Jul 29

Offshore financial centres are every where. The following jurisdictions could be considered to be “market leading” financial centres for various reasons.

Bahama offshore centre

Bermuda offshore financial centre

British virgin islands offshore financial centre

Cayman islands offshore financial centre

Gibraltar offshore financial centre centre

Luxembourg offshore financial centre

Panama financial centre

Guernsey offshore centre

Isle of man financial centre

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 28

I just got got the following email in my in-box attacking the idea stock market deliver? big returns in the long term. It describes how investors end up losing money in the long term.

1997 – Child received $5,000.00 from grandmother’s estate. Invested with  Investment Co. 1

2000 – $5,000 investment at $4200.00 – Taken from Investment Co 1 and put with Investment Co 2

2003 – $5,000 is now $3,000.00.

Taken from Investment Co 2, child’s parents added $2,000 to bring same up to $5,000.00.Given to Investment Co 3 (after being advised about the strategy of dollar averaging)

2009 – $5,000.00 Investment is now 12 years old. Worth $5300.00.

Most of us can’t get our heads around six and seven figures but all of us can see what happened to this $5,000.00. Shows what fools we’ve been to believe the blather from the “stocks are great”, crowd. The only people who made money on this kid’s investment were the Bernie Madoff’s etc who charged the child and his parents for “investing” for them. The family would have been better off putting the money in a tin can in the dog house.

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Jul 27

Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming are tax havens on American soil. These states are like onshore Cayman island a place where a corporation sets up a shell company to minimise its tax liabilities.

Delaware is home to 6,500 companies. Many of them are empty shells. They make nothing and sometimes employ just a lone clerk. But all are there for the same reason: to help corporations avoid paying taxes in other states.

Corporations are allowed to establish these shell companies in Delaware, as well as in Nevada and Wyoming.

Typically, they then transfer to these subsidiaries ownership of things like trademarks, patents and investments. Delaware does not tax holding companies set up to own and collect income from such lucrative intangible assets.

The parent companies of these shells usually pay royalties to the Delaware subsidiaries to lease back those assets. By doing so, they can claim income tax deductions in states where they actually do business. The shells also funnel profit, tax free, back to their parents, in the form of dividends and loans.

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 25

Offshore asset protection is a necessity for financial planning.

Offshore asset protection will provide you privacy. Your rights to privacy are all gone in several nations. Asset Protection secure an investor against future predatory litigation. (Based on latest findings, If you earn $50,000 a year or more, you will be sued an average of seven times in your life and this number is growing.

Offshore asset protection is utilised by debtors running away from creditors, Spouse hiding assets from partners during separation and divorce and any one who feels he may be sued by predatory litigants.

Offshore Asset Protection Strategy

The common asset protection strategy is the formation of a offshore trust. The trust can be set up by a lawyer with a good knowledge of trust formation.

Another offshore protection strategy is formation of a international business corporation (IBC). An IBC can hold assets in a safe, secure financial center. At the same time, an IBC also allows the owner to retain 100% control of assets. An IBC’s assets are extremely private.

Anyone considering offshore asset protection needs to talk to his lawyer, financail advisor in choosing the appropriate strategy.

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 24

Investor going offshore should consider the following Important factors that will guarantee a safe offshore centre. A desirable offshore centre  should : -

  1. Have a history of rule of law
  2. Politically neutral,
  3. Follow a policy of free trade,
  4. Not interfere with the commercial activities of corporations established there,
  5. Provide reasonable assurances of personal and corporate privacy.
  6. Converse in English Language,
  7. High quality of telecommunications,
  8. Availability of professional infrastructure,

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 23

Offshore banking provides an investor an opportunity to reduce his tax liabilities in his home country.

Offshore banking could have tax benefits, as interest earned on offshore account could be paid without tax being deducted. And if you were to transfer your current savings and investments offshore, you may also be in a position to further reduce your capital gains tax liability in the USA.

Companies set up subsidiaries in offshore centres such as cayman islands and benefit from low to no tax jurisdiction. If the same subsidiary was set up in say london it would be liable to british taxation.

Its not just companies that can set up offshore companies even individual can set up corporation to manage their global income sources.

If you think you pay alot in taxes you might seriously consider banking your money with an offshore bank. Talk with your personal financail advisor.

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 22

Numbered bank accounts are offered by Swiss banks. This mean the owner of the bank account is identified by the special number rather than his/her name. The number gives the owner some level of anonymity.

Typically the account will also have a codename attached to it for the convenience of both the banker and customer. This avoids confusion between banker and customer as to which account is being discussed. The feature of numbered accounts is that the customer’s name does not appear on bank statements. Only the number and code-name appear. This means that if bank statements are lost or stolen, it will not be immediately obvious as to who is behind the account.

In the case of a numbered account, the customer’s identity will only be known to a small group of people in the bank, on a “need to know” basis. Also the customer’s name does not appear on the bank’s computer thus preserving confidentiality in the case of cybercrime.

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 21

Banking money offshore was intially done by expatriates working and living abroad. Banking offshore gave them advantage of tax benefits, as interest earned on offshore account could be paid without tax being deducted.

Other general benefits not limited to expatriate account holders may include

  1. Offshore bank account helps in reducing tax liability in your home country.
  2. Asset protection
  3. Estate planning,
  4. Privacy and confidentiality
  5. Better interest returns
  6. The chance to exploit active business interests overseas in low to no taxation jurisdictions
  7. Global access to assets and income.

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 18

I was reading 2006 Yahoo valuation of facebook at Techcrunch and comparing the numbers then and now and my conclusion was that predicting performance of internet business is a vodoo science rather then reality.

Back in 2006, Yahoo offered to buy facebook for a $ 1 billion which was rejected.The $ 1 billion valuation was based on the following assumption.

They projected $608 million in Facebook revenue by 2009, growing to $969 million in 2010. By 2015 Yahoo projected that Facebook would generate nearly $1 billion in annual profit. These revenue projections were based on robust user growth. By 2010, Yahoo assumed Facebook would hit 48 million users, out of a total combined highschool and young adult population of 83 million.

Fast forward to 2009, facebook registered users stood at 200 million with an estimated revenues of between $ 250 million – $ 300 million. The internet company is yet to show profit. But some people still believe in facebook, In 2007 Microsoft invested $ 240 million valuing the company at $ 15 billion. Two years later some Russians invested $ 100 million valuing the company at $ 10 billion.Can it get any lower….

written by Buffet Stocks \\ tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul 16

Yahoo finance  had this headline 9 reasons why the economy is not getting better. The article was evidence of what I believe the $ 700 billion stimulus wont work because if you look at Japan, Japan has been stimulating its economy since 1990s and they have never returned to any noteworthy growth. Japan has been a limping giant for the last 20 years.

Back to why USA economic recovery remains elusive. This is a summary of the lengthy article

Job Losses keep rising

Every data published from the US indicates more job losses.

Workers are working shorter hours.

Those who are stilling at work are working less because their is less work to do. This means low productivity.

Rolls of part timers are on the rise

Workers working part-time are on the rise.

The stimulus has been a waste.

A lot of stimulus cash has gone into Medicaid, jobless benefits, and the like–that do nothing for jobs and growth. The spending that creates new jobs is new spending, particularly on infrastructure. It amounts to less than 10 percent of the stimulus package today.

Lastly

Americans are creating the recession themselves

They say perception is reality. About 40 percent of US citizens believe the recession will continue for another full year. Its funny that in life what believe tends to turn to be true.

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