Letter to Sydney Morning Herald

• Posted by Anthony Travers O.B.E.
• Posted on November 2, 2009
• Posted in cayman islands

Sydney Morning Herald
2 November, 2009

Dear Sir,

Your article (Future Fund enjoys tax break in Cayman Islands - October 30^th) repeats an unfortunate and erroneous stereotype not assisted by the comments of your Institute of Chartered Accountants.

The Cayman Islands fund regime is fully compliant with IOSCO procedures and will provide full information in respect of any Cayman regulated Fund to any IOSCO member jurisdiction, Australia included. The recent FATF, IMF and US General Accountability Office reports fully corroborate the position.

In addition, the Cayman Islands is regarded by the OECD as White List compliant on tax transparency and is in the process of extending its current network of treaties. You may shortly be pleasantly surprised on that point too.

We cannot comment on the Australian tax law provision that provides the benefit obtained by this Fund nor, therefore, on whether the expression "caught" is a fair assessment, but would observe that tax evasion is not an option in the Cayman Islands and that lawful tax avoidance is a function of domestic Australian tax law not Cayman Islands law.

Yours Sincerely,

Anthony Travers OBE
Chairman, Cayman Finance