Tag Archives: Doing Business Offshore
Political Double Dealing
On his 2008 Presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama made his hostility toward “offshore” jurisdictions very clear:
“There’s a building in the Cayman Islands that houses supposedly 12,000 U.S.-based corporations. That’s either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world, and we know which one it is.”
I know that building well; [...]
The Benefit of Offshore Trusts
For many years UK taxpayers benefitted greatly by transferring (settling) their assets in offshore trusts, but increasing ant-avoidance legislation has led people to believe that there is no point in using an offshore trust any more.
Whilst it is true that the tax advantages are no longer as good and they once were the fact is [...]
It is official: the Isle of Man is NOT a Tax Haven
As promised by Gordon Brown at the end of the G20 summit today, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has provided a detailed report on progress by financial centres around the world towards implementation of an internationally agreed standard on exchange of information for tax purposes.
The list is split into four sections and [...]
Offshore Tax Havens: Who Did Chancellor Merkel Have in Mind?
Anyone setting up a business in Germany has a few problems to overcome. High taxation, high social charges, and high cost of company formation to name just three. That’s why more and more Germans are setting up companies in the United Kingdom.
Believe it or not, the UK remains very business friendly. Anyone can set up [...]
Too Little Too Late? – Australian Tax Review Consultation Paper Published
Ken Henry, Australia’s Treasury Secretary today unveiled the first in a series of long awaited consultation papers which are aimed at simplifying the country’s overcomplicated tax system in a bid to attract greater investment into the country.
Currently Australians are subject to 125 different taxes, but the vast majority of government revenue (about 90%) is derived [...]
What is an Offshore Bank Account?
An offshore bank account can be described as: “a bank account maintained by an individual or business in a bank in any country of which they are not normally a resident”. Basically what this long phrase means is that if you are a British resident and you open a bank account in somewhere like Spain [...]
Full StoryInvesting Offshore – It’s Legal So Why Not Do It?
“Going Offshore” is a phrase that one commonly hears usually accompanied by a wry smile or a sly wink of the eye.
There is an assumption that somehow “Offshore” is “dodgy” and anyone who has an offshore bank account or business must automatically be up to no good. Phrases like “tax avoidance”, “tax evasion” and, increasingly [...]
