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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
Thursday, December 9, 2004 - Vol. 6 No. 237
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In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Duals Still Popular.
* OFFSHORE: Dead British Trusts. Conservative Swiss Prez. Panama & the OECD. Chinese Investors' Offshore Detour.
* WEALTH: Jailed Lawyer. New IRS Tax Shelter Rules.
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: Increased Intelligence? No Paul ID! Schneider the Informer Claims He Was Double-crossed.
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COMMENT: Duals Still Popular.
Dear A-Letter Reader:
There are times when a columnist runs up against a mild form of 'writers block' - when you just can't think about what topic to address, much less what you should say about it.
Perhaps that was the problem last weekend that faced Christopher Caldwell of the Financial Times. A senior editor at the Weekly Standard, he produced a long, and in many respects, inaccurate diatribe attacking a topic I know well - dual citizenship. (The LINK to his article is below, but available only to FT subscribers).
The FT columnist hauled out the now ubiquitous excuse, 'anti-terrorism,' used for just about every current depredation against our rights and liberties. He then proceeded to try and make the case that, because some few terrorists have held dual citizenship, this very legal right is about to die.
Says he: "Mass dual citizenship, of the sort that has been encouraged as a way of building bridges between cultures and honouring ancestries, is destined to wither, and will be seen in retrospect as a fad."
Had he done even a little research, Mr. Caldwell would have been able to say truthfully that dual citizenship (the legal right to more than one passport) is a growing and increasingly popular global movement among governments and individuals. A movement that once numbered thousands annually, now number millions, as whole nations (Mexico, for example) have conferred dual status on their former residents who live abroad.
Dual nationality simply means that a person legally is a citizen of two countries at the same time, qualified as such under each nation's law. This status may result automatically, as when a child born in a foreign country to US citizen parents is both a US citizen and a citizen of the country of their birth. Or it may result by law, as when a US citizen acquires foreign citizenship by marriage to a spouse from another nation, or a foreign person naturalized as a US citizen retains the citizenship of their country of birth.
Under US law, a second passport does not jeopardize US citizenship. Some countries won't permit their citizens to hold a passport from another nation. This was the case in the US until 1967, when the US Supreme Court upheld the right of US citizens to hold a second, foreign passport. Before that time the official rule was that a person acquiring second nationality automatically lost US citizenship.
So why would any US citizen need to acquire second nationality, and the additional passport that goes with that expanded political status?
One very good reason: increasingly the US government imposes highly onerous restrictions on the freedoms the nation's Founders set down in the US Constitution. For people of wealth in particular, there is now a wide web cast to catch persons 'the government' decides may be doing something wrong. And the current definition of 'wrong' is so expansive as to be all inclusive in the bureaucratic mind.
And then there is the very real need for safety when traveling abroad. There are times when a US passport is the last ID you need or want; times when it can even be a death sentence.
I feel a special passion for the right to enjoy dual citizenship because I have just finished a new edition of 'The Passport Book.' This is the fourth complete revision of this text and it tells you everything you need to know about foreign residency and dual citizenship.
I'm sending an autographed copy to Mr. Caldwell.
That's the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
PS: If you want to know more about my new 'Passport Book' click here:
LINK: http://www.youreletters.com/t/87134/2340131/665876/0/
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COMMENT LINKS:
* The luxury of double loyalty. LINK (subscribers only):
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f2038358-459a-11d9-8fcf-00000e2511c8.html
* Henley & Partner, specialists in citizenship & offshore residency.
LINK: http://www.henleyglobal.com/
* Anti-terrorist laws too harsh on New Zealand citizenship. LINK:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=466&ObjectID=9002301
* Majority vote backs dual citizenship for Hungarians.
LINKS: http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/05/news/hung.html
http://www.budapestsun.com/full_story.asp?ArticleId={15FE8C29AAFA46C69E1A3477CB87DD2E}&From=News
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* FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK:
* OFFSHORE:
* EU TAX DIRECTIVE MAY KILL BRITISH TRUSTS
LONDON: The Times of London says the onerous provisions of the EU tax directive may destroy not only the traditional privacy a trust allows, but trust in the British financial services offered by the City. Millions use the City of London and English trusts to plan their finances because of their sophistication and adaptability. But now the EU assumes every trust creator and trustee to be a potential crook.
Perhaps The Times has been reading what The A-Letter has been saying for low these many years?
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* CONSERVATIVES TAKE OVER SWISS PRESIDENCY
BERN: Defence minister Samuel Schmid is to be president of Switzerland in 2005. He is a member of the most conservative Swiss political group, the Swiss Peoples Party. He was made president by a joint vote of both houses of parliament yesterday, perhaps a sign of the times of a more conservative Switzerland.
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* REPORT FROM PANAMA
PANAMA CITY: Derek Sambrook, a member of The Sovereign Society Council of Experts and head of Trust Services SA, a professional trust and offshore service based in Panama, gives us his latest opinion on the OECD and its attitude toward offshore financial services in Panama. In the last 5 years some 1500 companies per month have been registered and in the last 3 years this has brought in $67 million in revenue and he sees no likelihood of a sell out to the OECD.
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* CHINA INVESTORS TAKE THE OFFSHORE ROUTE
HONG KONG: It's the hottest place to make money, but most private equity firms are uncomfortable making substantial investment directly into companies in mainland China. So they use traditional IBC vehicles set up in offshore jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Hong Kong. So tax havens do have a legitimate role to play in the world? Someone, please tell the OECD.
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* WEALTH:
* IRS TO ISSUE RULES ON TAX SHELTERS, ADVISORS
WASHINGTON: IRS plans to issue rules on what are and are not abusive tax shelters, as well as ethical guidelines that will target 'opinion letters' often used to justify questionable transactions. No mention of plans to simplify the stupefying US Tax Code.
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* 18 YEARS IN JAIL FOR N.J. LAWYER
A NJ state appeals court has upheld the first known conviction of a lawyer under New Jersey's money laundering law, putting lawyers on notice of involvement in client transactions they should know are criminal.
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS:
* WHAT DOES NEW U.S. 'INTELLIGENCE' BILL REALLY DO?
WASHINGTON: There's troublesome new police surveillance powers in the bill the US Congress just rammed through, and here's your chance to know more than your senator or congressman. You can read what they probably didn't; the text of the conference report. (LINK below).
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* U.S. REP. RON PAUL DENOUNCES BILL I.D. CARD PROVISIONS
WASHINGTON: "National ID cards are not proper in a free society," Paul stated. "This is America, not Soviet Russia. The federal government should never be allowed to demand papers from American citizens, and it certainly has no constitutional authority to do so. Those willing to allow the government to establish a Soviet style internal passport system because they think it will make us safer are terribly mistaken."
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* SO-CALLED OFFSHORE GURU CHARGES U.S. DOUBLE CROSS
SAN FRANCISCO: After ratting on clients and lawyers he alleged helped him to commit offshore tax fraud, Jerome Schneider, gets 6 months in jail, but claims the government promised no prison time at all. Well?
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* OFFSHORE LINKS:
* EU directive will kill the trust in City of London. LINK:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8210-1393119,00.html
* Conservative Schmid is new Swiss president. LINK:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=5390648
* Panama Offshore Pilot Quarterly. LINK:
http://www.trustservices.net/Offshore Pilot - Current Issue.htm
* Private equity's offshore route to China. LINK:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1eabf8ae-48c0-11d9-9162-00000e2511c8.html
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* WEALTH LINKS:
* Tax Shelter Rules to Be Issued. LINK (subscribers only):
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110246789556693907,00.html
* NYC metro lawyer's 18-year money laundering sentence upheld.
LINK: http://www.nylawyer.com/news/04/12/120804j.html
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* PRIVACY & RIGHTS LINKS:
* Conference Report & text of Intelligence Reform bill.
LINK: http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_rpt/h108-796.html
* Hon.. Ron Paul denounces national ID card provisions in bill.
LINK: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul222.html
* Man sentenced in tax schemes also releases data on lawyers.
LINKS: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/business/07tax.html
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=100190&d=659&h=660&f=661
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* Managua, Nicaragua, January 28-31, 2005
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LINK: http://www.internationalliving.com/conf/latin_05/ss.htm
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* Learn how to slash your taxes...build an iron wall of protection around your assets...create a lasting legacy of wealth. Find out more in our print publication, The Sovereign Individual. Click here:
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/SVS/WSVSECFF/
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER.
* Bob Bauman, Editor * Daniel Aponte, Jr. Editorial Asst.
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