Cayman Islands Reports Fall In EU Savings Income

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

29 September 2009

The Cayman Islands Tax Information Authority (TIA) has released statistics showing that while the number of reports made to European Union member states under the savings tax directive increased last year, the amount of savings income reported fell.

The recently-released 2008 statistics show that:

As in 2007, the largest number of reports on accounts based in the Cayman Islands were sent to the French tax authority, with 2,159 having been sent last year (an increase from 1,579 in 2007), followed by the United Kingdom with 1,643 (up from 1,283 in 2007). However, the USD13m in savings income reported to the UK was substantially higher than the USD1.2m reported to the French authorities, although money reported to the UK dropped by USD9m in 2008 compared to the 2007 figures.

The second highest aggregate amount of savings income was reported to the Netherlands (USD5.8m) from 47 reports.

In total, 5,679 reports were made to EU member states by the TIA on USD25.7m in savings income held in the Cayman Islands. The number of reports increased by 1,817, but total savings income reported decreased by USD10m on 2007.

As the competent authority for the purposes of the reporting of savings income information, the TIA is responsible for receiving the prescribed information from domestic 'paying agents' and for transmitting that information to the relevant counterpart competent authorities in European Union member states.

The TIA has the authority to publish aggregate information relating to the volume of reports, associated dollar values and number of paying agents. These figures are based on data submitted to the TIA by Cayman Islands paying agents in compliance with their statutory reporting obligations under the Report of savings Income Information (ROSII) Law and Regulations outlined in the EU Directive.

All data is in respect of relevant payees who have their residence in an EU member state and to whom savings income has been paid in the reporting period. Whether and at what rate the reported savings income is taxable is determined by the tax code of the relevant EU member state.

The Cayman Islands currently conforms to the Savings Tax Directive in the form of an information exchange policy and therefore is not obliged to operate a withholding tax.

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