Technical article
Cayman, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda: No Tax, and What You Still File
The Cayman, British Virgin Islands and Bahamas sources are law-firm guides from 2024 to 2026 (tier B).
Picture a couple from Canada weighing a trust in the Caribbean or Bermuda. They have read that the four well-known places charge nothing. Is there a catch?
The sources show that the headline is accurate, with a few lines under it. Here is what each place charges and asks.
| Place | Tax on the trust | Stamp duty | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cayman Islands | No income, capital gains, wealth, withholding, estate or inheritance tax | Fixed duty on documents, 7.5% on land purchases | Optional, non-public register for exempted trusts |
| British Virgin Islands | No estate, inheritance or gift tax; no charge on distributions to non-resident beneficiaries | Trust duty on an instrument moving a trust to British Virgin Islands law | No public register |
| Bahamas | No income, estate or inheritance tax | Stamp duty and 10% value-added tax on property transfers | Non-public beneficial ownership system |
| Bermuda | No tax on income, gains, dividends or gifts received by trusts; no inheritance tax | None on the deed or on non-Bermuda property | No trust register |
Cayman. Stamp duty runs 40 to 100 Cayman dollars (about US$50 to US$120) on documents, and land purchases pay 7.5% of the price or market value, whichever is higher. A trust may register as an exempted trust, and the Financial Secretary may give a 50-year undertaking against future taxes, for a fee. A 2023 transparency act covers companies and limited liability companies, and trusts are not described as covered. It could matter if the trust owns a Cayman company.
British Virgin Islands. The Conyers guide of June 2025 says no estate, inheritance, succession or gift tax applies, and no rate or levy touches distributions to people who do not live there. A trust with no local beneficiaries, land or business is exempt from stamp duty on its documents. Professional trustees need a licence, and a private trust company serving related trusts is exempt.
Bahamas. Value-added tax, stamp duty and real property tax exist. Distributions from foreign trusts are not generally taxable there. Moving Bahamian property into a trust may attract stamp duty or value-added tax.
Bermuda. On death, stamp duty applies only to Bermudian property, which means land, assets in Bermuda dollars and shares in Bermudian companies. It runs from 0% under BM$100,000 up to 20% over BM$2 million. The Bermuda source is a 2019 guide, so recent law may differ. The Cayman, British Virgin Islands and Bahamas sources are law-firm guides from 2024 to 2026 (tier B).
What all four still do. Each signed the account-information exchange agreement known as the Common Reporting Standard, and each has a US reporting agreement. A trust with a bank or custodian account in the place is reported by that institution to the home tax office. Signing dates run from 2014 for the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands to 2017 for the Bahamas. First exchanges were due by September 2017 or September 2018. The Bermuda agreement is of a type where banks report directly with the account holder's consent, not through the local tax office.
You might say: "If the place charges nothing, the trust is private." The registers are non-public or optional, and that is a kind of privacy. The reporting to home tax offices is a separate matter. A trust may be quiet at the registry and visible at the bank.
You could ask what the heirs' country does with a trust account reported to it, since the sources here describe only what the four places charge and share. The question touches the settlor, the trustee who holds the account, and the children who will receive.
When you looked at a place with no tax, what did you find on the pages that follow the headline? Share it here. Someone reading the same pages may find it helpful.
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: October 2026.
Sources
- Maples Group in Chambers Private Wealth 2024, Cayman Islands (B)
- Conyers, British Virgin Islands trust guide, June 2025 (B)
- Chambers Private Wealth 2026, Bahamas (B)
- Legal 500 private client, Bermuda by Conyers, 2019 (B)
- OECD, automatic exchange of information status (A)
- US Treasury, FATCA agreements (A)
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