=======================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Tuesday, October 8, 2002 - Vol. 4 No. 103
=======================================
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: EU Swiss Bashing.
* OFFSHORE: Bahamas News. Manx-US Tax Treaty. Gibraltar Appeal. Ukraine Tainted. FATF Meets. Luxembourg Rated. Expat Best Places.
* WEALTH: Shell Bank Rules. Brits Rule Bound. Reinsurance. Wealth Boat. Shelters. Scam. Sham Trusts. Cut Taxes; Own Your Business. Expats Pay.
=======================================
* ADVERTISEMENT *
Forget the Stock Market! Your Biggest Gains May Come From Way Off Wall Street
Don't miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in some of the nation's leading start-up companies. These wealth building gems aren't household names yet...but they soon could be. Get in now to enjoy the biggest returns. Join us to discover numerous lucrative early stage investments -- and find out how you could amass a life changing fortune that will last for generations.
LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/SUP/DefiningEvent/
======================================
* COMMENT: Swiss Bashing.
Dear A-Letter Reader:
Another round of European Union Swiss bashing can be expected today as EU finance ministers meet in Luxembourg. The tax hungry EU welfare states are livid at the possibility that some of their citizens may avoid taxes by using Swiss bank and investment accounts.
To Hell with 'probable cause' -- EU bullies demand automatic access to the private financial records in Switzerland of anyone they name. Talk about fishing expeditions!
This cheeky EU attack on financial privacy runs up against Swiss bank secrecy laws that, since 1934, have guaranteed that information wont be given out without a Swiss judicial order. Evidence of criminal conduct by an account holder must be shown first, and non-payment of foreign taxes is not a crime in Switzerland. Nonetheless, the Swiss have won high praise from the US government for their consistent cooperation in tracking down terrorist or any other dirty cash activity. In recent years over a billion dollars has been frozen by the Swiss using these existing procedures.
The Swiss have a declared ally in the Bush administration in their hard line (so far) stance against the EU's demands. Washington says the US will not go along with wholesale access to private financial information, but, like the Swiss, the US will treat information requests on a case-by-case basis.
So now top EU spokesmen are threatening to impose capital controls on Switzerland -- a hollow threat indeed against a nation that controls over one third of all offshore capital savings and investments in the world.
We predict the EU will loose this phony war. Some dissenting EU members, notably Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium, don't really support information exchange anyway. All this talk about anti-Swiss sanctions is just so much hot air, a desperate gamble attempting to scare Bern politicians into capitulation. As the Economist observes, the Swiss "consider banking secrecy to be a civil right that protects individuals from undue state control. Changing Switzerland's banking secrecy law to introduce an automatic information exchange would be politically difficult." A likely national referendum, judging by opinion polls, would (and should) reject any such drastic change in Swiss law and tradition.
The 1934 Swiss bank secrecy law was enacted to counter threats from contemporary European bullies. It protected German and other Jews from grasping Nazi forfeiture and confiscation plans. Adolf Hitler was not successful then. We predict the EU's would-be dictators will not be any more successful now.
That's the way that it looks from here.
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
=============================
* COMMENT LINKS:
* The Economist: Briefing on EU/Swiss Bank Secrecy. LINK:
http://www.viewswire.com/index.asp?layout=display_article&doc_id=212384
* UK Chancellor Brown steps up fight on tax dodgers.
LINK: http://www.thisislondon.com/news/business/articles/timid53982
* Some EU states 'trying to prevent tax deal'. Financial Times. LINK:
Click Here.
* Bolkestein calls EU savings tax plan critics 'friends of tax cheats'
LINK: http://www.afxpress.com/afxpress2/afx/story_45349.xml.html
* EU steps up pressure. Swiss Info.org. LINK:
"http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=113&sid=1381412
=======================================
* OFFSHORE *
BAHAMAS COURT OPENS NEW LAWS, IRS TREATY TO REVIEW NASSAU: Constitutionality of offshore financial laws and the TIEA with the US, all may be reviewed by the courts.
LINK: Click Here.
* More Bahamas troubles; Lloyds Bank leaves after 50 years. LINK:
Click Here.
* Annual Moody's report optimistic for Bahamas future. LINKS:
Click Here.
Click Here.
* New Bahamas government 5 year plan discussed. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
ISLE OF MAN SIGNS TAX TREATY WITH UNITED STATES
DOUGLAS: Tax information exchange agreement allows only specific case requests, no fishing expeditions.
LINKS: Click Here.
Click Here.
* TEXT of treaty, LINK (pdf download):
Click Here.
* Manx government statement. LINK (pdf download):
Click Here.
* Manx leader knocks tax haven report as too gloomy.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
GIBRALTAR APPEALS TO UNITED NATIONS NEW YORK: Chief Minister asks UN help to maintain Rock sovereignty.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
DIRTY MONEY TAINTS UKRAINE KIEV: FATF sanctions threatened; no anti-money laundering laws.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE MEETS THIS WEEK PARIS: Question whether a new blacklist will be issued. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
LUXEMBOURG GETS HIGH RATINGS
Only EU country with a higher per capita income than the US. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
BEST WORLD CITIES FOR EXPAT LIVING
Melbourne, Vancouver world's best cities for expatriates. LINK:
Click Here.
=======================================
* ADVERTISEMENT *
LITTLE BLACK BOOK
After more than 20 years of traveling and doing business all over the world, the staff of The Sovereign Society, including editor of The Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter, Bob Bauman, have put together what we believe is the greatest resource in the world for offshore banking, investing, privacy, legal tax-reduction and deferral, real estate, and so much more.
It's called The Sovereign Society's Offshore Yellow Pages, and it's made up of...at last count...8,251 important resources.
To learn more, click here NOW.
LINK: Click Here.
=======================================
* WEALTH *
U.S. BANK LOBBY WEAKENS SHELL BANK RULES USA Patriot Act rules on shell banks less stringent.
LINK: Click Here.
* US businesses of all kinds entangled in USA Patriot rules. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
BRITISH SEE ANTI-DIRTY CASH RULES AS MONSTROUS
Financial services industry awash in new regulations. LINK:
Click Here.
* International Monetary Fund gets into the anti-dirty cash act.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
O.E.C.D. EYES REINSURERS
Shaky reinsurance business draws international scrutiny. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
MILLIONAIRES LOVE THEIR BOAT
Luxury liner circleS globe with rich residents aboard.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
I.R.S. ALLOWS TAX SHELTER SETTLEMENTS
Participants in three named tax shelters given chance to settle.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
OFFSHORE BANK SCAM GETS FOUR YEARS IN PRISON
$74 million scammed with promise of 120% return on investment. LINK:
Click Here.
-----
BASIC TAX SHELTER: YOUR OWN BUSINESS
Reduce your taxes; convert your costs into tax deductions.
LINK: Click Here.
-----
OFFSHORE EXPATS' PAY CUTS
World economy reflected in lower expatriation pay packages.
LINK: Click Here.
=======================================
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. * SUBSCRIBE FREE
or send to a friend at LINK: HOME
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.