Why Americans Shouldn’t Go Offshore

Unfortunately we receive multiple requests on a daily basis from Americans living abroad as well as those who are resident in the US and who want to discover ways they can benefit from going offshore.  The requests are mostly straightforward and legitimate queries about where one can source better interest rates offshore for example.

The unfortunate part is that we cannot assist anyone who is American, no matter where in the world they live, and we cannot assist anyone living in America, no matter where in the world they herald from.  The reason is simply because subsequent American governments, in their so-called war on tax evasion, have eroded the rights of their citizens completely.

It seems American governments – whether republican or democrat - want to wage war on everything from Iraq, Afghanistan, terror and tax evasion to their own citizen’s freedom of choice.  In this article we’re going to explain once and for all why Americans shouldn’t go offshore – particularly in light of a new bill that strips even greater choice from Americans and is incredibly threatening to those who do have legitimate assets offshore.

America purports to be the freest country in the world – where democracy, liberty and freedom of choice as well as voice are upheld as the rights and values that all society must fight for if needs be.  When these values were apparently threatened on American soil, a war on terror was waged and has been fought ever since – in part, possibly to unite all Americans against an invisible enemy in a bid to hoodwink them into believing everything their government does from now on is for the benefit of the American people.

Unfortunately, as an outsider, it’s incredibly easy to see that actually America is one of the most restrictive nations on earth where the government control the people’s freedom of choice and where a culture of fear has been bred into the common man so that they implicitly trust the word of the government without question.  And so successful has this method of approach been in the States that all freedom, when it comes to money, has now been eroded.

Americans, whether they live in America or anywhere abroad, have to report absolutely everything, fiscally speaking, to American authorities.  Anyone who goes to live in America – no matter where they originally herald from – has to declare everything about themselves, fiscally speaking, to American authorities.  There is no privacy, there is no confidentiality and there is no legitimate way to go offshore - either personally by becoming an expatriate, or in terms of moving your assets and income to another country – and save on taxation.  America owns you, it owns your wealth, it owns your rights and it is why Americans should not go offshore – because there is absolutely no sense and no point in them doing so.

A new bill has been put proposed by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and it rams home this message even more spectacularly and comprehensively!  The bill proposes the following: -

1) Force foreign banks operating in America to disclose American customers’ names and annual account balances or face a 30% tax on the bank’s entire income from US assets.
2) Force all Americans with more than $50,000 in foreign assets to declare their holdings in their tax return or face a penalty of up to $50,000.
3) Those who make a mistake on their tax return regarding offshore assets to be hit with a penalty equivalent to 40% of the amount by which they reduced the value of their assets.
4) A minimum of a $10,000 fine for failing to report transactions involving foreign trusts in your tax return.
5) All offshore corporates to be forced to disclose the identity of any individual or group holding 10% of a shell companies shares.

This just serves to take the erosion of freedom one stage further – this time it even impacts those foreign institutions operating on America’s shores and proves that America is all about protectionism at any cost to its own citizens and at any cost to its own competitiveness as an international centre of business.  As an outsider it is startling to see this giant of a nation lurching away from the principles it once fought to uphold above all else – namely those of freedom.  Where all this will end is anyone’s guess – but suffice to say, if you’re an American, you have no freedom of choice when it comes to the honest management of your money.