Cayman Islands Financial Services

On October 29, 2009, the Cayman Islands signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Netherlands Antilles. The signing took place at the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) plenary held in Curacao.

This is the 14th Tax Information Exchange Agreement signed by the Cayman Islands. It was signed on behalf of the Cayman Islands by the Cayman Attorney General, Samuel Bulgin.

When commenting on the signing, Bulgin said: “This signing represents the Cayman Islands’ continued commitment to OECD standards for transparency and exchange of information on tax matters. It will commemorate the beginning of what I am sure will be a mutually-rewarding relationship between the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands Antilles.”

According to the government, negotiations on signing TIEAs have also been completed with Aruba, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Agreements are expected to be signed by the end of 2009. Also, negotiations are ongoing with Argentina, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, India, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Spain and South Africa.

On October 14, the Ministry of Financial Services announced that the Cayman Islands has signed a tax information agreement with France. The Ministry expressed its hope that this agreement would help attract French financial institutions and companies.

According to the Ministry’s press release, the new treaty was signed with Paris via an exchange of letters on October 5, 2009.

This is the 13th bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) signed by the Cayman Islands. The jurisdiction has bilateral TIEAs signed with Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US.

The Cayman Islands and New Zealand signed a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA). This TIEA is the 12th TIEA signed by the Cayman Islands. Signing the treaty, Cayman moved onto the white list of jurisdictions that have “substantially implemented” the internationally agreed tax standard set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to the Cayman Islands’ Leader of Government Business/Premier Designate, McKeeva Bush, “For over 4 decades the Cayman Islands has steadily earned its place as a world-class international financial services center. The Cayman Islands Government sees the OECD’s recognition as a natural outcome of the country’s substantial commitment to uphold an equally world-class international cooperation regime in the exchange of tax information.”

Director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, Jeffrey Owens, welcomed the signing and noted that the Cayman Islands extends its network of agreements and intends to implement them effectively and quickly.

New Zealand’s Revenue Minister, Peter Dunne, said that low-tax offshore financial centers want to achieve a sufficient number of TIEAs in order to allow them to be seen as meeting the OECD’s standards, so lately several TIEAs have been signed. For example, on July 21, New Zealand signed a TIEA with Guernsey, and on July 28, New Zealand signed a TIEA with Jersey. Also, the TIEAs were signed by New Zealand the British Virgin Islands and Gibraltar.