How To Get Maximum Privacy & Asset Protection Offshore

If you’re looking for maximum privacy and or for maximum asset protection you might want to give thought to setting up a three-layered structure ie a tax free Offshore Company plus a tax free Offshore Trust plus a tax free Private Foundation (ie the shares of the Company are held by the Trust, the sole beneficiary of the trust is the Foundation and the beneficiaries of the Foundation would be whoever you nominate eg your family members).

 

We are often asked (by clients committed to setting up a Company and a Foundation) what’s the advantage/s of interposing a Trust between the Company and the Foundation?

 

Say you have 3 structures in place ie an Offshore Company and Offshore Trust and an Offshore Foundation (ie a serious asset protection structure). Say a firm of vulturous lawyers are suing you and they suspect you have assets held by an Offshore Company (from which the Lawyers hope to extract recovery for their client + a fat fee for themselves).

 

The first thing that would happen is the vultures would try and find out who owns the Offshore Company. Unless you are involved in some very serious criminal activity (eg drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorist financing etc) no one should be able to find out who the owner/shareholder of that Offshore Company is (or who the beneficiaries of any Trust or Foundation beneath it are – see below).

 

To crack the privacy veil anyone wanting to either (a) attack/get hold of assets held by the Company/Group or (b) find out who actually owns the Offshore company would have to apply to the Supreme Court of the Country where your Offshore Company is incorporated for a disclosure order ie a court order compelling the names of the shareholders/owners of the Offshore Company to be revealed.

 

Before the Court will even hear the application the vultures would have to produce evidence, ie a prima facie case, proving that the Offshore Company (or persons closely connected to it) has more likely than not been involved in serious criminal activity as defined.

 

If they do get the order they would find that the Offshore Company is owned by an Offshore Trust in a 2nd country.

 

The lawyers for the vultures would then have to pack their bags go home and start all over again. That is they would then have apply to the Supreme Court of the country in which the Offshore Trust is registered for a disclosure order (ie for an order requiring that the names of the beneficiaries of the Trust be revealed). Again, usually before the Court will even hear the application, the vultures would once again have to produce evidence ie a prima facie case proving that the Trust or persons closely connected to it are more likely than not to have been involved in serious criminal activity as defined.

 

Say by some miracle they do get that order. All they will find out is that the sole beneficiary of the Trust is a Foundation registered in a 3rd jurisdiction.

 

The lawyers for the vultures would then (again) have to pack their bags go home and start over. That is they would then have apply to the Supreme Court of the country in which the Foundation is is registered for a disclosure order ie a Court order requiring that the names of the beneficiaries of the Foundation be revealed. As usual before the court will even hear the application the vultures would again have to produce evidence ie a prima facie case proving that the Foundation or persons closely connected to it are more likely than not to have been involved in serious criminal activity as defined.

 

And if the Company’s bank account is held in a 4th country the vultures would need to appear before a Court in a 4th country seeking an order that the Company’s Bank Account in that country be frozen (ie pending finalisation of litigation/claims against the company or its owners).

 

As any experienced litigation lawyer will tell you what’s described above is the lawyer’s equivalent of having to climb Mount Everest. The time it would take and the legal costs involved would be virtually inestimable.

 

In this scenario commonly the Trust is used to buy/hold assets/investments. Why? Because included in the laws of most serious Trust jurisdictions are non-attack clauses. That is provisions that specifically say (a) that Trust assets cannot be attacked once transferred to the trust and (b) that any foreign law or judgment purporting to grant access to Trust assets shall not be recognized.

 

It should come as no surprise to anyone then (given the proliferation of litigation lawyers and the advent of information exchange between OECD type jurisdictions) to hear that the use of multi-national Offshore Corporate Structures is on the rise.

 

Hopefully after reading the above you can well understand why…

 

PS OCI Offers a triple structure package. Check this link for details: https://offshoreincorporate.com/how-to-create-the-ultimate-tax-effective-offshore-corp/

 

Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:

 

www.offshoreincorporate.com

 

info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com

 

ocil@protonmail.com

 

oci@tutanota.com

 

oci@safe-mail.net

 

ociceo@hushmail.com

 

How To Get Around Cryptocurrency Trading Tax Rules

In a last-minute change ahead of the implementation of new tax rules for virtual currency trading, Thai lawmakers have announced that virtual currency trading on regulated exchanges should be exempt from value-added tax.

 

Under the new regime, gains will be subject to a 15 percent capital gains tax charge, with the tax to be subject to withholding, and a seven percent value-added tax charge will be assessed where trades take place off an approved exchange.

 

The introduction of tax comes alongside a new regulatory regime for the sector, with new value-added tax registration obligations arising for many industry players.

 

Interestingly Cryptocurrency Trading is an activity which lends itself well to an Offshore Corporate Structuring Plan.

 

If you are resident in and trading Cryptocurrency from Thailand (or somewhere like Thailand which has brought in a Cryptocurrency Trading Tax Regime) it may be possible to trade under the guise of a (tax free) Offshore Company and avoid tax at home on your trading profits

 

To summarise how it would work (assuming you intend to trade your own money or borrowed money) is:

 

  • You set up a zero tax International Business Company
  • The IBC opens an account with the Cryptocurrency Exchange/s
  • The Company is set up with a (nil tax jurisdiction resident) Nominee Director and a (nil tax jurisdiction resident) Nominee Shareholder (alternatively, and for maximum privacy, a tax free Private Foundation or Trust could be to set up to hold the IBC’s shares).
  • You are appointed as the IBC’s authorised trader (ie you place the buy and sell orders on behalf of the company)
  • For all intents and purposes the IBCs trading profits are generated in a nil tax environment tax free/offshore (ie provided the IBC Is structured properly)
  • When you need some living/spending money the IBC pays you a wage, or consulting fees or a commission (eg a percentage of trading profits generated) and you pay tax at home on those earning. That living/spending money can be paid to your local bank account (which means it would be assessable income wherever you are tax resident though you should also be able to claim a sizeable amount of allowable deductions eg for home office, car, equipment, insurances, travel, stationary etc etc to reduce the amount of your “taxable” income at home)
  • If you don’t want the authorities to know how much money you are earning by way of wages you could use an anonymous ATM or Debit/VISA card to withdraw your wages/fees from an Auto Tele Machine
  • The majority of your trading profits can be banked and or reinvested Offshore potentially tax free.

 

Local/new laws can have an impact. Hence you should seek local legal, tax and financial advice before incorporating an IBC for such purposes.

 

Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:

 

www.offshoreincorporate.com

 

info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com

 

ocil@protonmail.com

 

oci@tutanota.com

 

oci@safe-mail.net

 

ociceo@hushmail.com

 

 

How to Buy Real Estate Using an Offshore Company

We are often asked by clients How can I buy a piece of real estate in the city where I live using my Offshore Company?

 

There are several options here:

 

  1. You could limit your purchase to a new property which in most cases would get around any Foreign Investor Approval issues. In that case you could either:

 

(a)    Use your existing Company to buy the property; or

(b)   Use your Foundation or Trust to buy the property; or

(c)    Have the Foundation/trust or your existing Offshore Company fund/incorporate a stand- alone Real Estate Investment Company and have that Company buy the property. This would be the most discreet way to do it especially if you are regularly receiving payments from (ie if you have a visible relationship with) an existing tax free Offshore Company

 

  1. If you’re buying an existing local property (eg a dwelling) which would require Foreign Investor Approval/Sanction you could form a local Limited Company and have any of the above 3 suggest Offshore Entities supply the funding for the property as Mortgagee (for this to work the local Company would need to enter into a loan agreement with at least interest only payments and sign a mortgage on commercial terms).

 

As regards the process once you’ve decided which entity to use as Consultant/Adviser to the Offshore entity:

 

  • You would make certain recommendations in writing to the Director/Trustee/Councillor (ie to purchase XYZ Property)
  • The entity would then call a Board meeting authorizing the entity to proceed with the transaction
  • If you need to close the sale quickly the Board could provide you or your local Lawyer with a Power of Attorney enabling you to sign the Purchase/Sale Contract

 

If you want to live in the property the smart thing to do would be to have the Offshore Company which owns the property hire a local property management business; They would advertise the property. You would apply to lease the property and then pay rent to the Property Managers in an arms’ length arrangement, which shouldn’t raise any suspicions. (Contrast that with iIf you are sitting rent free in a property owned by a tax free Offshore Company; for sure and certain you can expect that to raise a red flag, eventually, with the authorities).

 

Would you like to know more? Then please Contact Us:

 

www.offshoreincorporate.com

 

info@offshorecompaniesinternational.com

 

ocil@protonmail.com

 

oci@tutanota.com

 

oci@safe-mail.net

 

ociceo@hushmail.com