No. If your country of residence launched a tax investigation because they suspected you were operating an offshore company/bank account without declaring it, the US government would provide any information they had with regards to your financial details/dealings in the US - assuming they were friendly nations. i.e double taxation treaty. They do this for each other to ensure no one rips of either government. So if you were to operate as a director of an offshore, you'd have to declare that information to your government and once you do that, you'll be a target anyway. It is quite legal to be a director of an off-shore company. As long as you declare all foriegn income earned through that company. And you will then pay domestic tax rates on that income - so there is no point in going off shore. Of course, you can choose to lie about the amount, but these days they have something call forensic accounting which means all you're financial activities will be scrutinized to the very highest degree - think of a regular tax audit multiplied by one thousand. So in summary, you can set up an IBC with nominee directors in which case your domestic government will not be able to link the IBC to you. But you will have trouble getting a nominee director to let you operate a margin account through the IBC. Or you can be a director yourself and have no problem setting up an account. But your government will be able to link you to that IBC if they know where to look. Runningbear
HVB Ex-Official Pleads Guilty Over Tax Shelters By JONATHAN WEIL and KARA SCANNELL Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL August 12, 2005; Page A3 A former executive of the German bank HVB pleaded guilty to fraud, conspiracy and tax-evasion charges, marking the federal government's first criminal conviction in its investigation of allegedly fraudulent tax shelters promoted by accounting firm KPMG LLP. The charges against Domenick DeGiorgio could land the 42-year-old accountant in prison for 12 to 15 years under federal sentencing guidelines, federal prosecutors said at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. From 1996 through 2003, Mr. DeGiorgio was a managing director at the New York branch office of Munich-based HVB, formally known as Bayerische Hypo & Vereinsbank. He had been responsible for supervising HVB's participation in various shelter transactions that helped wealthy individuals claim more than $1.3 billion in fake tax losses, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. [Domenick DeGiorgio] Domenick DeGiorgio leaves court yesterday after pleading guilty. Those transactions included a KPMG tax shelter known as "Bond Linked Issue Premium Structure," or Blips. In its criminal information describing the four felony charges against Mr. DeGiorgio, the government called Blips a fraudulent shelter. In addition to pleading guilty to conspiring with Blips' promoters to defraud the U.S. Treasury, Mr. DeGiorgio also pleaded guilty to stealing money from his former employer. An HVB spokesman in New York said the bank "has and will continue to cooperate fully with authorities" but declined to comment further. Mr. DeGiorgio's guilty plea comes as KPMG is negotiating with federal prosecutors to head off a potential indictment against the firm over past sales of Blips and other tax shelters. Lawyers familiar with the talks say the two sides are close to settling on a deferred-prosecution agreement that could include penalties of $400 million to $500 million, a strict government-supervision plan and new restrictions on KPMG's tax practice. However, the government hasn't ruled out an indictment, these lawyers say, and the two sides have yet to reach a final agreement. Separately, a number of former KPMG tax professionals are expected to be indicted in the coming weeks, attorneys involved in the matter say. KPMG declined to comment. In a statement, David N. Kelley, the departing U.S. attorney for Manhattan, said: "Our self-reporting tax system can not tolerate the fraudulent acts of bankers, accountants and lawyers who, under the guise of 'sophisticated tax planning,' create elaborate structures that have no purpose but to mislead and defraud the IRS, at the cost of billions of dollars to the U.S. Those who seek to devise, implement, and profit from these fraudulent structures should understand that we will devote whatever resources it takes to put a stop to them." Mr. DeGiorgio entered his pleas before the same federal judge who moments earlier had sentenced Scott Sullivan, WorldCom Inc.'s former chief financial officer, to five years in prison for his role in the company's accounting fraud. At his court appearance, Mr. DeGiorgio provided U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones a brief description of how the Blips shelter worked. "An essential part of creating reported tax losses depended on the bank purporting to provide a loan structured in a particular way," he said. "The loan proposed by the Blips promoters was a sham because, among other things, as designed, no money ever left the bank, and because HVB never set aside any of its own money or procured funds from the banking market in order to fund any of these loans." Mr. DeGiorgio added: "Blips was falsely represented to be a three-stage, seven-year investment program when, in reality, it was a short-term transaction designed to create tax losses." The tax-evasion charge against Mr. DeGiorgio, who testified on HVB's behalf at public hearings on tax-shelter promoters before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 2003, doesn't appear to stem from any use by him of Blips. Rather, the government charged, Mr. DeGiorgio failed to report payments he received over several years from tax-shelter transactions in which HVB participated, and failed to report fees he siphoned from HVB through fraud. The government said he used some of that money to pay for the cost of construction on his Long Island, New York residence. Me thinks there are some very frightened people out there.
so if your government is suspecting something, they'll have to go ask every country in the world if they have any information on you right?
Here's one for you: Hollywood star Angelina Jolie is Cambodian citizen I wonder what the taxes are like in Cambodia. Not that any of these stars are stupid enough to pay taxes on their undeserved zillions in the first place, but this might actually make avoiding taxes legal for Angelina. Great scam--Cambodia gives Angelina a loophole so she doesn't pay $20 million in taxes per year, she funnels $5 million back into Cambodia in return -- and another five to the King, of course.... I wish I'd thought of it. Everyone else in the world thinks she's an eco-saint getting a token recognition, I think she's got an ulterior motive and tax avoidance on her sexy scheming mind. Bah. I need a coffee.
If she gets her money working on the territory of the US, she will have to pay taxes there, even if she is there less than 183 days/year. Another story for participation to film sales.
I'm just pointing out how the system works. Feel free to take that chance if you want to. Brokers request copies of your license or passport for a reason. Investigating Insider trading and money laundering are the obvious ones. Both of which sometimes involve offshore accounts. So you're already putting a red flag next to your name by disclosing your directorship. But feel free to go right ahead. Runningbear