I am seriously reconsidering my options now. This Panamanian shitstorm is going to lead to some serious fallout over the coming months. Cameron is under enormous pressure now and will be sure to pass on that pressure to the British Overseas Territories. In this new light the BVI might not be the best option.
If you don't mind me asking, what structure do you use? I am reconsidering using a low tax jurisdiction (rather than a no tax jurisdiction) in light of recent developments.
My situation is irrelevant. All depends from where you are living or prepared to go and live. Tax fraude is illegal, avoiding taxes is NOT illegal. So find a place where taxes are low ang go there. You will never have any problem. But don't cheat. Anyway you will have to pay something, or you should move to Monaco. I had to leave my native country, there was no other option. But now I pay 6 times less then in my native country.
As I said at the beginning of this thread, I am not interested in evading tax. I am very interested in legally avoiding them until I decide on the long term residency of me and my family. If we remain in the UK then I am happy to pay the appropriate taxes to bring my money back onshore. The legal advice I have received states that (under current UK tax legislation) my trading operation can be legally structured such that I pay zero taxes on accumulated gains. Whether that is still the case in a couple of years time remains to be seen.
Leaks seem to be accelerating, BVI leaks were about 2 years ago and a little before that there were the HSBC Switzerland files handed to european tax authorities by a former worker there. Plus countries like Switzerland and probably Lichtenstein have reneged over previous arrangements and created serious issues to customers parking money there for sometimes generations. I agree that it is getting riskier to try and cheat the taxman going offshore in countries where it is not accepted by the authorities (much of western continental Europe applies) but there are still many countries where set up through offshore corporations are tolerated (asian countries largely don't tax offshore income nor tax dividends received from overseas companies ). There are still issues on where the company is actually managed but this doesn't seem to be an easy task for the tax man to assert the company is managed onshore and the profit should be taxed as onshore. In HK it's frequent to get a challenge from ird (local irs) over the tax free offshore status of some income from HK registered companies but I haven't heard much in matters of challenges from tax free income remitted from offshore companies to HK residents- I'm not well versed in the latter issue but lots of BVI and other offshore companies are registered by HK and mainland China residents. Jacky Chan appears at the head of like 4 companies in the latter leaks, we'll see wether it will get him any trouble. OP there is a very long thread on low tax solutions in this forum, active until few months ago. Some of the input could be useful to you.
Here's the thread : http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/best-country-for-trading-tax-efficiency.189932/
Which exactly reinforces my reasons for moving offshore....the US/EU/Japan is closing all the doors for US citizens to choose banks in other countries and they are doing it under the guise of controlling tax avoidance. (in a "healthy" normal functioning capitalist system people should be able to choose whatever bank they like just like choosing a car US or international) But, firstly, the rich in the US don't pay tax and never will (all of my research regarding my looking for offshore banks were based on me continuing to pay full US taxes). They have the offshore bank compliance rules for US citizens set up so that, once you begin to make US tax payments from your offshore bank, that offshore bank account becomes property of the USA and can be frozen and seized for any or no reason. This means that as soon as capital controls arrive (and they will pretty shortly), they will seize every offshore account listed whether you pay taxes or not. Secondly, they are in such a hurry to close offshore for US citizens (moving very fast since 2008/2009 banking crisis) because they want to pen in and corral all US banking so that capital controls can harvest as much US account money as possible. Tax avoidance was created by the rich, for the rich and as always been used by the rich and powerful...so if they are closing the scheme it only means that "they" have moved everything of their own far enough away and are ready to "capture and attach" everything still inside the US because the US banking system is full insolvent and has been now since 2008 and the Fed's actions have been ineffective at resolving this insolvency. (it took 3 trillion to just back stop the 2009 crisis, so I would guess that 3 trillion in capital fled the US pre- 2009). The 2009/2010 back stops didnt do anything except seem the bleeding. Banks are still insolvent and it will take a full balance sheet clearance to clean is up. As the 2008/2009 crash came, capital flight was huge and insidious (and kept very quiet by media news). The Panama news today is just throwing crumbs of news to distract from the real dilemma. Its also a very lame attempt at trying to attack Putin. Most US offshore theft probably went to either Saudi or Israel pre-2009. The US has begun financial monetization of its debt problem (as has Japan and the EU). They have also been doing financial warfare toward their domestic energy threats (Russia, Iran, etc). Mostly because there is nothing left domestically of value and they are circling the wagons and ready to do full balance sheet adjustments which firstly will offset US bank accounts with US debt and also print USD in order to buy and prop major SPX companies (firstly bank equities, then probably Dow transports, Energy Majors and Blue chips). I would think defense company equities would be a good investment right now. This panama leak tells me energy losses are a real problem (more than they realized) and they will institute capital controls (along with negative rates) within a year. Its not a secrete. Most things listed here are already being done in Japan, Cyprus, China and the EU, Argentina ect. Me, I have decided to change my residing country permanently...but I think Hong Kong and Dubai both have good offshore possibilities as long as you are ready to hire local board members and have local auditors and have local board meetings
Low Salubrity, this is a great thread and amazing timing on your part. Please share more on topics you are interested in as I am sure we would also be very interested too. Thanks again for starting this
Thanks. I found that thread when I started my initial research some time ago. I started reading but it seemed to be focused on US residents so I didn't progress very far. I flicked to the end just now but it seems to have descended into the usual ET shit slinging match. Is there anything worthwhile in the middle? If so I will plough through it.
You can open an offshore corporation in Dubai and other UAE emirates which don't need any local board member nor , at least in the case of some emirate, the need to do an annual audit. Be aware though that the standard MnA bans financial business activities, so whereas you can trade through those companies, if you show up at the bank with a business plan describing an equity trading business you will have a hard time opening an account. Afaik if you are looking for a UAE residence permit those offshore UAE companies won't be enough, but if you plan to remain a resident outside UAE they are fine.