Cayman Finance has responded to statements made by Australian frontbencher Senator Sam Dastyari concerning companies registered in the Cayman Islands.
Dastyari criticised Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for using Cayman Islands vehicles to manage his investments.
“The statement unfortunately seeks to perpetuate a common misconception that the Cayman Islands is a tax haven,” said Jude Scott, chief executive officer, Cayman Finance.
Scott says that the fact that Dastyari acknowledged that the activities of the Prime Minister were perfectly legal suggests that the statements were merely politically motivated.
“Clients using Cayman Islands vehicles are required by their resident countries to pay the tax relevant to them under their laws and indeed based on the statements of the Prime Minister this appears to be the case in this instance”, added Scott.
“We are therefore surprised that Mr Dastyari would conclude that the use of Cayman Islands vehicles is ‘unfair’ or ‘not right’.
“As much of the world now knows, the Cayman Islands has demonstrated significant leadership in the area of cross border cooperation on tax matters, be it our signing of over 30 tax information exchange agreements, our industry’s compliance with foreign account tax compliant act (FATCA) or our status as one of the early commitment countries under the Organisation for economic Co-operation’s (OECD) common reporting standards (CRS).”
Cayman Finance, Jude Scott, Senator Sam Dastyari, Cayman
