These days tax hungry governments and their storm trooper tax collectors are doing there very best to impose laws that imprison taxpayers at home where they conveniently can be plucked like a goose. See Obama’s latest taxpayer plucking plans here.
Which Exit?
The richest citizens of the American State of New Jersey, who in the past generated most of the tax revenue, have been fleeing the state, a new university study shows. As reported in The Star-Ledger (Newark), the total aggregate personal net worth of New Jersey's residents fell by $70 billion between 2004 and 2008 -- a sharp reversal of a net $98 billion inflow that had occurred during the previous five years.
Guess why?
New Jersey has some of the highest real estate and income taxes in the nation and its death tax is imposed on estates in excess of $675,000. These rich folks know that many other States don’t tax income or estates at all, and property valuations and tax rates are much less, (just like many offshore tax havens).
Tax Haven Attacks
It’s not a full-scale migration yet, but it appears that many insurers and re-insurers are leaving their sunny southern Atlantic and Caribbean island homes and heading for Europe, often "re-domesticating," as the phrase goes, in Ireland -- which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU.
XL Group announced that it was leaving the Cayman Islands and setting sail for the Emerald Isle. Last September, the world’s third largest insurance broker, Willis Group Holdings, announced that it was moving from Bermuda to Ireland. Ace Limited, which was the biggest Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer, jumped ship in 2008 headed for Switzerland. CEO Evan Greenberg was crystal clear about the reason: Switzerland offered more stability and a "network of tax treaties."
The tax free haven of Bermuda long has been home to reinsurers that provided huge pools of liquid capital that backed up the domestic American property insurers when disaster such as 2005’s Hurricane Katrina hit. But now Bermuda is being made into a villain with President Obama’s new populist rhetoric and public anger at huge executive bonuses.
Business Week warns that, "Anti-tax legislation in Washington could limit the ability of U.S. companies located in Bermuda to shelter overseas profits." Obama's trillion dollar deficit budget released on Jan. 31 denies U.S.-based insurance companies a major deduction for certain premiums ceded to their offshore parents.Why this insurance migration to safer climbes? See above.
Go East
In the last days of the British Labour Party’s waning power, PM Gordon Brown, in radical election mode, is chasing after what remains of wealth in Britain with new confiscatory taxes on income and bonuses.
Under Brown’s direction Customs & Revenue also is hunting down offshore accounts and even trying to impose retroactive taxes on trusts going back decades.
No wonder the talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last weekend was of the best addresses in Geneva and Zurich. The Swiss real estate industry is preparing to accommodate U.K. bankers and hedge fund managers disgruntled by political and public censure of their pay and bonuses, and the 50% rate of income tax on incomes above £150,000, (US$234,000) which takes effect on April 6.
But it's not only financial sector executives who are viewing homes overlooking the lakes or near the slopes. Highly paid staff at non-financial businesses are also interested in Switzerland's benign tax system. The income tax rate in the canton of Zug, for example, is about 10%.
Singapore, Switzerland of Asia
But Switzerland is not the last stop on the world money movement trail.
With the U.S. IRS attacking Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, for more than a year now, even many Swiss depositors are beyond nervous.
Rich individuals from Europe and the Middle East are moving money from Switzerland to Asia, says Renato de Guzman, head of private banking at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. "It's a favorable trend," Guzman says. "Having a Singapore bank with no ties to Switzerland is an attractive proposition for a lot of them." (And the bank secrecy law is just as good).
Guzman is trying to capitalize on wealthy clients seeking to shift funds from UBS AG and other Swiss banks amid a dispute with the U.S. on disclosing client data to the IRS.
UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel said this month that it's "imperative" Switzerland's biggest bank halt withdrawals. Net redemptions by wealthy clients at UBS accelerated in the third quarter, bringing the total to 182.9 billion francs ($US179 billion) over 18 months and undermining profit at the bank.
On the Move
There are many current threats that logically should prod Americans to move cash, assets and even themselves to other much freer places – places other then Obama’s socialized America.
One scary example: the not so quiet move by radical Democrats to "pull an Argentina" and confiscate all U.S. private pensions.
The news stories I’ve cited above demonstrate how thinking people can stay abreast of many threats, how they and you can react with legal relocation of wealth, assets, investments -- even by moving your business, yourself and your family.
We Are Specialists
All of these offshore personal and financial havens are areas of expertise in which the Sovereign Society has specialized since our founding 12 years ago.
Look around you. What threats do you see? The chances are excellent that we can advise you on what to do – and how it can be accomplished quickly. Act now.
The Passport Book
If you are interested in obtaining dual citizenship and the second passport that comes with that enhanced status, you can learn about every aspect of what is required in the latest 2009 edition of my book, The Passport Book.
The Passport Book is one of our most popular publications, also lists almost 100 countries and explains the residence and citizenship requirements of each, along with contacts.
The Sovereign Society also provides its members contact information for qualified professionals who can assist you in acquiring second citizenship based on naturalization, ancestry, marriage, religion, or even past political persecution by some nations -- and they do it the legal way.
I've seen a lot of chatter about wealthy Americans pulling up stakes and going for alternative citizenships and residencies. Your article is very helpful. thanks
Posted by: JadeDragon | February 13, 2010 at 11:27 PM