One of the primary selling points for instituting a property tax in the Cayman Islands, rather than another form of direct taxation like income tax, is that the mechanism for levying the property tax already exists.
The Lands and Survey Department maintains a comprehensive database of properties, with ownership history and recent valuations. Cayman’s public land registry system is especially outstanding compared to the scarcity of reliable information in many other Caribbean jurisdictions.
Hypothetically, calculating a person’s property tax owed would be as simple as calculating a percentage of the most recent assessed value on file (adjusted for whatever deductions are decided upon), and collecting the tax would be aided by the government’s ability to place a charge on the property itself in relation to whatever tax is owed.
While complexities and potential problems would no doubt arise in practice (for instance, testing the willingness of political authorities to seize or auction off private property), those issues would be relatively superficial in contrast to creating an entirely new mechanism to collect, for example, an income tax.
If Cayman were at some point forced to create a property tax, the situation would beg the further standardisation of the property appraisal profession in Cayman.
In mid-March, international property professionals organisation the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors hosted the first Cayman Islands Property and Construction Conference, which served as the official launch of the group’s local chapter. Members of the institution around the world are supposed to adhere to the same set of standards.
The group has announced agreements with CIBC FirstCaribbean Internal Bank and Scotiabank Cayman Islands, where the banks will give preference to valuers registered with the Institution to perform services such as appraisals for the bank.
The group was founded in London in 1868 and now has more than 100,000 members worldwide. RICS Americas represents some 20 chapters in the United States, Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean. The group has about 50 members in Cayman.
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