Polack Post: Jamaicans And The Cayman Assets
By Peter Polack
Peter Polack
For decades, well to do Jamaicans have been hiding their assets in land, apartments, bank accounts, trusts and company shares in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. They know who they are and with a little effort so will the leaders of Jamaican revenue collection, much in need of more taxes given the government largesse with private company loans.
Some have used family members in the Cayman Islands to disguise their holdings to avoid paying their fair share of taxes to the government of Jamaica.
There are many assets in Jamaica such as land, bank accounts and company shares that are owned by companies and other entities from the Cayman Islands or other tax havens and offshore company providers such as Saint Lucia. Some of those entities are defunct and their assets may belong to the governments of Jamaica or Cayman.
With little or no effort the relevant ministers and portfolio leaders can secure a list of foreign owned assets in the country which are controlled or owned directly or indirectly by Jamaican nationals. An assessment can then be made of any taxes and penalties that are due.
Any required legislation or regulations can be expedited for what has become a national emergency.
This wide net would also scoop up individuals who have committed money laundering to evade taxes unless a time sensitive amnesty for full payment and penalties within thirty days is declared.
The American government and others, require an annual declaration by their citizens as to the ownership, directly or indirectly, of any foreign assets. They also tax their citizens wherever they reside.
Jamaica can follow that protocol to help with the gaping post Melissa hole in their income. This is especially so when one of our biggest earners, remittances, has fallen and now being taxed by the US government.
Policemen, nurses, teachers, government workers and private company workers have their tax obligation taken before they are paid. They have no opportunity to evade taxes. This is not the case with many of the bosses in Jamaica. It cannot be right that the hardest working or those on fixed incomes are compelled to pay taxes and have to carry a burden avoided by many wealthy Jamaicans, especially from Upper Saint Andrew.
Timing is everything and the new leader of the Cayman Islands has declared an intention to stamp out financial misconduct. He could start, if requested, to provide a list of Jamaican ownership of bank accounts, shares or any other instruments to create secrecy and avoid taxes.
He could then move on to Caymanians who have committed money laundering to assist Jamaicans and others to evade taxes using his recently increased government financial sector guardians and the so called soldiers on the front line of compliance. There have been no prosecutions in this regard and no one is holding their breath.
The Cayman Islands and others have recently been forced to open a beneficial ownership register that would provide a useful clue to tax avoidance by Jamaicans if the government or media is interested.
A good start is if the sixty three Jamaican parliamentarians declare any foreign assets or local assets owned by foreign entities under their control.
There are no more sacred cows, not now, not ever.
There cannot be one rule for them and one rule for us.
Notes
https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8938
https://www.caymancompass.com/2025/10/10/acams-comes-to-cayman
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.
His views are his own.
