=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - Vol. 4 No. 97
=================================
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Sun Setting on British Havens?
* OFFSHORE: Swiss Gold Giveaway Rejected by Voters. Andorra Taxes. Liechtenstein-Monaco Accord. BVI Tax Repeal. Bermuda Hypocrisy.
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS: Nullification! Privacy Casualty. Library Snoops. Liberty Dies Behind Closed Doors. Ominous Supreme Court History.
==================================
* ADVERTISEMENT *
US Government Backed "Portfolio Repair" Program Pays Out Millions of Dollars to "In-the-Know" Investors
* Michael Farrell, age 50, received about $1.675 million last year. The year before that he got $400,000. * Jennifer Stevens, 31, pocketed $391,000 last year alone, from this same source. * Joseph Galligan, 43,received $31,200 last year as part of this same deal. If you qualify, you can start receiving payments almost immediately, no matter what your situation. This bureaucratic loophole won't stay open forever.
Click for all the details here:
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/TRW/WTRWC915/
==================================
* COMMENT: Sun Setting on British Havens?
Dear A-Letter Reader:
A few days ago I directed readers to a new report published by the Center for European Policy Studies. The 'bottom line' suggested that repeated compromises by the British Crown Dependencies in the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark) and the Isle of Man have reduced financial privacy and hurt business in these leading offshore tax havens. (Indeed, they now want to be called OFCs - offshore financial centers - since the term 'tax haven' has been twisted into an international expletive; such is the triumph of verbal perversity).
In the last few years we have devoted much space to the decline of these British offshore havens. That slippage is partly due to their own acquiescence in external demands from the British Foreign Office under Labour control. And they have had to please their wannabe masters at the European Union and the OECD. In many respects they have done so,albeit in piecemeal fashion, protesting all the way.
But there is no good reason why the Crown Dependencies must march to the orders of the US Treasury and its tax collection agency, the IRS.Yet a few days ago the US Treasury announced the signing of a new tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with GUERNSEY. Yesterday the US Treasury announced new TIEAs pending with JERSEY and the ISLE of MAN.
While these agreements ostensibly are aimed at catching US tax evasion,the IRS is notorious for using them for offshore fishing expeditions.While not as blatant as the wholesale IRS grab of account information of US offshore credit card holders, TIEAs open the door to further destruction of legitimate financial privacy. Until recently that very privacy (and lack of taxes) has been a major draw for clients of these havens.
At some point those who supposedly govern these so-called Crown Dependencies ought to ask themselves whether they are in fact still in control of their own destinies as, constitutionally, they once were.
When all the attributes that make a tax haven attractive are gone, so will be the customers. Those clients control bank deposits and funds estimated to be over US$800 billion. The main beneficiaries of curbing the UK offshore financial centers will be their competitors in City of London and New York. But then everyone knew that from the very start of this slick (and apparently successful) anti-offshore scheme.
That's the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
=============================
COMMENT LINKS:
* CEPS report on decline of UK offshore tax havens/
LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9398
Press release text: http://www.ceps.be/2002/PressRelease020912.doc
* Isle of Man, Jersey to sign TIEAs with US Treasury.
LINK: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po3446.htm
* Press release & text: US Signs TIEA with Guernsey.
LINKS: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po3441.htm
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-tax-havens0919sep19
(0,2289373).story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
* Blair restricts UK tax haven breaks, privacy for individuals,
but secretly uses UK havens for governmental purposes.
LINK: http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,796367,00.html
* UK tax collectors sell buildings to tax haven company, hide the deal.
LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2263208.stm
* Jersey Bank under investigation by Irish tax collectors.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9459
* Jersey corporation laws revised, updated.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9448
=================================
* OFFSHORE *
SWISS VOTERS REJECT GOVERNMENT GOLD GIVEAWAY ZURICH: Having authorized the sale and/or reduction of Swiss gold reserves, voters say no to a proposed gold giveaway plan. LINK:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=1351844
-----
ANDORRA SERVICE TAX EXPANDED ANDORRA-la-VIELLE: No income tax haven expands 7% service levy beyond banks; helps UK fight money laundering.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9439
-----
MONACO-LIECHTENSTEIN DIRTY CASH ACCORD VADUZ: Government confirms signing of anti-money laundering pact between two haven nations. LINK: http://www.news.li/news/meld6.htm
-----
B.V.I. PROPOSES END TO INCOME TAXES ROAD TOWN, BVI: This British OST may repeal all incomes taxes.
LINK: http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/americas/09/20/british.vi.tax.ap/
-----
BERMUDA INSURANCE HEAD HIT FOR HYPOCRISY HAMILTON: ACE head criticizes offshore reincorporations but his own company has done just that.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=9456
* Bermuda bank chief notes anti-money laundering inconsistency. LINK:
http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20020923
&Category=BUSINESS&ArtNo=109230023&Ref=AR
=================================
* ADVERTISEMENT *
949,000 Lives Could Be Saved This Year & One of Them Could Be Yours
There's a killer running rampant in the United States who is responsible for the deaths of 2,600 Americans a day. The latest statistics from the American Heart Association confirm the numbers; cardiovascular disease is the no 1. killer in the United States today. Every 33 seconds it claims another victim! Yet many of the answers to defeating this enemy are lost in the quagmire of big business and governmental red tape.
Click below to read about the life-saving solutions that you and your loved ones need to know to avoid becoming this killer's next target.
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/FHD/W680C911
=================================
* PRIVACY & RIGHTS *
U.S. STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA MAY ADOPT NULLIFICATION
November referendum would allow juries to acquit if law is unfair.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/national/22JURY.html
-----
CIVIL LIBERTIES MAJOR TERROR WAR CASUALTY
USA Patriot Act abridges liberties, rights. LINK:
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/national/article/0,1406,KNS_350_1427412,00.html
* FBI secretly looks at library and book check out records. LINK:
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryA30585A.htm
-----
SEN. BYRD SAYS SECURITY PLANS THREATEN FREEDOM
"An excuse to ignore constitutional liberties behind closed doors."
LINK: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0918-03.htm
-----
SUPREME COURT OMINOUS VIEW ON WARTIME FREEDOM
Chief Justice Rehnquist's disturbing history of restrictions during war.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/opinion/22SUN3.html
=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER.
* SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND DIRECTLY TO THE A-LETTER.
SEND E-MAIL TO: INFO@THESOVEREIGNSOCIETY.COM
=================================
The A-Letter provides accurate information on the subject matter covered and advertisements displayed, so far as we can ascertain.We cannot certify the absolute accuracy of referenced articles nor do we necessarily endorse products advertised herein.
=================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland
TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561
Copyright (C) 2002. All domestic & international rights reserved.