We have heard all our lives that the sun does not set on the Spanish Empire, especially during the 60 years the Portuguese Empire was integrated into the Spanish Empire, with the House of Austria. Well, in the ‘British Kingdom’ the sun has not yet set, as Britain maintains possessions all over the world, and much of it is a tax haven under the magnifying glass of the UN’s Decolonization Committee, which handles everything in stride.

On the ‘French Empire’, the sun did not set either, even though its northern neighbor integrated its foreign possessions into the French Republic and they were therefore not a colony, but part of France. England is another story. and in practice he maintained colonies all over the world, which gave him a special and lucrative status.

It happened with Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Santa Clara, Ascension and Tristan de Cuna, in addition Falkland Islands and Gibraltarwhich is the only remaining colony in Europe and in the European Union.

‘Cave of pirates’

This British possession enjoys great tax privileges and for this reason is openly branded as an authentic ‘pirate’s cave’ where money is laundered without issue due to characteristics support it. It happens in Gibraltar, in Bermuda, in the British Virgin Islands… Although perhaps the most popular and common enclave for this practice are none other than the Cayman Islands.

Pirate Week Celebration in the Cayman Islands.

This British overseas territory consists of three large islands – Grand Cayman, Caiman Brac, and Little Cayman – and two smaller islands located in the Antilles, between the island of Cuba and the coast of Mexico, northwest of Jamaica. In fact, they started being managed by the colonial government of Jamaica in 1863 and when Jamaica achieved its independence in 1962 they started to own them. the current status of the British Overseas Territoriesbecame one of the 17 non-autonomous regions under the supervision of the Decolonization Committee.

The Cayman Islands are now back at the fore after FC Barcelona signed an agreement with Mountain & Co to create a new company with no operating activities based in the Netherlands and the Cayman Islands, whose main objective is to raise capital. Cayman, apart from being a tourist haven, allows almost everything in terms of taxes and companies and investors can enjoy all the advantages of setting up a company on these islands in the comfort of their home country.

zero tax

Creating a company in the Cayman Islands is full of incentives, especially when it comes to sectors investment management, legal and financial services. The United Kingdom is the country with the most tax havens, by far, and of these the Cayman Islands stand out as one of the most profitable and attractive, as, to begin with, it is a tax-free jurisdiction.

There are no corporate, property, capital gains, wages, or withholding taxes. There is also no tax on the sale of goods and services, and residents do not pay income tax.

For all these reasons, Cayman is a an ideal place for companies to set up their subsidiary businesses, to protect some or all of your income from taxes. However, also, unlike in other jurisdictions, in the Cayman Islands only one person can serve as a director and/or shareholder, regardless of their nationality and place of residence, and they do not need to reside on the islands.

Grand Cayman Island, the largest in the archipelago.

There is no minimum capital requirement for company establishment, or for annual audits for offshore companies. Corporate bank accounts are established in Cayman in spades and the region is widely used as a listing entity on major stock exchanges around the world. Additionally, there are Caymanian tax law experts offering their services from anywhere on the planet.

Five types of companies

Companies and corporations can be established in the Cayman Islands based on five main types of companies, each with its own rules, reflected in the Public Register of the Cayman Islands. For this reason, it should be carefully considered which one is most convenient depending on the type of company.

Limited liability company: This is the most appropriate choice for companies that will carry out their activities mainly from abroad. They have the great advantage that those responsible for incorporated companies, executives, managers and shareholders, cannot be held personally liable for the debts and actions of the entity.

excluded companies: Intended for companies conducting business outside the Cayman Islands and not required to register their members for public inspection or hold annual general meetings on the islands.

Resident company: These are companies that carry out their activities on the islands and must therefore maintain a physical office there, register their staff and report annually to the Registry.

Non-resident company: These are people who have no intention of doing business in the Cayman Islands and must be associated with a local entity to do so, but are permitted to buy and sell shares of foreign companies and companies tax-free.

Overseas or foreign companies: Companies incorporated outside the Cayman Islands but registered under this name have the right to own property and do business on the islands, and may associate with exempt Cayman limited companies.

basic procedure

Applications for company establishment are processed in a within 6 to 10 working days. While there are many different types of companies that can be formed in the Cayman Islands, all of them must follow a less disparate set of basic guidelines, which are general in nature, such as ordering and registering a company name in General. Register the Cayman Islands and pay an establishment fee, which ranges from $2,000 to $3,000 initially.

However, all companies must pay an annual renewal fee of US$5,000 to US$6,000, not the Cayman Islands dollar, which is the local currency. A cayman dollar equals 1.19 United States dollars.

The company must open a company bank account, which will be required to fill out a detailed application form and provide various documentation to make it. Some banks require identification of major shareholders, but not all, as well as those responsible for managing accounts. For this procedure there is special company Around the world who is responsible for carrying out all procedures.

More than twenty tax havens

The Ministry of Finance and Public Functions approved in February an Order specifying which countries and territories, as well as harmful tax regimes, are considered tax havens under new international concept of “non-cooperative jurisdiction”.

By Order HFP/115/2023, dated February 9, the Ministry of Finance renewed it in 2023 for the first time in 31 years, reduced the list of tax havens to 24. The European Union temporarily removed the Cayman Islands from its list of tax havens in 2020, but it’s clear that its tax provisions say otherwise.

The new text updates the definition of “tax haven” and adapts it to the international concept of “non-cooperative jurisdiction” with the new factors and goals of against fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. The Rules seek to “identify countries and territories which are characterized by facilitating the existence of offshore companies, or by them opacity and lack of transparencydue to the absence of regulations on the exchange of tax information with that country, because of the absence of an effective exchange of information with Spain or because of the results of the evaluation carried out by the Global Forum on the effectiveness of the exchange of information with these countries, countries and territories”.

In the current list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, we no longer find Malta, Hong Kong, or Cyprus, although new tax havens such as Bahrain, Dominica, Guam, Palau, Samoa, and American Samoa were added. In the complete list of 24 regions there are many under British guardianship and others who stop being. It comprises Anguilla, Bahrain, Barbados, Bermuda, Dominica, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guam, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Falkland Islands, Mariana Islands, Solomon Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Jersey , Palau, Samoa, American Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, and the Cayman Islands themselves.