Comment by DelaneyM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DelaneyM | Hacker News Reader

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Hey, Caymanian here! This is interesting reading, but I feel like it misses the point.

I know a lot of people in the finance & professional services here, and I think what's missing from this analysis is how Cayman bends over backwards to make it _easy_ to do business here (especial finance).

It's tax neutral but fully transparent to and compliant with UK, US, EU, and Singaporean (as well as many others). This means if you're operating a hedge fund (as an example) with high net worth clients and private investments globally you're generally able to hugely minimize the amount of paperwork to not be double-taxed. It also lets you run financial instruments which might be subject to tax while operating, rather than when earnings are captured and released. And yet, it does that without being on any global watch lists.

Financial courts here move _fast_, often ruling and concluding in weeks. And precedents are generally British Common Law (unless improved by Cayman). Starting a company is easy, and fees cover pretty good support. I have a Caymanian company, and when I had a question recently about identification regulations on non-voting shareholders I could call a number and get both a quick answer and great advice from a human being.

It's worth noting that Cayman has virtually no Crypto because of the above. We've actually tried, but no significant crypto company has been willing to subject itself to the relatively lightweight regulations. The biggest crypto startup on the island is a crypto regulatory compliance tooling company, which says a lot.

Anyhow, I'm not a lawyer or accountant, butt AMA I guess if anyone is curious about my home! :)

(It's also an amazing place to live, I love it here. Hard to recommend though because residency is notoriously hard to get if you're eligible through ancestry.)

I have a few questions:

1. What's the tech sector there like? For a software developer who doesn't mind working for the Financial Sector.

2. How expensive life, generally, is in the Cayman?

3. What about opportunities to start your own thing/company to service the financial industry there. How competitive is it? How easy to get your foot in the door?

> It's worth noting that Cayman has virtually no Crypto because of the above.

Many reputable crypto projects I know are set up as Cayman Foundations. For the same reasons: great regulatory clarity and execution.

All zero of them?

Thanks for your insight!

Can you comment on how easy it is for non-residents to open up a company?

It's quite easy, the biggest question is whether it's worthwhile.

Important: IANAL!!!

You can open what's called a "Cayman Islands exempt" company, which can exist here in Cayman jurisdiction but which cannot do business in Cayman (basically don't compete with Caymanians in Cayman). This is generally how holding and investment companies are structured. _However_, this doesn't shield you from either personal taxes or visibility. Cayman is much more transparent than, say, Delaware. And if the book value of investments grows and you're American the IRS will find you quickly (if you have any assets in Caymanian banks they'll report your activity to US authorities regularly, even without a warrant or request.). KYC here is no joke, it took me a month to open a bank account here and I'm a permanent resident with Cayman parents.

Since this is HN though, you may be interested in a "fully remote" company with no real home - that works quite well here. You can pay contractors anywhere without holdbacks or forms and let them be responsible for their taxes (be aware of Nexus rules though, it's not foolproof.) You'll generally be responsible for taxes in the countries where you book income from that country, but (consult a lawyer) not always for SaaS. The biggest advantage IMO is that you'll be able to cut your paperwork down enormously because Cayman just doesn't care about the flows of money (so long as it's documented for laundering/tax avoidance reasons). Nothing to file, nothing to pay.

Finally, let me plug the good folks at Cayman Enterprise City. https://www.caymanenterprisecity.com/. They will set you up to actually have an office and presence here (in a really nice building downtown!), they can give some light legal advice and guidance, and if you have employees anywhere in the world who want to relocate to paradise they can get them a visa in a day or two to move here.

So yeah, it's "easy", it's not terribly useful for tax mitigation directly, it's (in my admittedly biased opinion) one of the best places in the world to anchor a truly global startup.

If you can share more context I can try to be more helpful? But likely the next step is an actual professional accountant/lawyer.

Would you happen to know how difficult is it for a non-resident to open a personal bank account remotely?

I'm not sure that's even possible. You'd likely need to register a Caymanian company to open the account.

It might be possible if you're a resident of UK or a different BOT? (British Overseas Territories).

If you'd like to ask around, generally the most flexible bank is Butterfield. I'd start there.

Thanks!

Yep, the few wealthy canadians Ive had the unfortunate opportunity to know have had (family ... probably owned by toilet and douche) houses and uncountable bank accounts in Cayman. There was a push not long ago to crack down on the Cayman tax haven (from the US) but perhaps the island cleaned up its routine. As far as Id been aware, cayman only has financial finagling and a short coastline (with an unvisitable mini neighbor island) for attraction so its gotta be struggling. You can bring back Jamaican rum so they go that going ...

Cayman is absolutely thriving actually, our biggest political issue is currently whether we should throttle growth. (Projections have us growing by 10%/yr in population, which is a bit scary.).

Our biggest business here isn't tourism, it's finance and professional services. Our differentiator is being one of the only "legit" tax neutral locations with strong legal protections. If you want to be able to send large amounts of money anywhere in the world quickly and legitimately, without tripping a million anti-laundering provisions, this is almost your only choice.

There are very few Americans here because there's practically no corporate veil - a Cayman company is far more transparent than a Delaware company. This is a terrible place to hide funds.

There are more Canadians here because Canada doesn't tax overseas income for non-residents, but Canadian-resident individuals don't get much out of a Cayman shelter. There's a bit of a "loophole" if you own a property here through a shell company, in that you can rent that property and keep the funds here tax-free. But that only works if the rental is generating and using the majority of the funds, and it's totally transparent if CRA comes knocking, so it's pretty limited in utility.

It used to be a bigger thing in the 80s/90s, before the world started cracking down on "tax havens", but the biggest change has been in enforcement. I wouldn't be surprised if some "old money" on the island for decades is grandfathered in to better tax treatment, I've heard as much, but that's a CRA thing and not a Cayman thing. In general, Cayman has never been a place to "hide" funds, it's been a place to legitimately put funds if your country of tax residency privileges that. Tax loopholes aren't on the Cayman side, they're on the US/Canadian/UK side. Don't drag us into that mess.

Also Cayman rum beats Jamaican any day of the week. That's going too far.

I don't think he read the article. The article basically repeats what you said: Cayman success is due to its connected-ness to the major Angloshpere economies.

How does it compare to Haitian rum?

Haiti mostly makes rhum agricole which is made from sugar cane juice, as opposed to the rhum traditionnel which is made from molasses. I would describe rhum agricole as more fruity and rhum traditionnel as more heavy.

The major styles of rum are more or less history lessons in which European power colonized the country—England, France, or Spain. Former English and Spanish colonies produce rhum traditionnel, former French colonies produce rhum agricole.

Go to a liquor store in the US and you’ll see rums categorized as “light” and “dark” which is useless, because you are more interested in flavor than appearance. I think this has something to do with the kind of loose regulations defining rum in the US, compared to the much stricter definitions for different types of whiskey. (IMO the US legal definitions of whiskey are too strict, and the definitions of rum are too loose.)

Thank you!

To be honest, I don't actually drink, and I'm just defending Cayman rum as a point of national pride.

I suggest a Caribbean tasting tour.

A rum tasting tour of the Caribbean sounds like paradise!

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