate free capital for the slave masters during slavery and rolled over into generational wealth. Now these inheritors of that wealth and their countries are benefitting from it and feel entitled by their “God”
Please substitute “whitened” in order to truly understand what’s happening again, and do your own research.
Really hard to tell if you’re serious as it’s not alternatively clever or funny…so generally pretty good troll.
I like blackened chicken 🍗
Arsehule
They conveniently do not differentiate between tax evasion and tax avoidance…and definitely don’t mention tax being avoided is often double taxation with two or more jurisdictions wanting the same piece of profit.
Tax Justice Network doesn’t like Cayman.
Hold the front page.
We earned the right to be tax free. Stop complaining!
what the hell does that even mean?
Lairn yer history sonny
Actually learn your history. The shipwreck story is a myth and at the time the population were luring ships onto rocks to plunder their cargo, so the idea of getting tax protection as a result would not be credible.
Please, you idiot captains have been running ashore our reefs for centuries.
Please lord, not the shipwreck nonsense again…
Lol it is what it is scallywag!
Imagine….if the huge u.s. companies actually paid their taxes, they might have a real health care system….
This kind of simplistic macro tax analysis is absurd. Instead of paying at the corporate level investors pay the tax on their dividends and capital gains. Often at a higher rate.
Well there usually are dividend tax credits designed to consider the taxes already paid at the corporate level…these are often however limited by residency of corporation, minimum tax thresholds, etc.
Not in US.
JGTRRA
Naw, the money eating elite would still convince the Trumptine hillbillies that it was communism to take care of your fellow humans and funnel the money right back into their bellies.
Jealousy and envy seems to be the way to sell marxism.
I like it! Rhymes with turpentine and just as toxic.
Well imagine if U.S. corporations had to compete at a global level with state run and subsidized companies in communists countries.
most US companies have been subsidized, whether government bailouts or farming subsides, or massive tax breaks.