The Offshore Myth

It is the position of the IRS in the United States that you may take any and every legal means
- and are encouraged to do so - to pay the absolute least tax due. There are many articles on
the IRS website at www.irs.gov, showing that the same legal structures that are
employed for asset protection and estate planning can also be used to avoid overpaying
taxes.

The site also shows that there are legal methods to invest capital in foreign jurisdictions
which can create less of a tax burden and at the same time create a sound, secure financial
portfolio.

When investigating offshore services, it is important to know the intricacies of foreign
investment tax law: anyone who would tell you that by secretly moving money offshore you
can avoid paying taxes is seriously misleading you. While it may be true that you can invest
financially in other jurisdictions and thereby lower your taxes, you are never the less legally
liable for paying taxes on all taxable income and correctly reporting your financial activities at
tax time. Any offshore specialist or any other "financial authority" who advises you differently
is setting you up to take a fall with an inherent risk of getting caught and incurring both tax
and penalties.

The article entitled "The Dirty Dozen," appears on the IRS website at the following address:

www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=136337,00.html

In a fast skimming of the article, number one in the dirty dozen is "misuse of trusts", and
number four is "Offshore Transactions." If you don´t read exactly what they are talking about
you may erroneously conclude that any offshore transaction is illegal and that private trusts
are instruments to defraud the government. Nothing could be further from the truth. The
President of The United States has offshore trusts set up in the Cayman Islands for his two
daughters. This is disclosed in his financial disclosures papers required for his running for the
office of president.