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To: Southack

"I presume that you understand what that means if you had any money down in Argentina today..."

Argentina is a non-issue, as regards the vast majority of expats.  I know many expats in several countries and I can assure you that none of them would have had money invested in Argentina.  After all, Argentina is not now and never has been considered a haven nation.

Primary haven nations for American expats are nations such as:

Those are just a few.  But, it demonstrates the type of mostly stable countries where most American expats are investing.  Also, most of those countries, with one notable exception, rate higher on the various freedom scales than the good ole US of A.

I did include Panama, because some wealthy Americans, who are still here, put a portion of their money in Panama, because of the extreme secrecy of Panamanian Private Interest Foundations and the fact that it will be very difficult for the US government to make such vehicles illegal, without adversely affecting other foundations that they want to protect.  Panama also has a very large expat community that helps fund the nation, so regardless of who is running the country, it behooves them to protect those expats.

I included Cuba, because there is tons of money being made there by Europeans, while US citizens are prohibited from such investments.  It may be considered risky.  But, most investors in Cuba only invest a small portion of their wealth there.  Most investors do believe, however, that whoever is invested there when Castro dies will soon find themselves extremely wealthy.  But, that will certainly not include any American citizens.

Nevis is primarily a banking center.  It the smaller of the two islands that form the single nation of Nevis and St. Kitts.  Nevis has very little commerce, other than banking.  St. Kitts, on the other hand, has a small banking sector and more exports.  Neither seems to offer enough to attract Americans to live there.  Until recently, Nevis was one of the very best banking centers for privacy.  But, last year, they did make some concessions to the totalitarian OECD.  Still, they rank quite high as a banking center.

Notice also, that to US citizens, even high-tax jurisdictions like Canada and the United Kingdom are considered havens.  That is because they don't tax the offshore income of their citizens, like the US does.  But, the Inland Revenue of the UK is taking lessons from the IRS, so the UK may not last long as a haven for Americans.  After all, most wealthy expats are more concerned about privacy than taxes.

The best general advice seems to be to spread your wealth around, thus eliminating the possibility of losing everything due to a single event.  But, that only works if you are not a US citizen.  Remember, as a US citizen, your money isn't safe anywhere, if the government wants it.

So you see, offshore isn't really so scary, after all.  It only requires a little common sense.

 

39 posted on 04/22/2002 9:05:57 PM PDT by Action-America
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To: Action-America
You do realize that Cuba, Ireland, Panama, and Italy have all, just off the top of my head, engaged in mass confiscations and even wholesale nationalization of foreign assets in the past, I presume.

So much for "haven" countries...

46 posted on 04/22/2002 10:24:19 PM PDT by Southack
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