Offshore haven considers a heresy: taxation

| 04/10/2009

(New Yok Times): What happens to a tax haven when it has to raise taxes? The Cayman Islands may soon find out. Caught in a vise of shrinking revenue and stubbornly high public spending, the Caymans averted a fiscal crisis this week by securing a $60 million overseas loan. But the Foreign and Commonwealth office in Britain, which oversees the Caymans and can veto foreign lending requests, has delivered an ultimatum: The rest of the $284 million the Cayman government says it needs will not be forthcoming until this offshore financial center imposes spending cuts and considers some form of direct taxation on businesses here and its 57,000 residents.

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  1. Thankful says:

    Now I have read this full article.  What is most striking to me is the amount of details, including, key government meetings, this paper was able to find out.

    I have read more in this article relevant to the actual meetings etc. than I have in any local paper.

    I only have one question: beside the obvious garbage from D. Seales, I wonder who the inside spy is?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Way ahead of you with the Nte News boycott – I will not purchase it personally and have encouraged all of my business contacts to stop advertising with Seales.

    He is damn out of order! Selfish, immature punk-with-a-typewriter!

  3. Dennis Smith says:

    The article sounds very fair and showed Cayman in a good light, fighting to retain its integrity. Every business and government has problems; the question is how they solve them. I think the audience that reads the NY times is sophisticated enough to see the positives here and if we do the right things they will support the underdogs. All in all a much better presentation of the situation, with a hint of sympathy. 

    • CaymanMangos says:

      I agree. The impression left by the article is that Cayman is going to fight hard to keep its tax-free status, which is good press in times like these, when taxes are likely to be going up everywhere else very soon.   Unlike the tabloid-type headlines coming out of some sections of the British press these days, I thought this article was very objective and sympathetic, and there is nothing wrong with the message it conveys. Let’s hope it sticks.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I suggest it’s time for all residents of Cayman to show they will no longer accept Desmond’s attempt to destroy this country

    It’s a shame they did not add convicted criminal Desmond before his quote

    Think about it, he has been the cause of the Tempora and SPIT debacles as well as Chuckiegate, all wasting money Cayman needs, money that could have been spent on the old at the Pines or on the young at our schools.

    Now he is mouthing off to the US media, trying to ruin the one industry outside Government that employs the most Caymanians.

    Everyone talks of Barlow, But Desmond is the man that truely hates Cayman and Caymanians (how many does he employ at CNN anyway?)

    I say Caymanians, Expats lets come together in a boycott of Cayman Net News, both the paper and the website to show Desmond our displeasure

     

    • Heaven help us... says:

      I agree….boycott already in place since May 20th!! He spoke badly of us to BBC Caribbean as well….he is in the middle of every crazy investigation over the past year or two and now he’s running his big mouth on the international scene on Cayman’s behalf…..not helping any more than Mac is! I would bet that it’s not the government owing him money!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Was Desmond talking about Cayman Net News being broke or the Cayman Islands? It’s interesting that Desmond hits out at the government for owing him money when I wonder how much money he owes to not just his entirely foreign labour work force but also to his debtors. The Cayman Press has been very fair handed with this government and including CNS seems to be very wary of casting a dark shadow over the CIG’s financial crisis. This latest effort to raise sin taxes and other fees is not sustainable yet so far no one is going on record to question the government’s ridiculous projections of what it will collect from these new fees. I predict, and I may be wrong here, that along with the bailes of fine Jamaican ganja we will begin seeing cartons of ciggerettes. Living in Cayman has always been an expensive venture for expats and many Caymanians alike but boy oh boy what a time to increase the cost of living. Wages are frozen across the board in most companies and revenue it down. The new increases will do little to puff up the coffers and instead drive people to tuck more money under the mattress and give less to a government whose only obligation is to the thousands of cronies who work in the civil service. Anyways, I could be wrong but these projections are likely based on current levels of personal spending habits but businesses and people and probably don’t take into account that people will change their behavior when it costs them  more.

  6. The Force says:

    “Face it, this place is broke, and it is because the model is wrong,” said Desmond Seales, the publisher of The Cayman Net News, a local newspaper. He cites as proof the fact that the government owes him $50,000 in advertising and printing costs.

     

    Above quote is from the New York Times article – for Heaven’s sake – you mean people in the real world will publish the regurgitations of Desmond (Seales)? I don’t believe it!

    Mac you need to have a word with this man you know – he don’t mean us any good and never have.

    Right about now someone in high office should be reviewing all the things that he has singlehandedly brought on to bring about this territoy’s demise.

    XXXXX

    • Anonymous says:

      Desmond Seales handing out financial advice about how not to be broke! What about the people defrauded to prop up his failing TV company? What about what he owes his employees?! What about his failure to pay his Cayman Airways bill for carrying his newspapers? You are right:  he has been at the centre of practically every investigation and controversy: Clifford Enquiry; Operation Tempura and spin offs; Levers Tribunal. This man is a menace to society.  

  7. Anonymous says:

    HA HA!

  8. Joe Average says:

    What the NYT failed to mention is that major banks and financial institutions, mostly in the U.S., launder vast amounts of drug money.  Including offering subprime mortgages they were aware would go into default.  But not worry!  The Federal Reserve bailed them out.  And in an instant billions of dollars were laundered and noone became the wiser.  And to divert any attention from this profitable practice they have drawn the attention of the world to those nasty offshore tax havens. Talk about a hypocritcal viewpoint.  But what do you expect from a newspaper owned by a conglomerate?

    • Anonymous says:

      Pointing fingers of blame at our major source of income is very unwise, when we are but an annoying mosquito liable to be squashed if we get any more troublesome.

      • Johnny Cake wid a cup of coffey(e) says:

         those mosquitoes can get your attention and can give a nice hard bite…sometimes the best course is to get out of their area and leave them alone

        • Anonymous says:

          The usual racist anti-foreigner untertones coming through here.

          To follow suit, you should never run from a mosquito. Crush it like the inadequate uneducated, greedy annoyance it is. Then take its area for yourself and make it a better place.

          • Anonymous says:

            There was nothing racist in that post. But you on the other hand are clearly an anti-Caymanian racist.

            • Words says:

              You are right.  The post was not racist. It was idiotic and reflected a complete lack of perception of how insignificant and fragile Cayman is.

              I do not how calling someone a racist makes you a racist.  It just makes you bad at identifying different types of ignorance.

          • English Ex Pat says:

            It’s people like you (ignorant and arrogant) that cause the ‘anti-foreigner’ comments to be here in the first place – the kind of people who in their first breath spout racial hatred, and in their next breath stoop so low as to make a completely derogatory and racist statement themselves.

            And while I am at it if you are from another country and fortunate enough to be working on this beautiful island, please do not put yourself on any pedestals you are no better than anyone else and you have no right to compare or try and make Cayman more like the place you came from… if you feel the need to do that – GO HOME! 

             

        • Anonymous says:

          Once bitten, one tends to get the spray plane out and wipe them all out.

  9. Caymanians for good reporting says:

    This is the 5th most actively viewed and email article in the Business section of the New York Times. This is what we are up against folks let us stop the UDP and PPM nonsense today and focus on our true enemies…if UDP fails or if PPM fails,  all Caymanians fail at same time.

     

    The USA’s Vice president comes from the state of Delaware where there is one building with 122,000 companies listed there….still have not heard Obama mention that building yet….do you think he will??  do you think the US and UK press will???

     

    Your choice folks…choose smartly…save the politicking until next election…or we may not have the next one…(see Turks and Caicos takeover by UK)…this is the easiest way the UK can stop our financial industry…do not make a mistake here…alot at stake.

     

  10. Anonymous says:

    More distortions. At least in this article it was apparently Desmond and not Mac that says that we are "broke". Still this is yet another article that is not helpful for Cayman. Mac may be grinning at the way he is described but people in the financial sector in NY are going to look at this article and say, "Where did I put the phone numbers for our contacts in Switzerland?" 

    All this because someone chose to wash the dirty laundry in public for some local political advantage.