Cayman Islands Economic Substance: publication of approved forms for economic substance returns and extension to the reporting deadlines 开曼群岛经济实质：发布认可的经济实质报告表格及延长报告期限

Approved forms

The advisory contains the following forms and information that will be required to be submitted for ES reports under the International Tax Co-Operation (Economic Substance) Law (2020 Revision):

• a sample of the form of ES return to be filed by a relevant entity that is carrying on the business of a pure equity holding company;
• a sample of the form of ES return to be filed by a relevant entity that is carrying on another category of relevant activity; 
• a sample of the form of ES return to be filed by a relevant entity that is carrying on high risk intellectual property business (this form contains additional questions compared to the form described in the second point above);
• an updated version of the form to be submitted by an entity that carries on a relevant activity and claims to be tax resident in a jurisdiction outside of the Cayman Islands in respect of that activity; and
• a sample of the information to be submitted by an outsource service provider. 

Completing the ES return

Any entity that has filed an ESN in which it confirms that it is a relevant entity carrying on a relevant activity is required to complete an ES return in the appropriate form. Each sample form contains commentary that is intended to assist with completing the form. The information that is required to be entered in each form includes the data points listed in Section IV.B of the ES Guidance version 3.0 that was published on 13 July 2020 and certain other matters. 

At present an ES return for an entity cannot be accessed and completed on the DITC portal but this function is expected to be added shortly. Once the function is available the “responsible person” identified in the ESN for an entity should receive from the DITC a link to the profile for that entity in order to complete and submit the ES return. The ES return for each entity will be pre-populated with information submitted by the entity in its ESN.

For each entity in respect of which Carey Olsen was designated the responsible person we will prepare the ES return using information provided to us regarding the entity and its business. For entities for which Carey Olsen was not designated the responsible person we can advise on questions in respect of completing the ES return and the information that is required to be submitted.

Outsource service providers

The Tax Information Authority will require an outsource service provider to confirm that it provides services to a reporting entity in order for the Tax Information Authority to take into account such outsourcing when assessing whether the entity satisfies the ES test.

The process by which an outsource service provider may provide the confirmation and register on the DITC Portal has yet not been published. The advisory notes that once this function is enabled on the DITC Portal then each outsource service provider should register promptly as a failure to do so may prevent the timely filing of an ES return by a relevant entity to which that that provider provides services.

Deadline for submitting the ES return

The deadline for ES reporting by an entity in respect of its financial year that commenced in 2019 has been extended as follows:

• for a relevant entity carrying on intellectual property business that was required to complete its ES reporting by 31 December 2020 the new deadline is 31 January 2021; and
• in all other cases the new deadline is 28 February 2021 unless the deadline would otherwise fall after 28 February 2021 in which case the deadline remains 12 months after the end of the financial year of the reporting entity.

Should you require further information or professional advice please contact one of our Cayman Islands team.

Download the English version of this briefing.

2020年11月12日，开曼群岛国际税务合作部（Department for International Tax Cooperation）发布了一份与经济实质（Economic Substance）相关的指导意见，其中包含了认可的用于经济实质报告表格，规定了延长经济实质报告的截止日期，并提示了各实体准备经济实质通知（Economic Substance Notification）时需考虑的一些问题。

认可的表格

本次发布的指导意见内容涵盖《国际税收合作（经济实质）法（2020年修订）》规定的经济实质报告所需提交的表格和信息，具体如下：

• 开展纯控股公司业务的相关实体应提交的经济实质申报表格样本；
• 开展其它类别相关业务的相关实体应提交的经济实质申报表格样本；
• 开展高风险知识产权业务的相关实体应提交的经济实质申报表格样本（与上述第二项中的表格相比，该表格包含更多问题）；
• 开展相关活动且就相关活动在开曼群岛以外的司法管辖区拥有税收居民身份的相关实体应提交的更新版表格；及
• 外包服务提供者提交的信息样本。

完成经济实质报告

任何已提交经济实质通知的实体，若确认它是从事相关活动的相关实体，则必须填写适当的表格以完成经济实质报告。每个样本表格都含有相关注释用于帮助填写表格。每张表格需要录入的信息包括2020年7月13日发布的《经济实质指引3.0版》第IV.B章节所列的信息点以及其它一些事项。

目前，国际税务合作部门户网站尚未开通在线完成相关实体的经济实质报告的功能，但预计不久将增加这一项。一旦该功能投入使用，相关实体在经济实质通知中指定的“负责人”将会收到国际税务合作部提供的关于该实体的链接，以便完成和提交经济实质报告。每个实体的经济实质申报表也将预先填入该实体在其经济实质通知中提交的信息。

对于Carey Olsen被指定为负责人的实体，我们将根据向我们提供的有关该实体及其业务的信息来准备经济实质申报表。对于未指定Carey Olsen为负责人的实体，我们可以就填写经济实质申报表和需要提交的信息提供建议。

外包服务提供者

开曼群岛税务信息管理局（Tax Information Authority）要求外包服务提供者确认其向报告实体提供服务，以便税务信息管理局在评估该实体是否符合经济实质测试时将该项外包服务纳入考量。

外包服务提供者在国际税务合作部门户网站上提供确认和登记的流程尚未发布。指导意见指出，一旦网站上启动这项功能，每个外包服务提供者都应尽快登记，否则可能会影响该服务提供者所提供服务的相关实体按时提交经济实质报告。

提交经济实质报告的截止日期

相关实体就2019年开始的财务年度进行经济实质报告的截止日期已延长，具体如下：

• 对于从事知识产权业务的相关实体，若其应当于2020年12月31日前完成经济实质报告的，新的截止日期为2021年1月31日；及
• 就所有其它情况，对于相关实体的新的截止日期为2021年2月28日；若对于相关实体的原截止日期在2021年2月28日之后，那么在这种情况下截止日期仍为该实体财政年度结束后12个月。

更多关于完成经济实质报告、外包服务提供者需采取的步骤以及延长经济实质报告截止日期的信息，请通过以下链接下载完整的简报。

完整简报