Roydon Snelgar

Domicile Captive Insurance Businesses

15 December 2017

A captive insurance business is an insurance company that is wholly owned and controlled by the insured. The company’s objectives are to provide themselves with better insurance coverage at lower costs (by avoiding the commercial insurer’s expenses and profit margins). Cayman Islands is a leading offshore domicile for captive insurance companies as it has modern…

Read More »

Tax Savings Strategy 191 | Pets in the Workplace

14 December 2017

This strategy makes private pet ownership costs tax deductible (under certain circumstances).  Having pets in the workplace involves the employer acquiring pets for the workplace (whether an office, factory or warehouse).  The pets could be the standard, cat, dog, fish, ferret, bird, snake, or any other pet really. The business benefits of pets in the…

Read More »

6,000 BC – Labour Obligation Tax

12 December 2017

Under the Bala Tax, Mesopotamia taxed almost everything – livestock, grains, handicrafts, funerals, etc. The most burdensome tax though was the Labor Obligation. This was also called the ‘going’ or ‘burden’ in Babylonian languages. Under the Labor Obligation Tax, a free man, the head of his household, owed the government several months’ of labour service…

Read More »

Domicile Hedge Funds

8 December 2017

Eighty percent of the world’s hedge funds worth US$800 billion are domiciled in the Cayman Islands.  Hedge funds have been attracted to the Cayman Islands due to their balanced regulatory framework (which recognises the purchasers of hedge funds are sophisticated investors), absence of unnecessary licencing provisions, and significant flexibility with regard to investment objectives, risks,…

Read More »

Tax Savings Strategy 157 | Pooled Development Funds

7 December 2017

Pooled development funds (PDFs) are eligible investment companies that are registered under the Pooled Development Funds Act 1992 (PDF Act) and which provide equity capital to Australian small and medium sized companies. The taxable income of a PDF that is comprised of capital gains and assessable income from, or from the disposal of, SME investments…

Read More »

Ur III Dynasty of Mesopotamia | Bala Tax 6000 BC

5 December 2017

Mesopotamia is a historical region covering the Tigris–Euphrates river system. The region corresponds to most of Iraq, Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, and regions along the Turkish-Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders. Mesopotamia is the birthplace of some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the wheel, irrigation systems, the planting…

Read More »

Trading with the Tax Haven’s Local Population

1 December 2017

    Many companies have established entities in tax havens as they operate trading businesses in those tax havens servicing the local population.  Telstra, for example, controls 20 subsidiaries across five tax havens, including Jersey and Mauritius. Telstra uses several of these tax haven entities to provide telephone services to the local population.

Read More »

A Window Tax Was Introduced in 1696

28 November 2017

The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was designed to impose tax relative to the prosperity of the taxpayer, with the logic being that the rich had bigger houses with more windows, so should pay more tax than the poor (with fewer windows). The tax…

Read More »

Delaware’s Flexible Corporate Laws Attract Business

24 November 2017

  The General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute governing corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. It has been the most important jurisdiction in United States corporate law since 10th March 1899 when it enacted corporate-friendly laws to attract businesses from New York. The general incorporation…

Read More »

"You’d be stupid not to try to cut your tax bill and those that don’t are stupid in business"

- Bono: U2