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07.13.01. O.E.C.D Bait & Switch. A-Letter.
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Friday, July 13, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 55
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: OECD Pulls A Bait-and-Switch On the U.S.
* OFFSHORE: OECD Attacks Havens Again. Havens Warn OECD. The Monaco - Russian Link. IRS Rules Slammed. EU Hits Own 'Unfair Tax Competition'. Jersey Jamboree. Manx Privacy. London Forces Bermuda Law Change. Bank of Bermuda Settles. Belize Wont Freeze Cash. Cayman's Best Seller. Hong Kong Decline. Abu Dhabi Falters. India Passport Scam.
* WEALTH: Pan EU Tax Dead. Where the Yachts Are. World Tax Collector. AltMin Tax Hurts. 3rd World Economies Down. Philippines Lost & Dirty Money. Corrupt Assets Register? Investment Websites.
COMMENT: OECD Pulls A Bait and Switch On the U.S.
by Bob Bauman, Editor
Writing in the European edition of the Wall Street Journal Daniel MITCHELL of the Heritage Foundation notes that the OECD supposedly has bowed to US pressure and scaled back its "harmful tax competition" attack on low tax nations. However, he says, now the OECD is demanding US support for an unprecedented attack on financial privacy.
The new OECD demand is that tax havens be required to turn over private financial information on a case-by-case basis. Mitchell asks why low tax nations should be forced to repeal their financial privacy laws just because they espouse free market policies that lure capital from high tax nations?
Mitchell charges the OECD is trying to pull a bait-and-switch scam on US Treasury officials. In exchange for giving up on tax harmonization, the Paris bureaucracy has convinced Washington to back limited information exchange, which has always been the OECD's true agenda.
Mitchell is correct that information exchange is just another form of OECD tax harmonization. Both policies make it very difficult for taxpayers to shift their money to lower tax environments. Tax harmonization achieves this goal by insisting that all countries have similar tax rates. Information exchange achieves the same goal by allowing a taxpayer's home country to tax economic activity in another nation. Both policies are wrong.
LINK: http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Articles/wsje07-11-01/wsje07-11-01.shtml
Hopefully the Bush government will see through this OECD trickery and act accordingly.
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NOTICE: CHICAGO FORUM CANCELED
The Sovereign Society Forum scheduled for Chicago on next Tuesday, July 17, is postponed to a later date in the Fall.
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* OFFSHORE *
RELENTLESS O.E.C.D. NEVER RESTS
PARIS. Certainly not easing its anti-haven bluster, a new OECD report harshly attacks numerous alleged tax havens by name, including - a first - the US State of DELAWARE.
LINK: Click Here.
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TAX HAVENS WARN O.E.C.D.
Banding together, tax haven nations warn the OECD it is doomed to failure unless havens are included in decision making.
LINK: http://www.caymannetnews.com/stories.html#ITIO
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MONACO'S RUSSIAN INFLUENCE
From an apartment overlooking the tax haven of MONACO, two brothers from New Zealand exert extraordinary influence over Moscow's equity markets. A fascinating, behind the scenes read at
LINK: Click Here.
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U.S. IRS PROPOSALS SLAMMED
Daniel MITCHELL lays bare the fallacies behind IRS proposals that would force US banks to report the bank deposit interest paid to nonresident foreign investors.
LINK: http://www.heritage.org/library/execmemo/em757.html
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E.U. DISCOVERS IT OWN 'UNFAIR TAX COMPETITION'
BRUSSELS. Looking inward, the EU this week attacked corporate tax schemes in 8 EU countries as possible illegal state aid.
LINKS: Click Here and Here.
The EU also demanded the UK clamp down on GIBRALTAR's tax breaks for offshore IBCs registered there.
LINK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,520279,00.html
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JERSEY JAMBOREE
ST. HELIER. This Channel Island goes overboard polishing its new squeaky clean image with a mid-summer anti-dirty money conference.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4409
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MANX PRIVACY REAFFIRMED
DOUGLAS. The Isle of Man High Court reaffirms statutory financial privacy guarantees that block foreign requests for information.
LINK: http://www.newsmann.com/updocs/ConfidCoop.jpg
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U.K. FORCES BERMUDA CONSTITUTION CHANGE
HAMILTON. London underscores the "dependent" status of its largest overseas territory, forcing constitutional changes without adequate consultation with many of the island's unhappy colonials.
LINKS: Click Here and Here.
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BANK OF BERMUDA SETTLES FOR $67 MILLION
MIAMI. A major offshore bank, the Bank of Bermuda, pays up to $67.5 million to settle claims it aided a $300 million scheme that victimized 2500 people.
LINK: Click Here.
CALIFORNIA bans Allied Boston Bank, an offshore bank licensed by the Republic of PALAU.
LINK: Click Here.
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BELIZE WONT FREEZE CASH
BELMOPAN. The Belize Supreme Court denies a US request to freeze $2 million in assets of a previously extradited US financier accused of money laundering and fraud.
LINK: Click Here.
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CAYMANS BEST SELLER
GEORGE TOWN C.I. Islanders are reading the memoirs of Vassel JOHNSON, the ex-court clerk who created this tax haven's offshore legislative regime.
LINK: Click Here.
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HONG KONG DECLINE
Hong Kong passes a law that will erode its autonomy by giving communist China power to sack the special territory's leader.
LINK: Click Here.
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U.A.E. TAX HAVEN FALTERS
ABU DHABI, the UAE city that wants to be a tax haven for e-commerce and telecommunications in the Middle East, is hit by the tech collapse.
LINK: http://www.tornado-insider.com/news/Article.asp?id=10502
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WORLD PASSPORT FRAUD
CHANDIGARH, INDIA: Police arrest con men doing a thriving business issuing 'world passports' 'authorized' by the World Service Authority.
LINKS: http://www.indian-express.com/ie20010712/nat15.shtml
http://www.worldservice.org/wsa.html
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* WEALTH *
E.U. ALL EUROPE TAX DEAD
BRUSSELS. Belgium stands alone in wanting to impose a multi-national layer of taxes on top of all other EU nation taxes.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4417
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WHERE THE YACHTS ARE
CANNES, France. "The very large yachts line the harbor here, white fiberglass behemoths whose home ports are the tax havens of the former British Empire: Bermuda, The Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Mann."
LINK: http://www.registerguard.com/news/20010709/ed.col.cape.0709.html
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WORLD TAX COLLECTOR
Thanks to Bill CLINTON, US banks may have to report foreign depositor data to countries such as Russia and China.
LINK: http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200107308.shtml
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UNSEEN U.S. TAX HURTS
The Alternative Minimum Tax is an entirely separate tax system that hits newly prosperous Americans with a nasty surprise.
LINK: Click Here.
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ASIAN & LATIN ECONOMIES IN TROUBLE
Third world recession is a reality. Here are the facts.
LINKS: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jul2001/pi20010712_643.htm
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=689615
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=693410
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PHILIPPINES DIRTY MONEY
MANILA. A government that still can't find out what happened to the millions Ferdinand MARCOS stashed offshore....
LINK: http://www.philstar.com/htmtest/News200107132601.htm
.....is pushing for a strong, new anti-money laundering law.
LINK: http://www.inquirer.net/brk/2001/jul/12/brkpol_5-1.htm
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REGISTER OF CORRUPT ASSETS?
LONDON. Yeah, that's the ticket! Get crooks to register their ill gotten gains with their bankers. Dumb idea #007 million.
LINK: Click Here.
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ONLINE INVESTMENT WEB SITES
American stocks, LINKS: http://www.fool.com and Click Here.
US corporate share SEC filings at LINK: Click Here.
Create your own custom monitor for your offshore shares at,
LINK: http://www.digital-look.com
United Kingdom, LINK: http://www.iii.co.uk
France, LINK: http://www.advfn.fr
Germany, LINK: http://www.onvista.com
European stocks, LINK: http://www.comdirect.co.uk
Free wealth building strategy kit for UK expats at,
LINK: http://www.april-investments.com/who/Book.html
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. E-mail to: info@sovereignsociety.com. * SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland. TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561. Copyright (C) 2001. All domestic & international rights reserved.
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