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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 31 ======================================================================= In This Issue: * COMMENT: Anti-Tax Haven Sanctions - All Out War? * OFFSHORE: Tax Scare Time. OECD Ignorance. Liechtenstein Example. Mid-East Banking. Italian Elections. Irish View of 'Squalid' Caymans. British Virgins. Open for Offshore Business in Nevis or Uruguay. * WEALTH: US IRS - Feeble or Fierce? Bermuda Tax Avoidance Bonanza. Crime & Taxes Down Under. World Consumers Confident. Euro Pickets. American Free Trade Zone? Billions Net Scam. Keep the Change! * PRIVACY: New Computer Privacy Report. ======================================================================= * COMMENT * Anti-Tax Haven Sanctions - What Happens If There Is All Out War? by Bob Bauman, Editor We're getting weary of writing about the OECD and FATF blacklists and those "sanctions" that supposedly will be clamped on world tax havens, come June 30. That was the Paris bureaucrats' self-inflicted deadline chosen a year back when they believed CLINTON-GORE (remember them?) leftist Treasury minions would be in control in Washington, DC. Last June these nervy public relations megaphones for the rich G-7 nations issued arbitrary lists of small nations they accused of being lax on criminal money laundering and/or engaged in nefarious "harmful tax competition." Then, and repeatedly since, the Blacklisted Ones have been threatened with nebulous "sanctions," possibly including severance from world banking and financial systems. As co-conspirators, the Clinton crowd at the US Treasury tried and failed to get congressional approval for this obtuse thuggery. Now a new president named Bush is more or less in control, and still we wait for what should be an easy & resounding official "NO" to the OECD high tax cartel. Absent the US, there's little chance the OECD can impose any meaningful "sanctions," however much the bureaucrat bullies bluster. But what might sanctions look like? How disruptive could they be, if they were indeed imposed on the 35 blacklisted offshore nations. Sovereign Society advisory board member J. Richard DUKE (http://www.assetlaw.com) calls attention to a 2 part article in the April and May issues of the Journal of International Taxation, (available only to subscribers on line). There New York attorney David E. Spencer provides a glimpse of the chaos that could result in world financial markets if the OECD has its perverse way by imposing sanctions on "uncooperative" tax haven nations. Among the OECD suggested sanctions nations might impose; * use of domestic tax laws to deny all deductions, exemptions, allowances and credits for taxpayers or entities doing business in haven nations; * under civil and criminal penalties, require new, extensive reporting of all offshore financial activity; * expansion and strict enforcement of controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules; * levy new withholding taxes on payments or transfers to havens; * increased tax audits of all offshore business activity; * review, repeal and/or refusal of bilateral tax treaties; * special new tariffs on financial activity involving haven nations. In the case of the US and most other nations, all of these radical proposals would require legislative action that is highly unlikely to occur. But imagine what this would do to the international financial world as we now know it. June 30, here we come! LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=3127 http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=2694 http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po40.htm ======================================================================= * OFFSHORE * OFFSHORE TAX SCARE TIME The Los Angeles Times just noticed that the IRS is cracking down on the use of offshore bank accounts to evade income taxes. LINK: http://www.latimes.com/business/20010415/t000031914.html If you have a dirty secret about an offshore trust, FORBES says it may not be too late to fess up and avoid prison. Very interesting! LINK (free reg req): http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0430/136.html And Forbes claims the IRS still does not have those Caribbean bank credit card records[s] ordered by a Miami US Court to be turned over. LINK: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0430/136s01.html And watch out for Internet tax fraud schemes. They're everywhere! LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=3138 ------ O.E.C.D. ILLOGIC EXPOSED JERSEY's Edmund BENDELOW, head of the Offshore Institute, rips the hide off the OECD's economic ignorance. LINK( free reg req): http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=10876&;product_id=2&company_id=2947 ----- LIECHTENSTEIN'S EXAMPLE VADUZ. The Economics minister explains why the principality provides an example of outstanding free market economic freedom. LINK: http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Papers/Buchel-11-00/buchel-11-00.shtml ----- FINANCIAL TIMES SPECIAL REPORTS ON MID-EAST BANKING: account surpluses in Gulf countries are at a phenomenal US$68 billion, compared with a deficit two years ago. LINK: http://surveys.ft.com/mebfi2201/index.html ON THE ITALIAN ELECTIONS: On May 13 will the Right win? LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&;c=Article&cid=FT3PJQKQMKC&live= true ----- IRISH TIMES LOOKS AT CAYMANS An Ansbacher opinion report: "Liberal tax laws transformed a group of squalid islands off Mexico into a wealthy [Irish]man's tax haven." LINK: http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010412004910 ----- B.V.I. CHIEF MINISTER MEETS U.S. GROUP ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands. The CM thinks the new Bush folks in Washington will not back the OECD anti-haven campaign. LINK: http://www.islandsun.com/2001-April/130401/local4-v4i54.html ----- NEVIS FINANCIAL SERVICES BASSETERRE. One of the last of the unrepentant offshore tax havens beckons to you. All the considerable facts at LINK (free reg req): http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=10862&;product_id=2&company_id=983 ----- URUGUAY WANTS YOUR BUSINESS MONTEVIDEO. Not on any blacklist and no taxes, wide open for offshore business and welcomes high net worth expatriates. LINK: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=10746&;product_id=2&company_id=4350 ------ EXPATRIATE OFFSHORE HEALTH INSURANCE Sovereign Society advisor Chris KALIN of Henley & Partner recommends an established health care insurance provider for portable expat insurance. LINK: http://www.newsweekclassified.com/health/advertisers/ihi/ihi.htm Henley & Partner: http://www.henley-partner.com/ ========================================================== * WEALTH * US INTERNAL REVENUE - FEEBLE OR FIERCE? As US annual tax day passes, the IRS is said to be a weak sister forgiving (thank you!) $2.5 billion in back taxes, LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/13/business/13IRS.html And also ready to put the audit screws to many more ordinary Americans. LINK: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,6557,00.html On average, Americans must work until May 3 this year to pay their taxes. After that, what's left is theirs. LINK: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010413/ts/life_taxes_dc_1.html ----- BERMUDA TAX AVOIDANCE BONANZA HAMILTON. How the super rich use Bermuda as a base for the great hedge fund reinsurance tax game. LINK: http://www.iimagazine.com/channel/insurance/20010412000967.htm ----- CRIME & TAXES DOWN UNDER SYDNEY. Australians are said to have had a love affair with crime ever since British convicts kicked off a white settlement 213 years ago with a no-holds-barred orgy. LINK: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/010416/80/bl12q.html But Australia is cracking down on "tax avoidance schemes." LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=3119 JOHANNESBURG. The South African government seems determined to do all it can to discourage badly needed foreign investment. LINK: http://allafrica.com/stories/200104100140.html ------ NO GLOOM ON MAIN OR HIGH STREET World consumers are cheerfully ignoring the gloom on world stock markets. LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&;c=Article&cid=FT3OQRD2LLC&liv ----- U.K. LIBERTARIANS PROTEST EURO Libertarians picket businesspersons who favor the euro. LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000140326706927&;rtmo=QwOwOQ0R&atmo=QwOwOQ0 R&pg=/et/01/4/16/ncand16.html ----- FREE TRADE FOR THE AMERICAS? April 20-22, heads of 33 governments meet in QUEBEC for the Summit of the Americas. Is an American free trade area now possible? LINK: http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=568612 ----- BILLIONS LOST IN NET SCAM LONDON. Investigators shut down a banking scam that used the Internet to sell fake securities and investments estimated at $3.9 billion. LINK: http://www.idg.net/crd_idgsearch_2.html?url=http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/s tory/0,1199,NAV47_STO59548,00.html.html ----- KEEP THE CHANGE! NEW YORK. Calling unneeded attention to himself, a London stock broker leaves a US$16,000 after dinner tip. LINK: http://www.newyorkpost.com/news/regionalnews/041001a.htm ***************ADVERTISEMENT******************** CANCER OUTRAGE! Billion dollar drug company hides astounding discovery of a natural cancer treatment that's 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy - but without the side effects! Deep within the Amazon grows a tree that could literally revolutionize what you, your doctor, and the rest of the world thinks about cancer treatment and chances of survival. The future has never looked more promising. Click here to find out more about this amazing discovery, LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/hsi/ss1 ======================================================================= * PRIVACY * NESTMANN'S NEW COMPUTER PRIVACY REPORT Use a PC to surf the Net & you leave a trail of semi-deleted files and "cookies" that gives those who know where to look a detailed picture of the sites and newsgroups you visit, files you create and a lot more. Here's a new report that reveals practical strategies to protect your PC & Net privacy with Windows-based total file deletion, easy encryption, how to use PGP and steganography (hidden files) and much more. Protect your PC privacy! Click here now, LINK: http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/MNPS/MNPAL1/ ======================================================================= THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER E-mail to: sovereignsociety@compuserve.com * Don't want future mailings? Reply to this with "Remove" in the message subject line. SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at: http://www.sovereignsociety.com/free.html Back issues at: http://www.sovereignsociety.com/a-letter/index.html ======================================================================= THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561 WEB SITE: http://www.sovereignsociety.com Copyright (C) 2001. All domestic & international rights reserved. ******* To REMOVE yourself from this list, send an email to: sovsoc_unsub@agoramail.net or go to our web interface at: http://www.agoramail.net/home.cfm?list=sovsoc
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