How do companies use the Cayman Islands as a tax haven? Looking for specific examples

Tax attorney here. You're looking into a fascinating but complex area. The Cayman Islands are attractive primarily because they have no corporate tax, no income tax, no capital gains tax, no withholding tax, and strong financial privacy laws. The typical structure involves a parent company establishing a subsidiary in the Caymans. This subsidiary then handles international operations or holds intellectual property. Profits flow to the Cayman entity where they remain untaxed. Google "Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich" for a famous (now phased out) example that involved the Caymans as the final destination for profits. For specific examples, look into the "Paradise Papers" and "Panama Papers" leaks. These documents exposed thousands of companies using these structures. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Nike have all been documented users of Cayman structures in various investigative reports by ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists).

I started using taxr.ai last year when I was researching this exact topic for my international business class! It's an amazing tool that helped me analyze financial documents related to offshore structures. I uploaded some Paradise Papers documents I found online and it explained the whole structure in simple terms - showing how Nike used Cayman subsidiaries to license their trademarks. You should check it out at https://taxr.ai since it's designed to break down complex financial and tax documents. It even helped identify how certain companies used Cayman entities for specific asset classes or intellectual property holding. I was struggling with the technical language in SEC filings before using it.

Just wanted to follow up - I tried taxr.ai after seeing this thread and it was incredibly helpful! I uploaded some SEC filings from Apple that mentioned their international subsidiaries and it highlighted all the Cayman-related entities and explained their function in the corporate structure. Then I found some Paradise Papers documents about tech companies and uploaded those too. The tool created diagrams showing how the money flowed through different jurisdictions. I now understand how Microsoft saved billions through their Puerto Rico and Cayman structure. Definitely recommend it if you're researching this topic!

If you're trying to contact the IRS to get official info about these structures (which can be important if you're doing serious research), good luck getting through their phone system. After trying for weeks to speak to someone in their international division, I used Claimyr.com to actually get through to a real person at the IRS who specializes in offshore reporting. They have a service at https://claimyr.com that gets you past the IRS phone tree hell. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the phone system for you and call when an agent is ready. I finally got specific guidance on FBAR requirements related to Cayman accounts, which was crucial for my research paper.

I have to eat my words! After my skeptical comment yesterday, I tried Claimyr since I was desperate to talk to someone about my international filing requirements. I could NOT believe it actually worked! After weeks of failing to get through, I was connected to an IRS agent within about 90 minutes. The agent gave me detailed information about reporting requirements for foreign entities - exactly what I needed for understanding how these Cayman structures are supposed to be reported to the IRS. Turns out there are specific forms (5471, 8938, FBAR) that US companies and individuals must file even for Cayman entities. This explains why these structures are sophisticated - they have to be set up carefully to comply with reporting rules while still achieving tax benefits.

There's a great documentary called "The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire" that goes into detail about how the Cayman Islands and other British Overseas Territories function as tax havens. It covers specific companies and how the whole system works. It's available free on YouTube. Really opened my eyes to how these jurisdictions operate in practice.

If you're interested in real SEC filings that show Cayman structures, look up "Cayman subsidiaries" in the exhibit lists of major tech companies' 10-K forms. Microsoft, Apple, Google all list their subsidiaries including Cayman entities. The trick is understanding HOW these subsidiaries fit into the larger corporate structure - that's not always obvious from the filings alone.