Offshore Banking, Investment & Savings News and Advice for Expatriates

There’s a story doing the rounds about a French software engineer called Hervé Falciani who has apparently stolen banking records from HSBC’s private bank in Switzerland.  The alleged ‘offence’ took place three years ago, but the man in question has been taking his time in selling the information on to the likes of HMRC because of facing prosecution in Switzerland.

He has avoided prosecution by moving to the South of France, and is being hailed by some as a modern day Robin Hood.  However, the man is certainly benefitting substantially from his crime in the form of cash paid for data stolen – and so he has not stolen the records for the good of anyone’s health other than his own.

According to the Times, HMRC is about to get its hands on records relating to British customers who hold accounts at HSBC in Switzerland – and I doubt that they are acquiring them for nothing from Hervé Falciani.  So, what does this tell us?  Well, on the one hand, if you’ve been using a private bank account with HSBC in Switzerland to evade taxation you need to be worried – and on the other hand it tells us that our government says that theft is a lesser crime than tax evasion.  Personally I find that very, very hard to stomach…

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I’m going to let you in to a little secret.  At Shelter Offshore, as you know, we help people with their financial enquiries every day.  We have a dedicated team of offshore experts on hand to assist with everything from an offshore bank account to QROPS, from health and life insurance to complete wealth management…but ever so occasionally we get an email through directly asking us whether an offshore bank account can be used as a tax shelter.

These enquiries tend to be from those in high tax countries or expats about to move to a high tax country – and of course the answer is pretty much always a straight ‘no’ because you know that these people are seeking to avoid or evade their legitimate tax liability.

However, there is a case for using an offshore bank account when you are an expat – and depending on your circumstances, such as where you live, work, earn and remit money, you may very well be able to legitimately reduce your taxation liability.  And a tool in your armoury will be your offshore bank account.  Confused?  Don’t be, allow us to explain…

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Are you a so called ‘trailing spouse’ or accompanying partner, are you moving abroad for the sake of your family, have you taken time out of your career to help your husband and family move abroad to find a better life?

If so, you’re a woman who cares more about others than yourself – and this is absolutely typical of most women.  We will put our careers on hold to help our husbands – and we’d put our whole lives on hold if it helped our children…

However, the trouble is, in so doing we damage our long-term financial health.  So, in this report I’m going to show you how we can stop expatriate women getting the worst financial deal, without undermining their integrity or asking them to turn their backs on their family.  If you’re a woman or you’re the significant other of an expat woman, this article is for you – it will show you how expatriate woman can still get a better deal when it comes to retirement than their onshore counterparts.

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