The chair of Cayman Finance has taken the UK media to task over its depiction of the Cayman Islands.
In a letter to the editor published in the weekend edition of the Daily Telegraph Anthony Travers accuses the right wing broad sheet and other UK papers of taking, “intelligence on the Cayman Islands from potboiler novels and Hollywood movies.” Referring to a Telegraph piece about the UK’s tax amnesty, Travers takes issue over the use of a photo and caption inferring that Cayman is where wealthy Brits are hiding their cash. (Photo used to illustrate amnesty article)
“Your article (“Offshore amnesty targets dodge tax deadline”, January 3) rightly makes no mention of the Cayman Islands, but is accompanied by a picture of the Islands with the caption, “Cayman Islands face scrutiny by Dave Hartnett and his team,” Travers wrote. “Really? No bank accounts exist in the Cayman Islands that can produce any additional tax revenue for the UK as the Cayman Islands have complied with proactive account reporting with the UK, and every other EU jurisdiction, under the European Directive since 2003. Over the past two decades, the Cayman Islands have complied with every international initiative on transparency.”
In his short letter the Cayman Finance (formerly CIFSA) chair indicates that the constant mischaracterization of Cayman not only undermines the jurisdiction’s contribution to the UK but creates unrealistic expectations that money will be found here to fund the UK deficit.
The amnesty deadline passed at midnight on 4 January and as many as 10,000 people have admitted to the UK treasury that they had offshore accounts with untaxed income, most of which were accounts in Licehenstien. No mention has been made by the UK tax office that any of those coming forward had accounts in the Cayman Islands.
According to the Telegraph, the total admissions revealed by the disclosure is below estimates made by PricewaterhouseCoopers, who suggested around 13,000 people would admit they had tax, interest and fines to pay going back up to 20 years.
By applying for the amnesty account holders will have tax liability capped to 10% of the total tax due. Those that did not come forward now face penalties of up to 100% and potentially being named and shamed. HMRC has details of offshore accounts held by UK residents with over 300 banks.
Dave Hartnett, the permanent secretary for tax at the Revenue and Customs department, said last week that now the ‘New Disclosure Opportunity' was closed the Revenue and Customs department would begin the job of using the data from banks to identify people who have not made disclosures despite having “hidden their money” offshore. "We are starting our investigations, and penalties can be up to 100% of the tax not paid," he said.
Officials had hoped the amnesty would raise £500m and form the latest "line in the sand" in its efforts to clamp down on tax evasion. Stephen Camm, tax partner from PWC, said the Revenue was now looking at raising less than £135m.