Offshore related fees won’t increase in coming budget
(CNS): Firms operating in the Cayman Islands most important and lucrative economic pillar will not be subjected to any fee increases in the forthcoming budget, expected to be presented to parliament next week. According to a circular from the Ministry of Financial Services sent to stakeholders business fees across the financial services sector will remain as they are. Officials said while fees levied by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority won’t be adjusted in 2024 they will be reviewed with a view to rises in 2025.
“The Ministry of Financial Services and Commerce will appropriately consult with industry members during the first half of 2024, as the Cayman Islands Government is considering CIMA fee increases for 2025,” the circular stated.
In the 2023 third quarter report published earlier this month government showed that 37% of its entire revenue was collected from financial services with more also coming from work permit fees for those employed by the legal and financial firms generating the fees. Most categories of fees for the offshore sector held steady so far this year with very few revenue streams falling short of budget predictions as government does a much better job forecasting what it is likely to get from financial services in coercive revenue. Mutual Fund Administrators Fees performed better than anticipated due an increase in the volume of funds registered.
While the Premier and leader of the new UPM government, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who is also now the finance minister is expected to deliver a spending plan for 2024/25, next Friday, of well-over one billion dollars. But there has been no indication if any other fees such as work-permit, development or duties on luxury goods are likely to be increased. Alongside government’s growing operating expenditure it is also aiming to fund several major capital projects including two new high schools, the east-west arterial, the new waterfront attraction and Regen among others.
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Category: Financial Services, Government Finance, Local News
So these rookies go ahead and pass the increases in Cabinet and tell the industry Jan 1 they are raise all fees ( apparently needed when they believed they had a $60M deficient) but now that the real estate sales number were higher than budgeted and Juju plans to use the emergency loan taken during covid, plus the FS industry pushed back on Andre, so he backed off. Lord knows he doesn’t want to fall out of favor with all the wealthy and powerful FS people in his constituency of Salt Creek and Crystal Harbor. This guy is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Cayman and the financial services industry keeps this country alive in good times and bad (e,g, COVID) We deserves better! Listen to the people and call an early election – there is no confidence in the repackaged PACT – VOTE EM OUT!
No $1,500. No Vote. 😂
yep, we have to protect the wealthy, who cares about the poor.
o, i forgot….. god?
idiots
You are the idiot. Where do you think the money comes from to fund free education, the NAU, medical care for indigents? The magic money tree? If the rates charged to the FS industry become too high they will switch their business to another offshore jurisdiction that is more accommodating. Trust me, no loyalty in the onshore financial business that pay these fees and it’s really easy to redomicile.
Increased the GOL fee for real estate agents. Equate it with the MD of a law/accounting firm based on POTENTIAL income. We have no need for these imported agents who add no benefit to any property transaction.
You aint getting rid of the Canadian Mafia. Accept it. They took over Bermuda just the same.
7:24, I would be far more worried about the Chinese mafia and Binance which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands than the Canadian mafia which is very easy to follow as it is in Bermuda. Hardly a mafia because they are all well known to everyone in the financial and regulatory community. They are compliant though they are an elite.
The shit is about to hit the fan with Binance and I regret to say Binance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The American DoJ and SEC is soon going to be breathing down our neck.
Get ready for a very rocky ride.
Money laundering and all sorts of other things.
Binance will not be a company later next year. Companies have to abide by financial regulations in the U.S.
Except they settled for a fine. But rather raises the question of what CIMA have done. Or rather, what they have not done.
More coming with Binance in the new year.
CIMA is going to have some answering to do.
Are you both insinuating that the entity responsible for Binance’s global exchange was one of the entities formed here?
not insinuating anything. we know.
So why are we paying compliance fees?
yes, why are ‘compliance fees’ deducted from our accounts? Not deducted elsewhere. So banks can just deduct anything from our accounts without permission and no reason? Don’t banks have all notarised copies, paid for by ourselves, of compliance docs on file? This needs to be looked into and stopped! Talk about daylight robbery and fraud!
cayman justs needs to eliminate waste in the civil service. end of story.
proper management would cut staff/costs by 20% with no reduction in services.
Not quite right. It would involve a certain amount of enforcement of interdepartmental policies and even laws.
Trouble is, eliminating the waste in the Civil Service would only lead to massive increases in the already bloated social welfare costs.
terrible excuse…likely coming from a civil servant.
so are you admitting civil service is just a bloated social welfare programme for locals????
That is precisely what is being said
1:25. Oh really. Can you say which government departments you think can reduce staff.
Maybe education
Police
Prison
Fire
CBC
Worc
Passport office
DVDL
Tourism department
Labor and pensions
Oh wait those are all essential services and without them the private sector would fail. So instead let’s cut
911
Probation
Close all Ministries
Close DPP
Cut all government lawyers
Shut down all of the commissions that support democracy
Planning department
Oh wait we can’t cut those. Get my point zzzzzzzzzz
Reduce the number of MPs , their salaries and perks, especially when Minister of Tourism cannot even write a proper letter!
yawn….its not that hard…it just takes effort…not surprising this is beyond the grasp of the average civil servant.
the cycle of failure continues
The fact that a public service is necessary doesn’t mean it isn’t massively overstaffed and inefficiently run.
11.51am Just like every other country on earth. Uet the foreign element loves to criticize us.
Original poster must be some kind of republican fan-boy or a Fox News Zombie.
So we gonna keep letting companies launder and avoid millions of dollars in taxes every year, providing no benefit to the actual people.
Oh great news…Tax theses fkin companies if they leave Cayman its for the better.
No benefit to the people… other than the $360 million in license fees?
You fkin doofus.
How much in fees if you collected an actual tax.
The corporations are happy to give Cayman 400mill when they save billions in avoiding taxes.
You fkin doofus..Get a clue how much of that 400million did you get?
Wow. LOL. You’re clueless. You introduce corporate tax, Cayman is finished. Done. Aside from a handful of OK hotels FS isthe ONLY industry that brings in any money here. Without FS Cayman becomes DR if we’re lucky, Haiti is not. Corporate tax is literally the dumbest suggestion ever on CNS and that’s saying something!
What an idiot – you know nothing. You are NOT an actual “person”.
The Financial Services Industry (FSI) keeps this whole show on the road:
# CIMA/ROC Fees,
# Construction – commercial (offices) & retail (restaurants) and residential (homes/condos) for the workers in the FSI,
# “Tourism” as FSI business people visiting on island for meetings are categorised at “tourists” when they fly in and over 2 to 5 days use hotels, taxis, restaurants, boat trips etc.
# Consumption tax – all that the FSI workers consuime are imported
Go back to covid – how benificial was “tourism” then to the islands economy? Answer – “useless”! Who paid for all the dole being given out to the tourism industry peole to sit at home – the FSI.
Don’t forget that 3rd pillar of tourism – nefycak tourism aka Health City (Shetty). Loads of concessions, including on imports. Didn’t bring medical tourism & now competing with local doctors
You guys really think 400Million is going to be more if we apply a tax to the corporations.
Yeah I am not an actual person, yall dumb as shit thinking we can’t make more taxing the companies that don’t pay half a billion in year in taxes.
Cayman moves trillions of dollars weekly.
“yall dumb”
Dear god. Go back to school.
*God
Whats 35% of a 5 billion dollar company. How about a larger company like Microsoft and Apple with 200billion a year in revenue?
Heres 400mill to keep quiet CIG…..
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/corporate-tax-rate
How ignorant can you be?
The headline is disingenuous, CIMA did not raise fees, but the ROC certainly did. CIG keeps coming back to the trough but they do not realize that Cayman is becoming non-competitive on a cost basis against our main competition such as BVI and Delaware.
They say this today but after they splash the cash all around and do all the pork barrel projects, all the money will be gone and we will be in the hole again. So then the only option will be to raise fees/taxes. Better rub those beads smiley!
Do you realise that the “beads” were actually a religious item? Unlike many of the other MP’s who talk about religion, he appears to actually practice it.
So all of this is in the name of religion? We certainly are very blessed then.
Better watch out Madam Premier as the bead man is looking to knock you out of the top spot and take over for himself. He tries to be a sweet guy but is just like all the rest of them, looking to feather his own nest!
I hope you are right. I hope we all get what we deserve.