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Offshore banking is too complicated for the average Joe -- This is actually true if the average Joe were to do all the legal work himself. Typically an offshore bank account is created in conjunction with an offshore corporation due to many governments taxing worldwide income of individuals. This sounds complicated but a good lawyer will have the entire package done in less than a week. Its not worth going offshore unless you are wealthy -- Since it costs less than $2000 USD for an offshore bank account and a bearer share corporation with all the trimmings, offshore banking is within most people's reach. It is a very strong vehicle to protect your assets from lawsuits. Every business owner should have an offshore bank account and offshore company. In today's lawsuit happy world this is just good business practice. 9/11 has weakened bank secrecy -- This is certainly true onshore! Even though pretty much all the offshore countries are now in the MLAT treaty, this has not weakened bank secrecy unless the matter is criminal in nature. Even at that the issue must a crime in both countries. In Panama, for example, tax evasion is not a crime. As such a MLAT request for information based on a tax evasion case would be flatly denied by the Panama government. To open an offshore bank account you need to visit the country in question -- This is a falsehood. We open bank accounts regularly for our clients without ever seeing them. Everything is done by fedex, phone and fax. Bank secrecy is useless now that all the offshore jurisdictions are in the MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty). -- If you are a criminal there is some merit to this statement. If you are not a criminal, but just someone trying to protect your money this statement is false. For an MLAT request to be honored, it must be based on a crime in BOTH countries. If the offshore country doesn't consider the activity a crime, they will NOT comply with the request. A great example is tax evasion. This is a crime in countries like the USA and Canada but in countries like Panama for instance it is not a crime. MLAT requests for tax evasion are simply denied. Tax information is shared between most countries now -- It is true that many countries have entered into tax treaties, but other more reputable offshore jurisdictions have not. Panama, for example, has no tax treaties with anyone. The authorities will know if I use an offshore bank account -- That is simply not true. E-commerce and banking all over the internet today rely on secure online encrypted communications. The largest banks in the world use it and it is completely secure. It is impossible for anyone to see what you are doing. Companies like findnot.com can add a second layer of security for those who feel they need it. A court can order me to bring back the money -- If you are in a lawsuit already, and you move the money offshore, you must be careful under what circumstances. This will be considered a fraudulent conveyance. If, however, you take the money offshore before a lawsuit starts, and say donate the money to an offshore foundation, the money is not legally yours anymore. The judge cannot force you do something illegal. If the money is not yours he cannot order you to go and get it! If I move money offshore, someone will be able to track down where it went -- If you were to wire the money to its final destination directly that would be true. Clients concerned with this usually move the money to a intermediary bank in another offshore banking haven. For example, they will wire the money to an bank in the Cayman Islands, and then rewire the funds to Panama. Someone coming after the money would have to break the Cayman Island's bank secrey to find out the money is now in Panama. This is not likely to happen and you would likely have plenty of time to move the money to a third or fourth jurisdiction. Because authorities know that, tracing money is only done is high profile cases. Offshore bank accounts can be used to do all the same activities as an onshore account -- This is almost true. The only exception is online bill payment. This popular feature doesn't make sense offshore and to my knowledge no offshore banks offer it. Typically, the money held offshore is not used onshore anyway. Having said that, most offshore banking clients have a bank card that allows them to withdraw funds anywhere in the world. The card only leads back to the corporation which owns the bank account (and would require breaking bank secrecy even to find that out). The corporation is usually a bearer share corporation which means that it's ownership is anonymous anyway. It is illegal to use an offshore bank account -- There is no doubt that you could use an offshore bank account to do something illegal, but opening up an offshore company and bank account is 100% legal. In fact many fortune 500 companies keep much of their assets safe in offshore countries. Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
If you have a business or have money that you don't want to lose to an ex-spouse or a lawsuit be sure to read more of Doug Snarder's teaching on the Offshore Banking Account and Offshore Asset Protection
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