Cayman NetNews has published a letter relating to the current financial crisis in those Islands:
No to income and property taxes
Dear Sir
Mr McKeeva Bush’s considered income and property tax proposal will not be very well received. After all, the Cayman Islands by virtue of the Constitution, is ‘a tax free haven” such changes would only be made possible by way of a referendum.
I can predict the answer will be a resounding “no to income tax, and no to property tax” so don’t bother to go there. This would be devastating. The United States government prosecutes its people every day whether they’re sick, well or terminally ill for not being able to pay their taxes, regardless of the circumstances.
We cannot allow that to happen to our people, it would totally destroy us. We must remain tax free. Critics may say “I can’t find one good thing about the cigarette or liquor tax “. It’s called the politically correct tax. Impose a tax on the cigarettes and liquor to increase Cayman Islands government’s revenue.
I beg to differ; it’s time to do something politically correct in this situation. We are at the crossroads economically and must act quickly. It’s not only politically correct; it’s just the right thing to do at this time in the history of the Cayman Islands.
The United States provides financial grants for its territories like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and this is what good mother countries do for their territorial children whenever they are in financial trouble, in this current global economic crisis affecting everyone, instead of milking them.
Young calves have no milk, cows do. On the other hand, Britain is pressuring the Cayman Islands after being destroyed by hurricane PPM to cough up a solution to the problem in a couple of days, by September 7, 2009. This escalated problem was created over the past 4 to 8 years. How unreasonable can the UK be?
It is clear the current government is not responsible for this problem, so why pressure our newly elected leader. That’s not fair, and he should be allowed more time to sort this out with the most brilliant minds at his side.
What kind of parent only looks after her own financial interest and neglects her child?
Amazingly those in Cayman who have made their living abusing the UK Treasury think it is the UK’s job to bail it out. I find that astonishing.
Interestingly though the writer goes on to suggest there is more than CI$1 billion in dormant accounts in Cayman — enough to clear its debts.
I do not think this is the right use for tax evaded funds — as much of this money no doubt is. If Cayman banking secrecy can be broken by the Cayman government to claim this money it should be universally broken to allow other governments to claim property that is rightfully theirs — not Cayman’s.
The reality is Cayman remains insolvent — and whilst the attitudes in this letter persist, that is the way it will remain.
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Thise in Cayman, you mean one person writing a letter, if I quote a letter from a member of the BNP, does that make all British racist?
The fact on the matter is Cayman is not looking for a handout, but the FCO is preventing Cayman from taking a short termloan to cover day to day expanses, which they have already negociated in a poorly conceived bid to get direct taxes in Cayman.
Bermuda has over double the debt of Cayman to put it in prospective.
Waht Cayman has to do is cut back on it’s expenditure, after all almost 9% of the total population works in Government.
Cayman is not after a handout, just to be allowed to pay its workers without malicious intervention.
What next to the uK to offer Cayman to the US as a military base and make Caymanians homeless, the precedent is there.
Sir, I have to say a few things here because I am amazed at the number of UK commentators who come out of the woodwork and feel it is appropriate to gloat over the problems being experienced by Cayman. For the record, I am an English expat and an ordinary citizen, husband and father. I am married to a Caymanian and consider this my home. I am not wealthy, very far from it in fact.
I am honestly sickened by the attitude of many citizens who come crawling out from under their rocks in the UK. It saddens me that in this day of “copy and paste journalism” there are those who sit behind a keyboard, blindly republish everything and anything that takes their fancy. Forget investigation of facts, forget the many and varied reasons why this is happening, don’t mention the UK’s whole dirty part in it all. Forget responsible and balanced reporting. A “writer” for the Guardian who made the completely uninformed, ignorant and offensive remark that most native Caymanians live in breeze block houses surrounded by scrub land, goats and chickens is a perfect illustration. I can only assume that the mind behind the remarkable penmanship is the product of a graduate from the hallowed halls of Britain’s rapidly sinking educational establishment, and I have plenty of personal experience of their type. I doubt he even passed high school geography.
I am honestly shamed by the actions and attitudes of both my homeland’s government and many of my countrymen. It is little wonder that Britain and its administration are loathed and reviled in so many parts of the world. The once loyal Caymanian people can probably be added to that list very soon and shame on Britain for their high handedness. The persistent arrogant and colonial attitudes that are displayed by so many is staggering; as if the UK still has any rightful claim to any moral high ground or can claim to be anything other than a nation floundering very seriously in its own right. The “Great” in Britain disappeared a long time ago, and maybe past sins are slowly coming back to haunt them.
Let’s be brutally honest about a few things here and stop beating around the bush with regard to what is really going on. If there is anyone who honestly believes that the Cayman financial services industry could have operated without the collusion of those in Westminster you are deluded. I am no financial or tax expert I freely admit and I cannot argue with authority with those who are but I am certain that if it had been in Britain’s interests to do so we would long ago have had a swarm of “experts” over on a taxpayer funded junket to expose it all a long time ago and close the doors once and for all. It never happened though did it? The vested interests of wealthy and greedy Brits were doubtless also being well served by a sweet little offshore operation and yet now this little island nation is the criminal? Have you seen the hearsay and nonsense being thrown around on the web that include allegations that Cayman aids and abets every criminal concern under the sun – drug dealers, terrorists, blah blah blah. Of course, nothing related to the UK could be remotely considered anything more than “sailing a little close to the wind, old chap!” I would suggest that when it comes to aiding and abetting terrorists and grooming them for future active duty, the UK should be looking much closer to home – in it’s own backyard seems the place to start. I suppose that in a nation where the indigenous population are taxed to death and beyond and are afraid to speak out because of the oppressive blanket of political correctness demanded of them, it’s hardly any surprise is it?
Ironically, a lot of the commentators from Britain are involved in the tax business, and we all know what big business that is. These are the companies and individuals who make a living telling others how to find loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Of course, it’s all legal old boy, we’re just smarter than the people who make the laws!
The spineless socialists who were handed the reins and those who elected them can hardly complain or point fingers. You make a comment elsewhere that “Cayman is bankrupt, in more ways than one..” You also mention corruption, another nice meaty word to associate with Caribbean nations, and yet fail to mention that much of said corruption involves those imported from where? Of course, the jolly old UK. Look it up and you will see that the meddling and colonialism I accuse Britain of is alive and well, at least in the very few isolated outposts where the government still feel they can bully and puff out there pathetic chest. And for what? It is no more than an attempt to placate the current POTUS in his Hollywoodesque vision of a TV reality show where he is the star and loved by everyone. All I can say to your thoughtless and pompous remark is “people in glass houses, sir”
Accusations like this from a resident of a country that could hardly be more socially and morally bankrupt ,serves once again to prove only the arrogance of those who persist in living in cloud cuckoo land. Britain in the 21st century has little to be proud of, having dismantled everything that once was great and proud about the nation. Look at the crumbling institutions: practically non existent military and navy, racial tensions and hatred, crime, homelessness, unemployment, the NHS, taxation, interference in practically every aspect of the lives of citizens. Add to this the shameful neglect of the elderly, the collapse of family values, social responsibility and total abandonment of self reliance in favor of a culture of blame and whining. Bottom feeding “human rights” lawyers and ambulance chasing lowlife practice with glee and milk the people and the nation. Let’s not forget the huge leakage of public money through benefit fraud on a massive scale – to the tune of billions every year, and the ongoing blatant mismanagement of the public purse. Labour’s methods have not changed in decades and they never will – overspending and corruption – tax the people more to pay for our incompetence and ineptitude. Pot, Kettle, Black, sir.
Let’s finish with a few more home truths as this is getting rather long.
Cayman has never before in its history gone cap in hand to the UK government. A lot of this can be directly attributed to the cowardly public servants roaming the halls of Westminster who are desperately clinging to the the coat tails of the US, hoping to appease a misguided man, ill equipped for leadership, struggling to divert attention from far more important domestic issues by apportioning blame for their current chaotic and failing economy to outside forces. It reminds you how someone once rose to power by convincing a nation that they had only lost an attempt to conquer an entire continent because they had been “stabbed in the back……” It makes for great rhetoric and offers the illusion that those in power have some answers. Patently leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have no real suggestions or ideas other than the old standby, let’s throw more money into this bottomless pit. That’s socialist thinking at work for you.
In 2004 these small islands were completely devastated by Hurricane Ivan. This is devastation on a scale not witnessed on UK shores since WWII and the Blitz. Feel free to look it up on the web, there are plenty of great pictures. Did the island turn to their supposedly benign protectors and allies across the sea? Did they ask for handouts? No, they did not. They got up and began rebuilding their shattered country that had been all but obliterated by damage running into billions of dollars. The UK’s contribution amounted to roughly a couple of hundred thousand dollars, 500 cots, 500 tarpaulins, some bottled water and water purification tablets sufficient for 7000 people for a month. UK charities probably made contributions, but I’d say the UK got off more than lightly on that one. They lose more than that in a day to foreign nationals scamming the welfare state and benefits system by using dead people’s social security numbers. Yet in the hour of a small and loyal nation’s need, the door is slammed firmly in their faces. Some of it may well have been brought upon their own heads, I do not dispute this, but the ramifications of global recession are hitting nations large and small. Surely Britain’s interests would be better served by offering, or at least allowing, short term assistance in the hope the mess can be reversed. The alternatives are bleak and will definitely have ramifications on Britain’s hallowed shores will they not?
Cayman is being thrown to the wolves by an uncaring bullying and toothless country whose glory days are as faded as the relics in its many stately homes. I do sorely hope that some of my writing will explain why the ordinary people on these islands are feeling the way they do and why the poisonous and spiteful writings of others are so hurtful to them as a nation. The truth is that most people in the UK don’t even know where the Cayman Islands are, if they have even heard of them at all. Those who know of our existence probably only know the name through some one liner in a movie about drug dealers and money laundering, or some rich character in a soap opera who invariably has dirty money “tucked away in the Caymans”. If the UK really wants to see the breakdown of social order and the fabric of society in one of their dependent territories for the sake of political wrangling and favours, I sincerely hope that the people of these islands will prove that engineering the advent of a banana republic is not going to happen to them, at least not without a fight.
Eventually Britain will reach its last “hurrah” make no mistake, and when they do it will be ugly and the people will finally have to face the consequences of allowing the lunatics to run the asylum. It will be a case of “Never has so much been owed by so few to so many!” What a great epitaph, you can all be very proud.
Cayman is not purer than pure, there is no nation in the world than can lay claim to that, but it is sickening to see my own homeland sink to such levels for their own selfish and greed laden agendas. Then again, past history should tell everyone that it should not really come as any great surprise. This may not address or solve any of the issues and I do not have any answers, but let the record show that this browbeating and bullying goes far deeper than those in power have the courage or the integrity to admit.
Faithfully
M.J.Snell