Offshore Investing

I would never tell anybody that offshore investing is a scam. It isn't in itself, but a lot of scams do revolve around it.

People have been taking money offshore to avoid taxes for more than 80 years, ever since the U.S. started charging income tax. If you don't know what offshore means, I will tell you.

When you have money in the United States, of course there are going to be taxes due on income and investments. People can take the money to other countries, (this is called offshore), where the money can grow tax-free and without the U.S. government's interference.

There are numerous locations in the Caribbean, Europe and even Central America that allow money to be kept without any fees whatsoever charged by the local government. These are called offshore havens. Offshore Havens include Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Nevis (an island off the coast of Miami), the Bahamas and, of course, the Cayman Islands.

Laws differ greatly among these countries, and some are better than others for keeping your money. In some cases you may have an offshore trust set up on the Isle of Grand Cayman and your actual money on the Isle of Nevis. This is what many drug dealers and people with large fortunes do to hide their funds and keep them out of the hands of the government, courts and the law.

I personally don't have any funds offshore. There are legal ways to take money offshore, but you are supposed to pay taxes on every dollar you make. Don't fall for people telling you that you don't have to pay taxes if the Government doesn't know about it. You have to pay taxes on every dollar that you make. It doesn't matter where.

Plus, you must sneak around and you can't just write a check or go get your money in 20 minutes. You have to have it go through a corporation and then this offshore trust that you set up.

There is also an issue of trust. Your money may be kept under the name of a Panamanian resident with accounts in the isle of Jersey off the coast of England. There is only one person that I trust with my money. ME!

Matt Gagnon