Cayman Islands | Cayman Islands Map | Cayman Islands Picture | Cayman Islands Photo | Cayman Islands Images
Cayman Islands | Cayman Islands Map | Cayman Islands Picture | Cayman Islands Photo | Cayman Islands Images
The Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The territory is a major offshore financial centre in the Caribbean.
With an average income of around $42,000, Caymanians enjoy the highest standard of living in the Caribbean.
The government’s primary source of income is indirect taxation – there is no income tax or capital gains tax or corporation tax. An import duty of 5% to 20% is levied against goods imported into the islands.
The Cayman Islands is regarded as one of the world’s best scuba diving destinations because of its crystal-clear waters and pristine walls. Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are also elite SCUBA dive destinations.
Other Grand Cayman tourist attractions include the Ironshore landscape of Hell, the 23-acre (93,000 m2) marine theme park Boatswain’s Beach, also home of the Cayman Turtle Farm, the production of gourmet sea salt, and the Mastic Trail, a hiking trail through the forests in the center of the island.
The Cayman Islands are a major international financial center. The biggest sectors are “banking, hedge fund formation and investment, structured finance and securitization, captive insurance, and general corporate activities.” Regulation and supervision of the financial services industry is the responsibility of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).
The Cayman Islands are the fifth-largest banking center in the world; with $1.5 trillion in banking liabilities
One reason for the Cayman Islands’ success as an offshore financial center has been the concentration of top-quality service providers.
On May 4, 2009 President Obama declared his intentions to curb the use of tax havens by multinational corporations. In his speech, he singled out the Cayman Islands as a tax shelter. The next day, the Cayman Island Financial Services Association submitted an open letter to the president detailing The Caymans’ role in international finance and its value to the US financial system.
