THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Friday, November 19, 2004 - Vol. 6 No. 223
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In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Swiss Stand Firm
* OFFSHORE: Offshore Guru Sells Out Clients
* WEALTH: Hedge Funds Booming
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: Curtailing PATRIOT Act. Communism.
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COMMENT: Swiss Stand Firm
FROM NEW ORLEANS:
Dear A-Letter:
Have the Swiss really sold out to the European Union on the historic issue of banking secrecy?
I rarely find myself in disagreement with Cato Institute authors, but I do take issue with Cato's Daily Report (Helvetian Swan Song? by Marian L. Tupy, Nov. 18, see LINK below).
The author implies that, after a long, 15-year battle with the EU, the Swiss have thrown in the towel and are willing to share "tax information" about non-Swiss investors and account holders. That simply is not true, except in cases of serious criminal accusations, and then only after a judicial procedure testing the validity of the information request. That's why one repeatedly reads media accounts of Swiss Supreme Court rulings, either denying or allowing access to individuals' financial information, but only after due process.
It is true that "Swiss banks will be required to inform on the amount of money the EU citizens hold in Swiss bank accounts," but only in the aggregate, not on individuals. On those amounts a 35% tax will be levied, 75% of which will be repatriated to the appropriate EU governments.
But what other nations call "tax evasion" is still not a crime in Switzerland, even though "tax fraud" is. If there is no tax fraud, the Swiss usually do not intervene in foreign tax collection cases.
Truth be told, Switzerland has resisted, valiantly, pressures that other, less resolute nations, could never have withstood. Much of that owes to the nature and independence of the modern day descendants of the original Helvetian tribes -- and their inherited financial DNA. But another, and a most important reason is that Switzerland controls trillions of dollars worth of the world's assets -- and money does more than talk. Quietly and successfully that kind of wealth can and does resist the likes of European Union bureaucats.
That's the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
P.S. To learn more about Switzerland as an asset haven, read the latest edition of my book on offshore tax havens, click here:
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/190STHOW/W190EB04/
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COMMENT LINK:
* Helvetian Swan Song? Cato Daily Report.
LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/11-18-04.html
* Swiss Vote on EU Tax Directive Unlikely.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=17978
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* OFFSHORE *
"OFFSHORE GURU" SELLS OUT EX-CLIENTS SEATTLE: Jerome Schneider, the nation's best known seller of fraudulent offshore banks, says he helped hundreds of rich Americans evade taxes, including actors, celebrities and business owners. Now he is ratting on all of them to get a deal from the feds. We have been advising people to avoid these phony banks (and Jerome) for years; but the real question is why the IRS took so many years to crack down on an obvious scofflaw; was it a deal?
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/business/18tax.html
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* Spain asks UK: where's illicit Pinochet cash?
LINK: http://www.tribweb.co.uk/hugho19112004.htm
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* WEALTH *
CURRENCY CONUNDRUMS
G-20 finance ministers and central bankers meet on Friday, as the dollar weakens and people move into Asian currencies. Will any of it do any good? LINK:
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3397847
HEDGE FUNDS BOOMING
Hedge funds attract $107 billion through 2004's Q3. LINK:
http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=24057878&brk=1
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS *
CURTAILING THE PATRIOT ACT WASHINGTON: Do all those government warnings about impending terror attacks mean anything any more? Yes, undoubtedly, but they are evidence of the vast new powers granted to US police agencies; and a reminder of the need to reassess the laws that made this possible. Here's a reasonable plea for a reexamination of the PATRIOT Act.
LINK: http://www.libertyforall.net/2004/nov14/Curtailing.html
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REMEMBERING COMMUNISM
"Fifteen years ago this month, the world witnessed the downfall of Communism's greatest symbol, the Berlin Wall. Millions of people know about the Nazis' atrocities. Relatively few have heard of the millions imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by Communist systems.
LINK: http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=228
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LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/SVS/WSVSEBFF/
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER.
* Bob Bauman, Editor * Daniel Aponte, Jr. Editorial Asst.
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