Cayman charges nothing, so the UK decides
There is no Cayman inheritance, estate or gift tax, which makes the UK the only moving part. Since 6 April 2025 the UK test is residence, not domicile, so any explanation still built on where your permanent home is belongs to the old rules. You are a long-term UK resident if you were UK tax resident in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years. A long-term resident is within inheritance tax on worldwide assets, at 40% above the £325,000 nil-rate band (up to £500,000 where a home passes to children or grandchildren); everyone else is charged on UK assets only. The income tax side of the move is in our answer on UK tax if you move to the Cayman Islands.
The tail that follows you to George Town
Landing in George Town does not end long-term residence. HMRC's guidance keeps you a long-term UK resident for up to 10 tax years after you leave: 3 years if you were resident in 10 to 13 of the last 20 tax years, 4 years for 14, 5 years for 15, and so on up to 10 years for someone resident throughout. Through that tail your Cayman home, Cayman accounts and everything else you own worldwide remain inside UK inheritance tax. The 2010 UK-Cayman arrangement does not help: its taxes-covered paragraph names inheritance tax only for exchange of information, the rest of it applies to income tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax, and the Cayman Islands is absent from gov.uk's list of inheritance tax agreements, so there is no treaty tie-breaker and, with no Cayman tax, nothing to credit. Our IHT tail calculator puts a year on your own tail, and the full ladder is in the residence-based IHT guide.
What never leaves: UK assets and, from 2027, your pension
Once the tail ends HMRC treats you as based abroad and charges inheritance tax on UK assets only, for example property or bank accounts in the UK, for as long as you hold them. The bigger surprise is the pension. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027 unused funds in a registered pension scheme are added to the estate, and HMRC's technical note is explicit that a registered pension scheme established in the UK is caught whether or not the member was a long-term UK resident. A SIPP left behind in the UK is therefore inside the net even after ten years in Cayman. The options are set out in our guide to UK pensions and inheritance tax when you live abroad.
What we do before you fly
An inheritance tax exit review fixes your tail to the year, lists what stays chargeable, and sets out the asset, gift and pension moves worth making before you leave rather than after, built around the residence and pension timing in our Cayman Islands tax guide. It is advisory work from £550, a total agreed before we start, never hourly. Book a free clarity call and we will tell you whether your tail is 3 years or 10 and whether the review is worth paying for.