Cayman Islands

Company formation and compliance in Cayman Islands.

Form an Exempted Company, a Cayman LLC, an Exempted Limited Partnership or a Foundation Company at the General Registry through a mandatory Cayman-licensed corporate services provider, which supplies the registered office and makes the filing — a foreign founder cannot file directly, but needs no resident director, member or shareholder. An exempted company needs one shareholder and one director, both of whom may be non-resident, and its registration fee is banded on authorised share capital from KYD 700 up to KYD 42,000 of capital, which is why market practice caps authorised capital at about USD 50,000. An LLC is flat-fee (KYD 900 to register, KYD 1,100 a year) and member-managed; an ELP is the standard fund vehicle (KYD 1,000 to register, with at least one Cayman-connected general partner); a Foundation Company adds a KYD 500 declaration fee to become an ownerless vehicle for DAO, philanthropic and private-wealth structures. There is NO corporate income tax, capital gains tax, withholding tax or payroll income tax and no VAT or GST — so there is no income-tax return to file, and an exempted company may apply to the Cabinet for a tax-exemption undertaking against future direct tax. The real calendar is registry and notification work: the annual government fee in January with the annual return by the last business day of March (late-filing penalties of 33.33%, 66.67% then 100% of the annual fee, ending in strike-off), an Economic Substance Notification to the DITC every year for every in-scope entity, an Economic Substance Return where one of the nine relevant activities is carried on, beneficial-ownership particulars kept current on the register held by the CSP, and CRS/FATCA reporting for entities that are Financial Institutions. English is the sole official language and the language of all legislation, fee schedules and filings.