October 2008 Archives

The 2008 U.S. election campaign is heating up. We encourage every U.S. citizen overseas to act now so that your vote is counted in the November 2008 presidential and general elections. The official U.S. Government web site for overseas absentee voting assistance is the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) web site at: www.fvap.gov

If you need help Voting: www.canivote.org. Or, here's a site that will take you step-by-step through the process of registering to vote, requesting an absentee ballot, and receiving your Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot: www.votefromabroad.org

Our recommendation for the best site to find out the positions of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on key election issues: BBC News Issues Guide

Offshore Living & Investing, by David A. Tanzer - Going offshore offers exciting opportunities for international investing, risk management, portfolio diversification, privacy, tax minimization, asset protection, dual citizenship, and much, much more. Understanding foreign currency trends, the new world of offshore banking, and how to use international trusts are essential. Understanding the financial benefits and legal burdens when going offshore is important when exploring new horizons. Order Offshore Living & Investing

If you are an entrepreneur and thinking about doing business offshore, you are faced with a choice between an unincorporated branch operation, a foreign LLC or IBC or corporation that is treated as a foreign corporation for U.S. tax purposes or any of these entities that might be treated as either a disregarded entity or foreign partnership for U.S. tax purposes. In some cases, you might also want to have your foreign entity owned by a foreign trust.

On October 25th, three international tax experts from True Partners Consulting will join Vern Jacobs of Offshore Press at the Las Vegas Hilton Resort to explain these choices to those who attend. One of these experts is from England and will explain how the U.K. and E.U. tax laws affect the use of different kinds of entities.

Continue reading Offshore Investing Workshop

The US financial rescue plan will benefit Bermuda's insurance industry, according to John Kephart, president and CEO of Capital G Bank in Bermuda, and the removal of sub-prime mortgage securities was positive for the Island's re/insurance market.

I've lost count of the number of offshore debit card products that I've seen come and go. In my office there's a stack of dead cards, some with money left on them. Fortunately for me, neither I nor any of my clients, have ever lost any significant amount of money, from debit card failure, but I can tell you a few nightmares, about seemingly good offshore debit cards.

The veil of Swiss banking secrecy is quietly being lifted -- by Switzerland. Switzerland's tax authorities, under pressure from a growing United States investigation into the Swiss bank giant UBS, are expected to hand over confidential data on wealthy American clients of UBS to the Justice Department, two people briefed on the matter said Tuesday.