Thoughts on Offshore banking and avoiding taxes?

What are your thoughts on offshore banking and avoiding taxes? This is a common practice among some of the rich, and many think it is unethical. Is this a fail-proof method, or are many accounts found by tax regulators and the owners of the offshore accounts punished? Thanks for your replies.

The great benefit of offshore banking is When you bank offshore you can save in different currencies and convert money from one currency to another easily. Also banking offshore could be a tax efficient way to manage your money. Certain offshore banking center has not taxes on the fund invested. For example in Singapore.

The only sure way to avoid taxes ultimately is using anonymous banking, always in offshore jurisdictions with lax regulation. Although it is an expensive and hard to come by option it is still out there, creative accountants and private bankers may refer you to banks with increased confidentiality which tell you that your information is only shared with senior management and no one else but as soon as the tax man comes knocking you can bet that the information is freely disclosed. The only other publicly acknowledged option is nominee banking which is flawed not to mention risky, and the ultimate owner is always a requirement.

I have found a few places that claim to offer anonymous banking, one company that would refer me to an appropriate bank however they required ID and another place that wanted 50% of whatever was deposited to the account!

I doubt we will find somewhere on the internet because banks can't advertise it otherwise no other bank would deal with them, but if anyone does know of anything - let me know! ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Investor

The only sure way to avoid taxes ultimately is using anonymous banking, always in offshore jurisdictions with lax regulation. Although it is an expensive and hard to come by option it is still out there, creative accountants and private bankers may refer you to banks with increased confidentiality which tell you that your information is only shared with senior management and no one else but as soon as the tax man comes knocking you can bet that the information is freely disclosed. The only other publicly acknowledged option is nominee banking which is flawed not to mention risky, and the ultimate owner is always a requirement.

I have found a few places that claim to offer anonymous banking, one company that would refer me to an appropriate bank however they required ID and another place that wanted 50% of whatever was deposited to the account!

I doubt we will find somewhere on the internet because banks can't advertise it otherwise no other bank would deal with them, but if anyone does know of anything - let me know! ;)

---

The only way a bank account can be anonymous is if your name is not in the account. There are no "offshore jurisdictions with lax regulation" or black lists anymore. What we have is some non cooperative countries such as Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, Vanuatu, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Uruguay, with tighter banking regulations than anyplace else but don't have requirements such as reporting accounts to a local Central bank or the tax authority since bank accounts and investment accounts do not pay taxes.

The tax man knocking at your door will trigger the other country's disclosure of information if both countries have signed a TEIA or MLAT. And in cases of crimes such as drug trafficking, child pornography or cyber crime. In the case of MLAT for the Mutual legal assistance to be triggered, the action must be a crime in both countries.