Tax in the Cayman Islands
See what the Cayman Islands's tax rules do to your property portfolio.
What Freeholt models for property, income and retirement in the Cayman Islands, and what it does not.
Free to start. No card. Rules reviewed 22 August 2026.
Modelled here
- Tax on rental income
- Duty on purchase
- Income tax beyond the rent
- Dividends, interest and share sales
- Retirement savings
KYD · Rates as at 22 August 2026 · Estimates, not advice
No income tax, no CGT, no annual property tax and no foreign ownership restriction. The one off stamp duty is the main tax event.
How rental income is taxed in the Cayman Islands
For a resident owner: There is no tax on residential rental income. For an owner living abroad and renting this out: There is no tax on residential rental income.
Capital gains on a sale
There is no capital gains tax on residential property.
Annual property tax while holding
There is no annual property or land tax here. What people pay instead is a one off stamp duty on purchase, and nothing recurring.
What it costs to buy
About 7.5% of the price on purchase. Stamp duty 7.5% of price (10% for properties of KYD 2m+ from Jan 2026), buyer paid; no annual property tax afterwards.
Can a foreign buyer purchase here?
Foreign buyers can generally buy residential property here. No restriction on foreign freehold ownership and no permit: full guaranteed title through the Land Registry, with no residency requirement. The one off stamp duty is the whole cost of entry.
Where the tax actually lands
The Cayman Islands taking nothing does not mean nobody does. An owner who is tax resident somewhere that taxes worldwide income generally pays tax on the rent and any gain from this property THERE, at that country's rates, with credit for anything paid here. That makes the owner's country of residence the thing that decides the tax bill on this property, not the country the property sits in. Freeholt models the residence side separately, so setting a country of residence in the app shows the whole picture rather than a zero.
Income tax in the Cayman Islands, beyond the rent
No personal income tax. Figures in KYD, as verified 29 August 2026.
Dividends, interest and share sales
How the Cayman Islands taxes investment income. For dividends: Not taxed. For interest: Not taxed. For share sale gains: Not taxed.
Pensions and retirement savings
EEE. Untaxed at every stage. Contributions are made from money already taxed. No annual cap is modelled. Growth inside the fund is untaxed. Withdrawals can start from age 55. After that age, withdrawals are tax free.
Worth knowing about tax in the Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands has no capital gains tax regime at all. This is not a 0% rate that could be turned up; it is the absence of a statute.
How Freeholt models the Cayman Islands
Every rate above is priced from Freeholt's own table for the Cayman Islands and runs through the whole projection: rental income, a modelled sale and the annual holding costs all use the same figures. They cannot be edited yet, so a position that differs from the defaults has to be read with that in mind. The estimate assumes an individual owner rather than a company or trust, and where a rule is not modelled it is listed below rather than quietly priced at zero.
What running this property costs
In Cayman this covers strata fees, insurance (hurricane cover is costly), maintenance and ~10% management. There is NO annual property tax.
How borrowing works here
Local banks lend to non residents at ~60 to 70% LTV; the KY dollar is pegged at KYD 1 = USD 1.20.
What actually happened here
We hold no measured run of our own for this country yet, so there is nothing to draw. We will not fill the gap from a neighbouring market.
What Freeholt models here
- ModelledTax on rental income
- Resident and non resident rates, with interest and losses treated under the local rule.
- None hereCapital gains on a sale
- No general capital gains tax; the page says what applies instead.
- ModelledDuty on purchase
- One off, on the way in, at the scale in force.
- None hereAnnual property or land tax
- No annual charge on the property itself here.
- ModelledIncome tax beyond the rent
- Salary and other income, stacked with the rent.
- ModelledDividends, interest and share sales
- Investment income and gains, with the local allowances.
- ModelledRetirement savings
- Contributions, the fund and the way out.
- Not yetInheritance and what happens on death
- Not modelled for this country yet.
What Freeholt does not model here
- Inheritance and estate tax
- Treaty relief between this country and the owner's country of residence
What the figures above leave out (6)
- The Cayman Islands raise their revenue at the border and on transfer (import duty, work permit and licensing fees, and a one off stamp duty on land transfers, raised for high value transfers from January 2026) rather than through a tax on income, and none of that is priced here. What is zero is the charge on income; the total Caymanian tax burden is materially higher. Cayman has no annual property tax, and that is a researched zero rather than another gap.
- The zero here is what the Cayman Islands charge on a dividend, interest payment or gain, not a promise that the money arrives untaxed. Cayman is somewhere investments are commonly held through rather than from, so this is the caveat most likely to bite: withholding at source and the tax of the holder's own country of residence can both apply to the same receipt, neither is modelled, and the total tax may be higher.
- Cayman's pensionable earnings ceiling is quoted in US dollars while the fund is in Caymanian dollars, and no conversion rate was available, so no ceiling is applied.
- Cayman's normal retirement is 65 with early access from 55, and the two are not told apart here. The tax answer is nil at either age.
- A non Caymanian only comes within Cayman's pension mandate after nine months in the job, and that qualifying period is not checked. For a new arrival the figures assume compulsory contributions from day one, so they overstate what they are required to pay in during the first nine months.
- Cayman's compulsory private pension is funded 5% by the employee and 5% by the employer, and only the employee's own 5% is priced here. Because the Cayman plan genuinely is a pot the member owns, the employer's half is real money entering the balance: the true inflow into the account is roughly double the contribution figure shown.
Coverage deepens country by country. Every figure is an estimate, not advice.
Compare with another country
Each page is built from the same table the app runs on, so the figures line up side by side.
Compare the Cayman Islands with another country — rent, gains, annual tax and duty, side by side.
Questions people ask
- Does Freeholt model Cayman Islands property tax?
- Yes. Rental income tax and duty on purchase are priced from Freeholt's own rate table for the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands levies no capital gains tax and no annual property or land tax, so there is nothing to price. The rates are not editable yet, so one that differs in a particular case cannot be overridden. Every figure is an estimate, not advice.
- How is rental income from the Cayman Islands taxed if I live somewhere else?
- There is no tax on residential rental income. Tax may also be due in the country of residence, with credit for what was paid here. Estimates only, not advice.
- What are the Cayman Islands figures as at?
- The rate table for the Cayman Islands was last reviewed on 22 August 2026. Freeholt date stamps every country rather than implying all of them were checked on the same day. Estimates only, not advice.
Model a property in the Cayman Islands alongside everything else you own: see the year your portfolio starts paying you back.