scared me first too but I haven't heard of anyone who got ripped by them and as long as you don't plan to get millions of dollars into your account I would say your money is safe there.The bank is located in russia as far as I know but I don't really have a clue where it's located neither do I really care about that as long as my money is safe :winkwink:

alex_a, if you are from Eastern Europe (and not a US citizen) and generate your income from internet business, the best offshore account you can get is at a US bank. The cost is 0.0 $. You mail your checks to the bank and withdraw cash with a debitcard from any atm around the world. It helps if you rent a US mailbox first.
Just fly over to Florida for a week. A roundtrip will cost you less than 400 $ and you have a nice vacation. Everybody can open a US checking account, the requirments are very little compared to other offshore locations.
If you have problems in obtaining an US visa, go to Mexico and open an account there. It is free and easy, just travel expenses.

Having the same problem also, I'm from eastern eu too. The tax rate seems to be very high around here as alexa said 40% or more. I was thinking opening a swiss acct, contacted a few banks regarding this, just waiting for their legal advice. But, if anyone is doing business with a swiss bank and have a good recomandation, any comment is welcomed ! Btw alexa if you find a good solution pm me :)

The guys from flashcash hooked me up with someone to help me do this back in 2000-ish.. I forget the name of the place.. but it was very smooth.

Cost a few grand though..

Do it soon!
:thumbsup

You might want to double-check those facts.

1. Residents are required to pay tax on their world income... so the issue of where the money is earned from is not that important.

2. As to where the money goes to (offshore)... there is the issue of "control".... ie who "controls" the offshore corporation. In Canada, if the person who controls the foreign corporation is a Canadian resident, then he (and his companies) are required to pay tax in Canada.

Canada and US have very similar tax laws in many areas.... I would suspect they would be similar in this area as the IRS doesn't want people to avoid paying tax on their world income by simply having the money land in another country.

Giorgio, would you recommed me some bank(not located in the EU)
for offshore account ?

Switzland is the best. There are various options depends of the amount of money you put. To me there are the safer, I tried other offshore accounts but still the best solution.
I you can afford it I'd highly recommand numbered account.

Contact me for details, if you're interested in.
aim: olvrsmt

Bottom line is.... if you are a resident of your home country, you are obliged to pay taxes applicable in that country.

Filtering money into some offshore account to avoid taxes is not a good idea :-)

If you live in either an offshore country or a country which has a geographically based tax system (ie.. a country which only taxes profits when they are generated within that country) - you can have as many legitimate bank accounts as ya can dream of.

For "onshore" people, yes it is possible to have "offshore" accounts, tho there are variations on tax rules, depending on your country of residence. For US people, this is a problem, for others, not so much a problem. Also... it's not just a matter of "opening a bank account" - usually some corporate structure is useful/necessary.

If it's just a bank account that is needed - any offshore bank will open an account, tho they will require full ID (genuine!!! *g*) and background information - this is standard practice.

tahiti:

Swiss bankers have been lied to and conned by the US IRS in the past and there is a plus in that they are now wary of any US agency approaching them for info. However, Switzerland is tired of everyone and his dog lining up to open accounts for the purposes of tax evasion within their own countries, they make life harder, unless this is for normal business trading.

BTW.. Why would anyone want a "numbered account" these days? :-) It is not exactly "normal" and contrary to common verbal, offshore banks do not usually have such things as "numbered accounts" - they operate "normal accounts" on the basis of "know your client" and retain a high degree of confidentiality.

50

:glugglug

it's really easy to created a ltd in UK (can be done in 24h) from that open account in Switzland. Holding can be also very easy to setup in europe. UK, Belgium are the best. But you have to be there for the setup.

Is there any such thing as the truly anonymous bank account anymore in the world?

Seems one of the last ones I was familar with, the sparbuch accounts of Austria have gone the way of the dinosaur.