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Originally Posted by Pleasurepays
BTW webby, you seem to know quite a bit about some of this stuff. I am not trying to argue. I just hate seeing people ponder doing something extremely illegal and then getting bad advice here from a pack of monkeys who can barely tie their shoes, much less spell Tax Evasion or Money Laundering.
i am more trying to point out that there are serious issues and the questions and answers are not simple... and the consequences of working illegally whether you are aware of it or not and thinking you are successfully avoiding taxes.. can be severe.
everyone should talk to an experienced tax attorney about these issues. not experienced sig whores on a porn board.
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Hi PP! - Yea.. hear you and you are correct!
For US folks this is one major problem and the only real "solution" is give up citizenship and live elsewhere.
For people like Nick - he is OK and can just setup an offshore corp and travel or live where he likes and use the OS corp jurisdiction as a base.
But.. underneath all this... all these words about "tax havens", "offshore", "perpetual travellers" and "lawyers" are really "amateur" stuff. Sure one of the first things that may sound appealing to those in high-tax countries is no or little taxes. But to people living in these countries it's normal and not even an issue :-) It takes time to get a straight head on this an acceptance that it is normal - took me fully six months and pissing off lawyers to re-confirm stuff was OK! :-)
There is definately an "on-shore" mentality and hell knows, - some "learned process" that puts up barriers and creates the concept that this is some very complex stuff. It's not :-) BUT.. agree with ya that sometimes people get some weirdo bullshit going about "offshore" and think they can just get a load of ATM cards and live in their home country and spend as they wish :-) That is dangerous!!!
Anyone that wants to be legally offshore - or anyplace else - needs to firstly, be out of their home country and not be under tax obligations there. If they then chose to live in some low or no tax jurisdiction - nada problem and they are free to travel as they wish (but not spending loads of time back in their home country!).
On "sharing of information" - You are talking about other countries/jurisdictions and they are not answerable to anyone, except their own banking ombudesman or regulatory authority. But... they do have a "know your customer" policy - common to most banks, even onshore. The "know your customer" policy does not mean anyone else apart from the bank knows the customer:-) I know a few bankers and under no circumstances would they dream of even acknowledging the existance of any bank account - nevermind discuss it with third parties. That only needs to happen once and the clientelle does not exist and the regulatory authority will close it down within the week and people may face jail time for disclosure.
An example of a "trusting bank" and how strict offshore banks can be! Some smartass ex-premier of an old Soviet country decides to depart his country and siphon off $750mill and send this to Bank of America, Wall Street. He then gets some kind person in the US diplomatic corp to get him a VISA so he can settle down in sunny California :-)
First.. Bank of America failed miserably on "know your customer" and this guy then instructs them to split this $750mill and send it to loads of banks worldwide which they do. $2.7 mill arrived in an offshore bank and, because it came from Bank of America they never looked too hard :-) Then... within the week, the regulatory authority were in there and shut the place down and distributed the funds back to their customers. $2.7mill is nada in banking terms - but, they failed to check :-)
The other factor is that the laws which apply are the laws of the jurisdiction, not the laws of any other country or it's tax rules. And.... taking that a step further, - since there are no tax laws (no taxes) - tax issues are not "offenses" in offshore areas. It is the client's responsibilty to handle his/her own affairs wherever he/she is and the confidentiality of people like offshore lawyers and bankers supercedes any crap tax affairs of another country.
But.. underneath all this stuff - if people are above board and "legal" - this just does not matter. I don't really care if some country has info on me - I ain't doing illegal stuff (but tis none of their biz anyway!) and it's not all about taxes - it's just a better lifestyle and less hassle :-)