For those who know the ocean or enjoy the beach, "offshore" may bring back pleasant memories of far-off vessels passing on a blue horizon....of a leisurely sail cutting through the waves in your own sturdy boat. Here "offshore" refers to sovereign nations with laws that protect your financial privacy, your assets and your cash. Countries where the welcome mat is always out for foreign citizens weary of high taxes and government snoops back home.
Locating the right tax haven is no easy task. In the ever-changing world of offshore finance, it is imperative to understand how the offshore system operates, what is legal, what is not, and how you can use this system to your own advantage. Not all havens are created equal. The Sovereign Society has been identifying tax havens and building relationships with foreign governments since its inception in 1998. We can tell you which tax havens are best and which to avoid.
The articles below originally appeared in our montly newsletter, The Sovereign Individual and will help you more fully understand the benefits of tax havens. You can learn more about tax havens, offshore banking and asset protection in The Sovereign Individual each month by becoming a member of The Sovereign Society.
More About Tax Havens
Extreme Tax Havens: How to Take Advantage of Two of Europe's Best-Kept Secrets
by Robert E. Bauman, JD
Little known to the world at large, there are two extraordinary tax havens hidden away in the geographic arc from northern Spain to northern Italy. Only a handful of privileged investors in the offshore world know about the considerable advantages these two little havens offer. Little only in the size of their land mass, each are massive in their own right because of the amount of wealth hidden within their unusual political borders.
Now you're about to be let in on the secret.
Each jurisdiction offers maximum financial privacy, a possible base for international business operations, strong asset protection and even the possibility you might want to make one of them your home — if you can afford it.
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Tax Haven Attack: The Phony War on Offshore Havens Fizzles
By Robert E. Bauman, JD
In early August, United States Senator Norm Coleman, (RMinn) and his subcommittee held another one of their orchestrated anti-offshore hearings, complete with pre-hearing horror stories in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The subcommittee's presumed-guilty indictment was billed as "Tax Havens and Offshore Abuses."
This Senate circus, with 14 witnesses capped off a year-long investigation that cost millions of taxpayer dollars, claims to have served 70 subpoenas, reviewed over 2 million pages of documents and produced a 401 page report written by the committee of Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the fanatic leader of the anti-offshore band.
Amazingly, they even went so far as to advocate curtailing centuries old legal rights to create and operate freely offshore trusts, corporations, and other entities traditionally used to protect assets. Ignoring the U.S. Constitution and the presumption of innocence, the senators suggested that any American with offshore financial activities should be forced to prove their actions do not involve illegal tax evasion.
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Due Diligence: The Key to Avoiding Offshore Disasters
By Derek Sambrook
The stream of business into Panama during the last twelve months has been remarkable. In 2005, almost 40,000 (39,976) new companies were registered. That's some 55% more than in 2004.
But, some of the people discovering this Latin finance center are moving too quickly. I know this from the number of "walking wounded" who visit me—often with a bundle of papers and a look of frustration on their faces. Their errors have been costly in time and money.
One gentleman produced a foundation charter, and when I asked him to let me see a copy of the equally important regulations, he couldn't. None had ever been drafted. That's a little like buying a car without an engine—it may look good parked on the dealer lot, but you won't be able to drive it.
Examples such as this underscore the critical importance of making sure that your offshore plan is correctly set up from the beginning and that afterwards, everything stays in place. Of course, you can't predict future events, and there are often surprises such as the whale recently seen swimming up the river Thames in London, past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The flow of life can lead to the unexpected, but a certain degree of contingency planning is still possible.
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