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THE CAYMAN Islands government this month set up a task force to oversee the enactment of a United States measure to catch tax dodgers called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

Comparatively, the Jamaican Government remains silent on its response while local stakeholders prepare to comply with the measure set for implementation in January 2013.

"Following recent discussion in Washington, DC, with US Treasury officials, the Ministry of Finance announces the formation of a new task force to evaluate the suitability of a government-to-government reporting arrangement for the implementation of the US FATCA in the Cayman Islands," said an official release by the Cayman government about the task force set to commence activities "immediately".

"As far as I know, there is no response by the Government of Jamaica as yet," said a source which opted for anonymity. "It is early days and institutions around the world are waiting to see before making official responses," the source added.

capture and tax

FATCA aims to capture and tax, if necessary, income earned outside the US for its citizens, green card holders and institutions. However, regular Jamaicans without a US green card are subject to the measure provided they travel to the US for about two months each year and earn over US$50,000 annually.

The Gleaner up to print was unable to get a response from the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Jamaica and Financial Services Commission on the matter. Additionally, the phones of Minister with Responsibility for Information Sandrea Falconer went to voicemail. Up to print, FATCA experts were also unavailable, including Sandra Wright of auditing firm Deloitte and Allison Peart, managing partner at auditing firm Ernst & Young.

Last month, general manager of Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), Earl Jarrett, said at the Gleaner Editors' Forum that he was not aware of any public dialogue on FATCA by the Jamaican administration.

"What this is telling us is that we can't just mind our own business at Gordon House. We have to have a watching brief on what is happening at 10 Downing Street or even Washington, or increasingly Beijing (China), so we have to embrace this global space," Jarrett had said.

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Cayman FACTA task force established

GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS--(Marketwire -05/15/12)- Tethys Petroleum Limited ("Tethys" or "the Company") (TPL.TO)(TPL.L) today announced its first quarter 2012 financial results. The results are underlined by a 45% increase in revenues over the first quarter of last year.

The Company reports financial results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS").

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

The full Q1 Results together with a Management Discussion & Analysis have been filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Copies of the filed documents may be obtained via SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com or on Tethys' website at http://www.tethyspetroleum.com. The summary financial statements are attached to this press release.

The above highlights along with other operational and financial details will be further discussed in a scheduled conference call. Details of the conference call can be found below:

Conference Call:

A conference call will be held at 8:00 AM Eastern Standard Time 1:00 PM British Summer Time on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. The North American conference call number is 800-261-3417 and the outside North America conference call number is +1 617-614-3673. The conference call code to use is 26577200 . Please call in about 10 minutes before the starting time in order to be patched into the call.

Webcast:

The call is being webcast and can be accessed at:

http://phoenix.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=213714&eventID=4773558

Excerpt from:
Tethys Petroleum Limited: First Quarter 2012 Financial Results

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

These are the early days for Cayman Enterprise City, the Caribbeans only technology-based Special Economic Zone, and Jason Blick CECs young and dynamic Chief Executive Officer is brimming with optimism and excited about what he and his team are developing in the Cayman Islands. We are doing tremendously well, he said. There are 5 companies now established within the Zone, 17 are in the process of being set up and another 80 plus are in the pipeline at various stages of negotiation so I couldnt be happier.

It is the realization of a bold concept that Blick, a finance law attorney and expert on Special Economic Zones, envisioned while working with successful SEZs in the Middle East The Cayman Islands is a tax-neutral jurisdiction offering easy access to lucrative and emerging markets in North and Latin America. Using the experience, knowledge and insight gained from a decade in Dubai, Jason Blick set off in 2008 on a four-year search of the Caribbean region. The journey ended in the Cayman Islands. Cayman stood out, he said. It has a forward-thinking government, a very dynamic community, and a wealth of support services we never had in Dubai.

The Special Economic Zone, enabled by Cayman Islands legislation passed last year, opened for business in this January, a year after Blick and his team signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government. The project was fast-tracked with support from the government, the Civil Service and the private sector. CECs master campus which breaks ground this summer, will include an Internet& Technology Park, a Biotech Park, a Media Park, a Global Commodities Park, an International Academic Park and an Outsource Park. Companies licensed to operate in the zone are globally focused and not allowed to trade in Caymans domestic economy.

I was very grateful for the foresight and vision of the Premier, the Honorable McKeeva Bush, said Jason. Mr. Bush came to Dubai with us and saw for himself the success of the zones in the Middle East.

Blick moved to the Middle East from England fresh out of law school because he says it was the place to be in the 1990s. Dubai was a new frontier where the free zones were merging technology and media it was exhilarating! he says. He advised operators, partners, financiers and end-users of Special Economic Zones. He watched Dubai Internet City develop from a sandy wasteland into a thriving economic hub in ten short years, and he also witnessed the positive impact that these economic powerhouses had on local economies. Jason Blick is confident that CEC will create new jobs, new industries, new businesses and new careers in Cayman and boost and diversity its economy.

His experience and ties to the Middle East have led to a strategic partnership with Dubai Multiple Commodities Centre, strengthening trade relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Cayman Islands. In a highly competitive global financial market, relationships like this benefit investors, so companies established in both zones can quickly access new markets.

Cayman Enterprise City is the first special economic zone to house commodities teams and this is the only SEZ in the world that has a partnership with Dubai, he said. This is a reflection of their belief in our model and we are very excited about it.

Jason Blick is also confident that many of the Fortune 500 companies will establish a presence in Cayman Enterprise City. They are always watching for the next opportunity, and now because of the internet companies can conduct global sales from anywhere in the world, he says.

Why Cayman Enterprise City? Zero Taxes, responds the CEO emphatically when the question is posed. From US$12,492 a year you can quickly have your company established and operating in a tax-neutral environment. You dont have any import duties, there is no sales tax, no income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital gains and you can have 100% ownership of your company, and it will be tax exempt for 50 years.

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Cayman Enterprise City - A Bold Vision, An Exciting Reality

Baby red crabs have infested the Cayman Islands by the hundreds of thousands, an in unusually heavy migration season that has caused havoc. If local superstition is any indicator, the Caribbean may face a rough hurricane season.

The crabs have scurried on past the immediate coast, onto roads, residents' yards, climbing up homes and scratching their way into homes. Most are infesting two of the three islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.

"People living in the coast will have them everywhere," Tim Austin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands' Environment Department, told the AP. "They get in houses, into your AC system. Anywhere there's a gap, they'll find it. They're trying to get somewhere where they'll live happily."

Austin believes low tides and the recent "supermoon" combined to make it life easier for the baby red crabs, allowing more of them to reach land.

The crabs' red hue is misleading, as the creatures climb ashore after they're born and lay low in forests and wetlands until they grow and reproduce, heading back into the water as a large black land crab seeking to deposit their eggs.

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The creatures grow from the size of about a thumbnail to nearly a foot in some cases. Fully grown crabs can scamper at up to six feet per second, have been known to claw at the tires of passing cars.

Locals colloquially call them "Hurricane Crabs" because a superstition connects their presence to a particularly bad hurricane season.

Baby red crabs, up to the size of a thumbnail, have climbed up windows and into AC units, among other places.

"There's a very strong feeling on the island that they relate to the arrival of a hurricane," District Commissioner Ernie Scott of Cayman Brac told the Cayman Compass. He added: "I've seen them here in hurricane seasons when we didn't have any hurricanes and I've seen them in a season where we've experienced hurricanes."

Originally posted here:
Baby Red Crabs Invade Cayman Islands, Could Signal Tough Hurricane Season

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Hundreds of thousands of red baby crabs are invading the Cayman Islands in a seasonal migration that residents say is unusually heavy this year.

The crabs are blanketing roads, scurrying across yards and scratching their way up homes and buildings in a process that scientists say will last about a month.

"People living in the coast will have them everywhere," said Tim Austin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands' Environment Department, on Wednesday. "They get in houses, into your AC system. Anywhere there's a gap, they'll find it. They're trying to get somewhere where they'll live happily."

The baby crabs, which are smaller than a thumbnail, were born in the ocean a few weeks ago and are emerging along rocky shores, seeking forests and wetlands near the coast where they will remain until they reproduce and head back to sea to deposit their eggs, Austin said. While the babies are red, the species is known as the black land crab because of the dark purple color it takes on as it ages.

It is likely that the recent "supermoon" and low tides have made it easier for the baby crabs to reach land, which could help explain the increase this year, he said. Most of them are overrunning Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, two of three islands that make up the archipelago.

The baby crabs do not migrate every year, in part because of ocean currents, tides and wind conditions, but adult crabs migrate every year to the ocean during the start of the rainy season, usually in May. Their migration has already occurred.

The government urges people to try to avoid the crabs as they drive, but it is nearly impossible not to hit them.

"It's a minefield of flattened crabs. You'll just see hundreds of splats," said Jim Andrews, 48, who lives with his family in the southeast end of Grand Cayman.

His house has been invaded by crabs as well.

"This year, we just saw tons of the tiny little newborns," he said. "You can hear them crawling on the windowsills."

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Hundreds of thousands of baby red crabs invade Cayman Islands