Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Offshore Information
Offshore formation is something we learned a little about in econ class my freshman year of college. We learned that offshore banking is just an account that is held outside the lines of your country. It is free to due and is normally located in a low tax jurisdiction. This way you could be earning interest while no taxes (or low taxes) are being taken out it your account offshore. I also learned about a lot of other benefits that include: freedom and leeway in estate planning, confidentiality and privacy, better interest on tax returns and global access to income. One thing that I think is appealing to a lot of people is that you don't have to actually go to or visit the country in which you wish to open or access your account. You can open and access and manage your account through the internet (which is basically how most people do it here anyways with normal checking or savings accounts), fax or telephone.
When we were learning about offshore banking we had to look into two different companies: the Belize Company and the BVI Company. BVI is the British Virgin Islands Offshore Corporation. This corporation provides flexibility, privacy, tax exemption, confidentiality and minimum capitalization. The Belize Company is basically similar to BVI.
We basically looked online to find out information for both of these companies and they actually had really detailed websites and even we were able to understand most of what they were talking about and explaining. We took a look at the frequently asked questions page and it included a lot of interesting facts. They explain about tax exemptions and interest and how to plan your estate if that is what you are using offshore banking for. It really goes into detail and captures most of the questions that you could imagine people would ask or have asked in the past.
Even though I have never thought of before this project or really even heard of offshore bank accounts (other than on TV or in the movies I guess) I feel like I have learned a lot from having to learn about them in class and looking into them more online. Maybe one day I will need to open one in the future (or someone I know) and now I know just a little bit more than I did before about them.
Mike @ 7:29 AM