Are personal offshore bank accounts safe?
The truth is your personal offshore bank account information will not be private and if you not declare your personal offshore bank account to your local tax department you should expect your local tax man to find out about it sooner or later. The problem with personal offshore bank accounts is all transfers, both incoming and outgoing are sent in your personal name, not the name of an offshore company for privacy reasons. All international transfers are sent via SWIFT and this data is available to any government that wishes to check for their citizens using offshore personal bank accounts. As we live in the digital information age and your information will not be private or safe if you are banking with a personal offshore account. This is not the 1980's, it is 2012 and big brother regardless of the country can learn everything about you if you use a personal account. You are better off just using your own personal account where you live rather than opening an offshore personal account.
Experts all agree, spend the extra 399 GBP or so and form an offshore company to protect your privacy as well as protect your assets. Think of the offshore company as an invisible barrier of privacy protection that is very difficult to penetrate. If you want to know what steps you can take personally in your offshore financial dealings to increase that barrier of protection so that it can likely never be penerated just ask us for a free consultation.
Sovereignman.com takes the selling of offshore information to new heights ($$$)
In addition to his annual membership, the real objective of his marketing is to sell a CD for $1295 with information on how to obtain a second citizenship, open offshore bank accounts, form offshore companies and protect yourself from big brother. The unfortunate fact is after you have paid out the $1295 for pure offshore information you then have to buy the offshore corporations and then likely need to pay for the offshore bank account as well. In fact most of the information he offers can be found on Talkgold Offshore Forum here using the below link and is completely free, http://www.talkgold.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22.
It use to be normal for online firms to sell this sort of offshore information for $49-$129 but the sovereignman.com has taken his prices to a new level by tapping into a new market of wealthy, unhappy Americans willing to pay almost any price to get out while they can. But like the free information he offers on his site, he only sells half truths.
For example, his second passport programs are described as a way of escaping the clutches of the IRS & US government and opening doors to new offshore investments, unlimited banking that is currently prohibited for US citizens. However what he does not tell you is that your second passport will show "United States" as your place of birth and this fact alone may preclude you in the same way your current US passport does from offshore banking and investing unless the person has in fact renounced their US citizenship and for high net worth individuals, pay the wealth tax required to get out.
Most Americans we have spoken with prefer to take the approach of relinquishing their citizenship rather than renouncing their citizenship as they want the right to return to the US to take advantage of Medicare, visit family, etc. What they will find out though is not only can they not accomplish what they wish after paying Simons $1295 for information as well as the fees to obtain their new passport including lawyer and country fees as high as $250,000 for a family. But worse yet because of FACTA regulations requiring Foreign Financial Instutitons report US citizens accounts, those that are able to successfully open an offshore account will be reported to the IRS who will could charge them with tax evasion and extradite them back to the US, or at the very least require the payment of penalties for failure to report their offshore account if they did not based upon the fact that they used their second passport.
Perhaps Americans should consider buying solutions rather than just paying for information.
Italy Signs TIEA With Bermuda
Itay Signs TIEAs With Bermuda
Bermuda Premier Paula Cox on April 23 signed additional tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with Malaysia and Italy in London.
The TIEA with Italy, which she signed together with the Italian Ambassador in London, Alain Economides, was said by Cox to follow Bermuda’s strategy of targeting meaningful TIEAs with key countries in the global financial system that are also Bermuda's major trading partners.
She was also pleased to note that Italy has recently implemented new legislation to bring into effect a ‘white list’ to be populated with countries that have cooperative tax relations with it. Once the TIEA enters into force, Bermuda will be placed on Italy's white list.
It is hoped that the TIEA will strengthen the economic and commercial relationship between Bermuda and Italy, especially in the area of reinsurance. As Cox observed: "Bermuda global reinsurers have an estimated 11% of the broker-placed reinsurance placed for Italy’s domestic insurers and an estimated 40% of European windstorm and flood insurance to European insurers. Signing TIEAs with European countries serves to solidify existing Bermuda business relationships in Europe."
Cox signed the TIEA with Malaysia together with the country's High Commissioner in London, Zakaria Sulong, and was pleased that Bermuda has strengthened its relationship with another leading international financial centre.
She announced that, as Bermuda is currently strengthening its role in the Sharia-compliant Islamic financial services industry, of which Malaysia is the globally most developed and largest centre, the TIEA should create a prime opportunity that will open the doors for business development between the two countries.
FACTA and what it means for US citizens
What is Offshore banking
Why use our service for offshore banking?
- Experience: over 10 years of experience forming offshore companies and opening offshore bank accounts
- SWIFT BIC code: Ability to verify our corporation data on line at Swift.com INHLSCS1
- All offshore packages include a corporate bank account: No need to pay extra elsewhere for the offshore account as we include everything you need for the offshore company and account expect for your personal documents.*
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