Ugland House is a building located in George Town, Cayman Islands. Located at 121 South Church Street, the building is occupied by the law firm Maples and Calder [1] and is the registered office address for 40,000 entities, including many major investment funds, international joint ventures and capital market issuers. [2]
During his first presidential campaign, U.S. President Barack Obama referred to Ugland House as "the biggest tax scam in the world", raising questions over the number of companies with a registered office in the building. [3] [4]
President Obama subsequently nominated Jack Lew to Treasury Secretary in 2013, despite objections that Mr. Lew had invested heavily in funds in Ugland House while he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup during the 2008 financial meltdown, with President Obama stating that he was not concerned about Mr. Lew's past financial transactions. [5]
In 2008, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent body of the U.S. Congress, investigated the nature of entities registered in the Cayman Islands and at Ugland House. [6] The investigation involved reviews of documentation as well as interviews with officials from the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States. [7]
The GAO found that 95% of the entities with a registered office address at Ugland House are not wholly owned by U.S. persons. Also, the GAO validated the reasons why the Cayman Islands has become a popular jurisdiction for international finance and business, including the country's reputation "as having a stable and internationally compliant legal and regulatory system." In an interview with the GAO, representatives from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) cited "the Cayman Islands’ reputation for regulatory sophistication" and "legal protections for creditors and investors" as factors that might attract legal financial activity. [8]
In addition, the GAO report explained how U.S. government trade promotion agencies use the Cayman Islands and entities registered at Ugland House. The Export-Import Bank told the GAO that it has used the Cayman Islands to support the sale of aircraft manufactured in the United States. Between 2003 and the time of the GAO investigation, the Export-Import Bank had been involved in supporting 42 aircraft financing deals in the Cayman Islands. Also, officials from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), another U.S. government agency, told the GAO that "one-third to half of private-equity funds in which it has invested have been organized in the Cayman Islands." OPIC officials also said that "foreign investors in private-equity funds that they are involved with value the Cayman Islands' reputation for legal neutrality towards investors from different jurisdictions."
The Cayman Islands have worked to promote governance and regulation and have over the years collaborated with governments in the major economies to introduce tax information agreements such as FATCA [9] and co-operation agreements with securities regulators, aimed at promoting a transparent legal regime for global business.
The economy of the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, is mainly fueled by the tourism sector and by the financial services sector, together representing 50–60 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The Cayman Islands Investment Bureau, a government agency, has been established with the mandate of promoting investment and economic development in the territory. Because of the territory’s strong economy and it being a popular banking destination for wealthy individuals and businesses, it is often dubbed the ‘financial capital’ of the Caribbean.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) was the United States Government's Development finance institution until it merged with the Development Credit Authority (DCA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to form the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). OPIC mobilized private capital to help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, advanced the foreign policy of the United States and national security objectives.
An offshore bank is a bank that is operated and regulated under international banking license, which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and transparency, accounts with offshore banks were often used to hide undeclared income. Since the 1980s, jurisdictions that provide financial services to nonresidents on a big scale can be referred to as offshore financial centres. OFCs often also levy little or no corporation tax and/or personal income and high direct taxes such as duty, making the cost of living high.
An offshore fund is generally a collective investment scheme domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction. Like the term "offshore company", the term is more descriptive than definitive, and both the words 'offshore' and 'fund' may be construed differently.
Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have served historically as havens for tax evasion, money laundering, or to conceal or protect illegally acquired money from law enforcement in the investor's country. However, the modern, well-regulated offshore centres allow legitimate investors to take advantage of higher rates of return or lower rates of tax on that return offered by operating via such domiciles. The advantage to offshore investment is that such operations are both legal and less costly than those offered in the investor's country—or "onshore".
Tax shelters are any method of reducing taxable income resulting in a reduction of the payments to tax collecting entities, including state and federal governments. The methodology can vary depending on local and international tax laws.
Maples Group is a multi-jurisdictional firm providing legal and financial services, headquartered in the Cayman Islands. It has offices in many financial centres around the world, including several tax neutral jurisdictions. Its law firm is a member of the offshore magic circle, and specialises in advising on the laws of the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, across a range of legal services including commercial litigation, intellectual property, sport, and finance, in which the firm has a focus on the structuring of tax efficient legal structures.
Jacob Joseph Lew is an American attorney and diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to Israel. He was the seventy-sixth United States secretary of the treasury from 2013 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the twenty-fifth White House chief of staff from 2012 to 2013 and as director of the Office of Management and Budget in both the Clinton administration and Obama administration.
Taxation in the British Virgin Islands is relatively simple by comparative standards; photocopies of all of the tax laws of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) would together amount to about 200 pages of paper.
Private equity funds and hedge funds are private investment vehicles used to pool investment capital, usually for a small group of large institutional or wealthy individual investors. They are subject to favorable regulatory treatment in most jurisdictions from which they are managed, which allows them to engage in financial activities that are off-limits for more regulated companies. Both types of fund also take advantage of generally applicable rules in their jurisdictions to minimize the tax burden on their investors, as well as on the fund managers. As media coverage increases regarding the growing influence of hedge funds and private equity, these tax rules are increasingly under scrutiny by legislative bodies. Private equity and hedge funds choose their structure depending on the individual circumstances of the investors the fund is designed to attract.
Walkers is an offshore law firm headquartered on the Cayman Islands. Walkers provides legal, corporate, compliance and fiduciary services to global corporations, financial institutions, capital markets participants and investment fund managers. Walkers practices the laws of six jurisdictions from ten offices globally. It is a member of the offshore magic circle.
A low-profit limited liability company (L3C) is a legal form of business entity in the United States. Commonly referred to as a hybrid structure, it has characteristics of both for-profit and non-profit entities. L3Cs were created to comply with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program-related investments (PRIs) rules which allow most typically private foundations the ability to maintain tax-exempt status through investments in qualifying businesses and/or charities. With a social mission as the primary objective and a secondary objective of profit generation, the L3C legal form is considered a viable option for businesses seeking a reputation or marketability for being a social enterprise.
A wholly foreign-owned enterprise is a common investment vehicle for mainland China-based business wherein foreign parties can incorporate a foreign-owned limited liability company. The unique feature of a WFOE is that involvement of a mainland Chinese investor is not required, unlike most other investment vehicles.
The Corporation Trust Center is operated by CT Corporation, a subsidiary of Dutch information services firm Wolters Kluwer. The company provides "registered agent services" and, as such, is not responsible for the business or legal affairs of the customers it serves. In 2012, it was the registered agent address of at least 285,000 separate American and foreign businesses who operate or trade in the United States. The split level building is located at 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware, United States.
An offshore financial centre (OFC) is defined as a "country or jurisdiction that provides financial services to nonresidents on a scale that is incommensurate with the size and the financing of its domestic economy."
A Delaware statutory trust (DST) is a legally recognized trust that is set up for the purpose of business, but not necessarily in the U.S. state of Delaware. It may also be referred to as an Unincorporated Business Trust or UBO.
Fund governance refers to a system of checks and balances and work performed by the governing body (board) of an investment fund to ensure that the fund is operated not only in accordance with law, but also in the best interests of the fund and its investors. The objective of fund governance is to uphold the regulatory principles commonly known as the four pillars of investor protection that are typically promulgated through the investment fund regulation applicable in the jurisdiction of the fund. These principles vary by jurisdiction and in the US, the 1940 Act generally ensure that: (i) The investment fund will be managed in accordance with the fund's investment objectives, (ii) The assets of the investment fund will be kept safe, (iii) When investors redeem they will get their pro rata share of the investment fund's assets, (iv) The investment fund will be managed for the benefit of the fund's shareholders and not its service providers.
Elizabeth L. Littlefield is an American businesswoman and executive. She is the Senior Partner and co-founder of West Africa Blue, and Senior Advisor at Pollination, a climate change investment and advisory firm. She chairs the Board of M-KOPA solar and serves on the board of the World Wildlife Fund (US).
In 2010, the United States implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act; the law required financial firms around the world to report accounts held by US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service. The US on the other hand refused the Common Reporting Standard set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, alongside Vanuatu and Bahrain.
Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund or QIAIF is a Central Bank of Ireland regulatory classification established in 2013 for Ireland's five tax-free legal structures for holding assets. The Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle or ICAV is the most popular of the five Irish QIAIF structures, it is the main tax-free structure for foreign investors holding Irish assets. A QIAIF constitutes an alternative investment fund (AIF) under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and is required to appoint an alternative investment fund manager (AIFM). The AIFM may be either an EU manager or a non-EU manager.