for those of you buying into the off shore charlatans
 

-http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dowjones/20020326/bs_dowjones/scope_of_offshore_credit_card_use_for_tax_evasion_ is_huge__irs_say



for those of you who bought into the offshore credit card scam.
as O.J. Simpson would say.............

Hey, Look Out!
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I'm pretty sure I caught some flack from people who thought I wasn't right about the perils of this. :1orglaugh

link dont work :321GFY

.

I read that one in the WSJ about 2 weeks ago.

It's so obviously tax evasion, anyone who does it deserves to be caught.

no shit sherlock. :winkwink:

My advisor called it tax "deferment" strategy.

The offshore Visa is only a bad idea if you spent the money in the country.

Still wont be able to see how much the card holder has sitting in his Antiguan account.

But none the less... some people are gonna be severely fucked. Alot of people have claimed the entire offshore industry has died in the last year.

First banks cooperating and then Visa.

It gets harder to launder money every day.

Fucking links wont post correctly...

I keep all my cash in my butt plug wallet.
You got to learn to "tight-roll" yer big bills.
At my last audit I started to yank out my bills
-- they said I could keep the money.

Anyone on here ever been through an audit?

Last time someone told me that, ive been high ever since.


BTW dead link.

guys, just cut and paste the url.

Wait, is this a webmasters board???? :1orglaugh

yeah, with 5 guys crying that the link doesn't work. :1orglaugh

Uh huh and you giving cut and paste lessons.

Time to re-evaluate GFY :winkwink:

err I just did

http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/...rs+offshore&c=

I been following the story on expat boards for months now.

The offshore boards are full of people in a panic.

You know... i don't see a problem with someone using off shore accounts to avoid paying taxes on their income. I think income taxes in the United States are unconstitutional anyways.

chodadog, have you met spacedog yet? :winkwink:

Offshore isnt illegal.

Not by any means.

If you use it to launder and hide money it is... but if you want to store some money away to hide from creditors, or keep your business anonymous... IBC's are the shit.

Offshore banking is dead as far as secrecy laws are concerned. 9-11 really helped fuck it up for everyone.

The hot new way to launder money? Identity theft. You would be suprised just how easy it is.

Fake passport: $900
Fake SS Card: $150
Fake state ID: $150
Opening bank account in someone elses name to store your money and letting the poor schmuck get stuck fighting off the IRS for under reporting income... priceless.

why is it always the wisest amoung us who make these statements? :1orglaugh

Antigua and many of the other Carib banking centers have been giving up info to the US for awhile as I understand it.

The IRS doesn't care if you put AFTER tax money offshore, they are just on the lookout for the guys that thought they didn't have to report the income to start with.

Saying, well, I just won't use the money in the states doesn't work either, since if you are a US citizen it doesn't matter where your income is sent, only that you made it.

Perhaps if you had a non-US corp that paid you and took out taxes, you'd be a bit less high on the radar?

im pretty sure cc's linked to offshore accounts are still cool in OZ.. but you'd have to be silly to buy large things with it.. it's more for disposables like groceries etc, so if you ever get audited it's a lot harder to get screwed because you've used it for your living expenses, not your 60" plasma... still not the best way to launder though... because when you get audited they WILL check how many bottles of ketchup you have..

The only way to do this successfully is if the money never hits the states at all.

In order to make this happen, you need to have an offshore corporation where your name doesn't appear, open new sponsor accounts with sponsors preferably not based in the states, have offshore banking account(s) for the corporation etc. It's not as easy as it sounds....

In order to spend the money, you should ideally only spend it outside the US as well so in reality you need to move yourself and your entire operation out of the country then you'll be "offshore." :)

I've been through two..I tell you, I'd rather let Katherine Hepburn give me a vasectomy with a rusty butter knife....

The one good thing about it...I pay my accountant more than my attorney and there's a goddamned good reason for that.......

This is the downside for those of you contemplating the Vegas move...you're twice as likely to be audited in the state of Nevada than any other state.....

You probally did - you usually catch a lot of flack.

my dad had a saying ' I hope you have to pay a lot of tax ' - some people took it as an insult, it was actually a complement.

unless they find out about it and WITHDRAW all the money

My main concern is, being self employed, I know that makes me an automatic audit target.

And working online, I dont get receipts for jack shit. I get credt card statements and wire details. I hear if you get hit with an audit, you need receipts receipts receipts. I would say 80% of my business expenses have no receipts and is only reflected in credit card statements.

Probably a question for a tax attorney, but anyone ever been faced with an audit and are in this situation? I cant be the only one with lack of receipts.

I hate taxes, makes my asshole pucker.

If you stupid enough to use the account that long, you deserve to lose it.

I'm serious.. There's always been a huge debate about whether or not income taxes are constitutional with the current methods.

Income tax, defined by the constitution, is an apportioned tax handled by the state government. Currenly, income taxes in the United states are non-apportioned, and are handled by the Federal Government.

". . . direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons . . . three-fifths of all other Persons."

Income taxes are a direct tax - but they are not apportioned.

You're going to have to wait for the courts to agree with you, unfortunately.

Its still possible to get good offshore accounts; ANONYMOUS ones. Its just a little risky...

Yep, it's still possible. Just don't trust any idiot with a web page.

Nice nick, Mike Semen, btw... :)

There's only one way to make it right with the IRS....

Add up everything you make in a year to the penny.....

send it to them.

Should work ;)

Agreed, but it's the cheats and scammers that will argue this point.

LOL, It's funny you should say that! Once, the government came after me for back taxes. It was a few years after the year I supposedly didn't pay.

They were after just $2,000 less than I made the entire year in question! Incredible! All due to their obviously super scientific 'ESTIMATED EARNINGS' formula! Be extra scared when they try to estimate anything about you.

I ended up getting a good tax person who got me out of that situation for pennies on the dollar. My record keeping in the early 90's was terrible so I didn't have proof that I paid anything but state tax. If I didn't have the money for an accountant I would have been up shits creek! The IRS loves to shake people down!

That's another part of the government that is unconstitutional!

Article V of the Bill of Right guarantees that you won't be punished for a crime withought due process of law. But the IRS can seize your property without even having to take you to court. If someone owed me money, i'd have to take them to court. Why should the IRS have special conditions. It's obvious by the amount of errors that mistakes are not an uncommon thing. And these mistakes are costing people their jobs.

Furthermore, The Fifth ammendman states:

"... nor shall any person .... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;"

The IRS is a joke.

Have you guys ever tried Belize instead of the regular offshore places? from what I've heard and seen, it's pretty easy to put your money there, it's a paradise, won't give up info to anyone no matter the pressure (they are under UK protection and just gave a big NO to the US after 9/11)

They have some cool banking laws, you can even open your own bank for next to nothing (last time I checked it was around $7k usd)

There is also 4 Tax Free zones in the country with banks in them, you can open up an office there for close to nothing and put your money on those banks.

I've been told this by an expert numbers guy also.

you think thats bad check this out:
http://www.oecd.org/oecd/pages/home/...93-103,FF.html

"The OECD has determined that three other jurisdictions - Barbados, Maldives, and Tonga - identified in the 2000 Progress Report as tax havens should not be included in the forthcoming List of Unco-operative Tax Havens."

Does that mean that Tonga and the Maldives are still good for tax evade ?

It's all fun and games until the US threatens to withdraw any financial aid to the foreign countries in question and potentially embargo them.

Then they just start handing over papers right and left.

It's easier to pay the taxes guys...

Whoever said being rich was easy? :winkwink:

Oh yes.. the government is going to withdraw financial aid to get some people avoiding tax..

Not going to happen. Do you really think the breakdown in foreign affairs would be worth getting a few (and i say "few" very lightly, i know it's a lot.. but when you compare it to the population.. then yes.. "few") people evading tax. Not likely.