Topic: taxation

What if taxation could actually improve our health, reduce government costs, and make Cayman a healthier place to live, asks Compass columnist Simon Cawdery.

Perhaps Cayman should, in the current good years, run a surplus of cash from financial services taxation, invest this surplus wisely, and use the accumulated wealth to support itself if or when the geopolitical winds change.

The OECD is pointing to inheritance taxation as an important tool to address wealth inequality in a new report.

Rather than criminalize the financial activities of foreigners who are obeying their own countries laws, and try to enact more self-defeating rules in the increasingly elusive quest to define “income,” government fiscal agents should concentrate on only attempting to tax part of consumption.

There comes a point in every failed negotiation where the words used should indicate that there is no possibility whatsoever of reaching an agreement with the negotiating party. In the present case, this is because the negotiating party, here the European Union, has no intention whatsoever of doing so.

Harsh taxes on yachts backfire because the people being targeted have considerable ability to escape the tax by simply choosing to buy yachts, staff yachts, and sail yachts where taxes aren’t so onerous.