After almost a year of discussions and consultations, the Special
Economic Zone Law was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 30 September
2011 and published in the Cayman Islands on 21 November 2011, paving
the way for what is widely hoped to be the third pillar of the Cayman
economy.
Because of its seat within a leading offshore financial centre, the Cayman Islands judiciary is often called upon to determine actions involving substantial assets, multi-faceted structures and complex legal issues.
Readers of previous articles on this topic will appreciate that the current residence rules are uncertain and have caused real difficulties for expats and for those coming to and leaving the UK. As a result more certain rules are welcome but do the proposed rules achieve this?
The most recent Global Financial Centres Index1 – a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on a survey of close to 27,000 industry professionals together with more than 60 indices – places accessibility of business infrastructure, availability of first-rate commercial property and overall quality of life among its top 10 competitiveness factors.
On 1 April 2011, the Financial Times reported that HM
Revenue & Customs had indicated that it would challenge the non-residence
status of individuals who spend more than 10 working days in the UK in a tax year.
Spend just an afternoon strolling through the beautifully landscaped courtyards and pedestrian-friendly spaces of Camana Bay and there should be no doubt as to why the Town adopted the tagline “Life Blossoms”.
The Cayman Islands has worked hard over two decades to overcome
outdated Hollywood stereotypes about the jurisdiction. While the mix of
organised crime, drug barons and crooked offshore professionals makes
for a good movie plot the reality is that Cayman meets or exceeds
international regulatory and financial industry standard
More information
January 5, 2010 More information on all programmes outlined above can be found onwww.caymanfinance.gov.ky andwww.discovercaymanfinance.com
Entrepreneurship, stability and competitiveness: three attributes of
the Cayman Islands economy that were recognised and reinforced in
November 2009 when a high-level delegation from the government engaged
a cross-section of investors from key financial markets around the
world.
Because goods, services, capital and people can move across borders, states must compete for these resources. That competition limits the ability of states to move toward the interventionist end of the spectrum and so frustrates proponents of greater regulation of financial markets.
Back then, there was only one main newspaper and one telecommunications carrier, banks were ultimately regulated by the Cabinet, whose members sometimes served as directors of the financial institutions they were regulating, requests for judicial assistance from foreign governments were automatically rejected if they contained the word ‘tax’, and Cayman based its marketing campaign around secrecy, a word that invites suspicion