A new Constitution is being prepared to be implemented in the Cayman Islands. The date of its implementation will be November 6.
The text of the new Constitution by the Government Information Services (GIS) comes in 4 parts.
Today, on October 29, 2009, the 2nd in a 4 part series of features prepared on the new Constitution was published. On October 30, the 3rd part of this series will be published.
A company registered in the Cayman Islands named Tingyi Holding Corporation targets as much as 16% growth a year in China as stimulus spending boosts demand for instant food.
Chief Financial Officer Frank Lin said in an interview that the company’s goal is to grow 1.5-2 times the rate of China’s economy that the Chinese government targets to expand 8% in 2009. He also noted that improving ties between Taiwan and the mainland China will improve the image of Tingyi Holding Corporation with consumers and cut travel costs.
This Cayman-incorporated company is a Taiwan family business that has become China’s biggest noodle producer. The company incorporated in the Cayman Islands started as an oil and grease company founded in 1958.
According to Forbes, Tingyi Chairman Wei Ing-Chou is Taiwan’s 5th richest person.
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.
On October 2, 2009, Cayman Islands’ Financial Secretary, Kenneth Jefferson tabled an austerity budget that was designed to tackle the significant challenges that are being faced by the offshore jurisdiction as a result of the financial crisis. Unfortunately, the crisis has not left the government much choice; therefore a multitude of taxes and fees will be increased.
Rising expenditure and lackluster revenues are facing a 5.7% contraction this year. So, Cayman has been forced to reevaluate its tax system in order to provide an additional KYD 126.4 million (USD 156 million) over the next 12 months. KYD 94.9 million (USD 117.2 million) out of this sum will be realized in the fiscal year 2009/2010.
The Cayman Islands has rejected the UK’s call to introduce direct taxes. The jurisdiction has instead decided to introduce broad increases in levies on international trade and transactions and domestic levies on goods and services, consisting mostly of increases in import duties, bank, trust and company licence fees and work permit fees.