By Erika Nolan, Publisher, The Sovereign Society
The right offshore legal structure can offer many benefits: asset protection, financial privacy, tax savings and access to a wider world of investments.
Yet if your structure is not “compliant,” you risk losing these benefits and worse. You could face significant fines from the IRS and, in the extreme, even jail time.
Fortunately, in June, the IRS announced that taxpayers with offshore investments have through Aug. 31 to disclose previously unreported foreign account holdings. This means Americans have an opportunity to participate in a new “voluntary disclosure initiative” in order to get current on their tax returns without risking jail time.
The IRS has such specific reporting requirements for offshore investments and if you don’t know which forms you’re responsible for submitting you risk making an innocent mistake. Here’s a checklist so your offshore structure is helping you build and protect your wealth and not putting you in legal jeopardy.
Five Steps to Make Sure Your
Offshore Structure is in Good Standing
The truth is, it’s all too easy to run afoul of the U.S. taxman by under-reporting and misfiling the proper returns. So a key principle to keep in mind is that if you should suspect your offshore structure may not be compliant, take quick action to correct any mistakes before the IRS comes a knocking.
Here’s a quick checklist to help you do that...
1. Have Your Offshore Structures Reviewed Annually
Put as much emphasis on your annual financial review as you would for your annual physical.
Prevention is key. Don’t get caught in a bad spot because the tax code has changed - impacting your offshore structures - while you are left in the dark. And don’t assume that a non-U.S. professional will remember which U.S. IRS forms must be submitted. It is up to you to ensure that the taxman gets everything on time and accurately filed.
2. Work with an International Tax Attorney - Not a CPA or Accountant
If you have any concerns about reporting requirements, work with someone who specializes in international structures and tax reporting.
Make certain your offshore structure is 100% compliant. It’s never a good feeling to realize you’ve run afoul of the taxman. But the fate of your finances is in your hands. Rather than run the risk of increased penalties or the threat of an IRS shakedown - be proactive. Chances are, your structures are in good standing. But it pays to know for sure. Obtain the expertise of a licensed professional as well as the time honored principle of attorney-client privilege.
3. If You Discover Under-Reported Income - Seek Criminal Tax Counsel Immediately
U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens are required to report their world-wide income annually. If your international tax consultant believes you have inadvertently violated IRS reporting requirements, seek criminal tax counsel as soon as possible.
Under no circumstances should you, yourself, go to the IRS directly to resolve your situation!
Criminal tax attorneys understand the necessary process to resolve most reporting mistakes. Their job is to represent you before the IRS and to work quickly and efficiently to ensure that your structure is fully compliant.
If you can prove reasonable cause and/or the absence of willful neglect for your failure to file the returns, you may be able to avoid penalties.
In a best-case scenario, all you’d be liable for is back taxes plus interest. (Keep in mind, income must be reported in the year it was earned.)
4. Have Your Legal Counsel Hire an Accountant
By allowing your legal counsel to hire a CPA - you will greatly streamline the reporting process. In most situations, you will be required to provide documentation for up to three years (or as much as six years if you have made any mistakes that could be construed as tax fraud).
For example, say you established an offshore trust in 2003. You believed that your offshore trustee was filing the IRS Form 3520A each year. Yet four years later, during a routine conversation, you discover (much to your surprise) that they never filed the form. In order to correct this mistake you would need to go back to the 2003 tax year and file all the necessary documents from that point forward.
Keep in mind that failure to file the form 3520A or 3520 could lead the IRS to assess a 35% penalty against the value of your trust assets.
5. Don’t Liquidate an Offshore Structure Until You Take Care of Delinquent Tax Forms and Penalties
Disbanding an offshore structure will not help you avoid trouble. If the IRS discovers that you’ve closed a non-compliant structure without first getting it compliant, they could bring criminal charges against you.
But there is a silver lining ...
The government wants to encourage voluntary tax compliance. So even though the IRS has the right to file criminal charges against anyone who is non-compliant, you can minimize this threat by initiating contact with the agency.
And remember, you are facing an important deadline: Aug. 31, 2011 if you or a loved one needs to apply for amnesty.
In Wealth & Prosperity,
Erika Nolan
Publisher, Sovereign Society
El Conquistqdor Francisco de Orellana
The Conquistador who put the Amazaon baisn "on the map"....Francisco Orellana
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
The US Government will use any reason to confiscate your gold.....again!
Do think the government does not want controll of your gold? Do you think the gold confiscation that occrued in the 1930s could not happen again? Read on......
By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 22 hrs ago
A jeweler's heirs are fighting the United States government for the right to keep a batch of rare and valuable "Double Eagle" $20 coins that date back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration. It's just the latest coin controversy to make headlines.
Philadelphian Joan Langbord and her sons say they found the 10 coins in 2003 in a bank deposit box kept by Langbord's father, Israel Switt, a jeweler who died in 1990. But when they tried to have the haul authenticated by the U.S. Treasury, the feds, um, flipped.
They said the coins were stolen from the U.S. Mint back in 1933, and are the government's property. The Treasury Department seized the coins, and locked them away at Fort Knox. The court battle is set to kick off this week.
The rare coins (pictured), first struck in 1850, show a flying eagle on one side and a figure representing liberty on the other. One such coin recently sold at auction for $7.6 million, meaning the Langbords' trove could be worth as much as $80 million.
The coins are part of a batch that were struck but then melted down after President Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933, during the Great Depression. Two were given to the Smithsonian Institution*, but a few more mysteriously escaped.
The government has long believed that Switt schemed with a corrupt cashier at the Mint to swipe the coins. They note that the deposit box in which the coins were found was rented six years after Switt's death, and that the family never paid inheritance tax on the coins.
A lawyer for the Langbords counters that the coins could have left the Mint legally since it was permissible to swap gold coins for gold bullion.
Authorities in the Roosevelt era twice looked into Switt's coin dealings, including his possession of Double Eagle coins. In 1944, Switt's license to deal scrap gold was revoked.
The battle over the Double Eagles is hardly the only recent coin contretemps. Two British metal-detecting enthusiasts are said to be locked in a bitter dispute over how to divide the profits from a horde of Iron Age gold coins that they unearthed together in eastern England in 2008.
And an 80-year-old California man was jailed in 2009 after allegedly hitting another man in the head with a metal pipe and firing a gun at a third man during a dispute over missing gold coins.
Some coin disputes involve more than wrangling over valuable collectors' items. In 2007, Secret Service and FBI agents raided an Indiana company called Liberty Dollar, in a bid to stamp out illegal currency. The firm was making "Ron Paul Silver Dollars," in honor of Rep. Ron Paul, whose presidential campaign advocates bringing back the gold standard.
And since we're talking about coins, here's a list of the ten most valuable coins you might find in your pocket change.
By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 22 hrs ago
A jeweler's heirs are fighting the United States government for the right to keep a batch of rare and valuable "Double Eagle" $20 coins that date back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration. It's just the latest coin controversy to make headlines.
Philadelphian Joan Langbord and her sons say they found the 10 coins in 2003 in a bank deposit box kept by Langbord's father, Israel Switt, a jeweler who died in 1990. But when they tried to have the haul authenticated by the U.S. Treasury, the feds, um, flipped.
They said the coins were stolen from the U.S. Mint back in 1933, and are the government's property. The Treasury Department seized the coins, and locked them away at Fort Knox. The court battle is set to kick off this week.
The rare coins (pictured), first struck in 1850, show a flying eagle on one side and a figure representing liberty on the other. One such coin recently sold at auction for $7.6 million, meaning the Langbords' trove could be worth as much as $80 million.
The coins are part of a batch that were struck but then melted down after President Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933, during the Great Depression. Two were given to the Smithsonian Institution*, but a few more mysteriously escaped.
The government has long believed that Switt schemed with a corrupt cashier at the Mint to swipe the coins. They note that the deposit box in which the coins were found was rented six years after Switt's death, and that the family never paid inheritance tax on the coins.
A lawyer for the Langbords counters that the coins could have left the Mint legally since it was permissible to swap gold coins for gold bullion.
Authorities in the Roosevelt era twice looked into Switt's coin dealings, including his possession of Double Eagle coins. In 1944, Switt's license to deal scrap gold was revoked.
The battle over the Double Eagles is hardly the only recent coin contretemps. Two British metal-detecting enthusiasts are said to be locked in a bitter dispute over how to divide the profits from a horde of Iron Age gold coins that they unearthed together in eastern England in 2008.
And an 80-year-old California man was jailed in 2009 after allegedly hitting another man in the head with a metal pipe and firing a gun at a third man during a dispute over missing gold coins.
Some coin disputes involve more than wrangling over valuable collectors' items. In 2007, Secret Service and FBI agents raided an Indiana company called Liberty Dollar, in a bid to stamp out illegal currency. The firm was making "Ron Paul Silver Dollars," in honor of Rep. Ron Paul, whose presidential campaign advocates bringing back the gold standard.
And since we're talking about coins, here's a list of the ten most valuable coins you might find in your pocket change.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
We’re Number One: More Reasons for the Decline of the American Empire
Reckoning from Baltimore, Maryland...
You will not find today's Daily Reckoning much to your liking. Because it creeps upon an idea that will probably make you feel uncomfortable. At least, that is the effect it has on us.
But first, the latest news from the world of money.
Yesterday, the Dow fell 12 points. Gold shot up $30. And oil is headed back towards $100.
Gold refuses to go down. Stocks refuse to go up. But over the last ten years, gold has gone up big-time, while stocks have gone nowhere.
Why? Because America topped out in 1999.
We went to church on Sunday. The church was built in the 1860s by a group of Maryland Episcopalian planters who were breaking away from a pro-Union parish. Physically, it is a marvelous example of 'carpenter gothic' architecture from the mid-19th century.
Since we had been living in Europe for the last 15 years, we had few opportunities to attend our local church. But it once played an important role in our lives. Our family went every Sunday, and your editor was an altar boy for several years.
So, he put on his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes - coat and tie - on Sunday morning, returning to the church he knew as a child, and took his place in a pew in the back of the church.
The first thing he noticed was that he was the only one wearing a tie...or a coat. The rest of the congregation looked as though it was ready to order foot-long hotdogs or spread out beach towels. A man who must have been 55 years old came in a pair of baggy shorts - the kind you would normally dip in soapy water and use to wash the car. Over his broad stomach he wore an olive-drab tee-shirt of the sort worn by Tennessee auto mechanics. This was a level of informality we had never before seen in an Episcopal church. Or any church, for that matter.
We were reassured when the choir appeared at the back of the church. It looked normal. Clad in bright red and blue, traditional vestments. With the cross going before them. But wait...there were two flags flanking the cross. One was a flag for the Episcopal Church. The other was the stars and stripes of the USA. Politics and religion - the state and the church - marched side by side up the aisle, as the choir pumped out a joyful hymn.
This church had become very pro-Union! Later, the choir sang two patriotic songs - "God Bless America" and the purely securely "America the Beautiful." Never before had we heard praises to Caesar sung in a church.
But it didn't seem to bother anyone. Christ and Caesar, Caesar and Christ... Most people like to see them together; they are as happy serving one master as the other. They like it even better when they have two of them.
It didn't bother us either. After all, the morrow was the 4th of July. Maybe they did this only once a year....
Meanwhile, on the Internet, a site called "Economic Collapse" anticipated the high spirits of Independence Day with a list of 20 "not-so-great categories" in which the US really is Numero Uno. Its author first assures us of his loyalty:
I love the United States. I love the American people.
Then, he opens fire:
America is like an aging, bloated rock star that has become addicted to a dozen different drugs. America is a shadow of its former self and it desperately needs to wake up before it plunges into oblivion.
If you do not believe that America is in bad shape, just read the list below. The following are 20 not so good categories that the United States leads the world in....
#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.
#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.
#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.
#4 The United States is tied with the UK for the most hours of television watched per person each week.
#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.
#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.
#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.
#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.
#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.
#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.
#14 Americans have more student loan debt than anyone else in the world.
#15 More pornography is created in the United States than anywhere else on the entire globe. 89 percent is made in the USA and only 11 percent is made in the rest of the world.
#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the US has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.
#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, US military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.
#18 The United States has far more foreign military bases than any other country does.
#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.
#20 The US has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, US government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.
The truth is that America has changed. Most of us don't even say hello to our neighbors anymore.
The United States was once the most blessed nation on the face of the earth, but now we are literally falling to pieces.
Does anyone have any ideas about why this could be happening?
Well, yes. We do have some ideas. But don't think for a minute that we're going to give you earnest advice on how to make the country a better place. There are approximately a million civil servants who are paid to do that! You can see for yourself what a good job they have done.
No, we're just going to explain how America became a country of fat poor people who - when they're not watching TV - are murdering and raping their fellow citizens.
In fact, we already have. It's in a book. About 5 years ago, with Addison Wiggin, we wrote Empire of Debt. We predicted how America's imperial mission would evolve. And we said it was unstoppable. Forget the debt ceiling. Forget the budget cuts. Forget the idle ranting and raving, posturing and pretending...this Bozo is going bust! Congress has raised the "ceiling" so often - 94 times in the last 94 years, the Capitol might as well be an open-air building. We wrote:
"The imperial spirit has gotten the best of her. She no longer plays a role that she can understand and control. Now, she is an imperial power: she must read from the script that has been thrust in her hands. She must provide security for the entire world... Someone has to do it. It is her turn to wear the purple, whether she wants to or not. Thus did she become the dictatress of the world; but no longer ruler of her own spirit - or her own finances."
Like a clown shot out of a circus cannon, America's trajectory is fixed. Just look at the "Number 1" items above. They are the marks of an imperial power in decline. Overseas, the imperial garrisons squander her military might. At home, the masses degenerate, squandering her wealth.
And here's the worst part: America will continue in this direction until she falls on her head.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning
You will not find today's Daily Reckoning much to your liking. Because it creeps upon an idea that will probably make you feel uncomfortable. At least, that is the effect it has on us.
But first, the latest news from the world of money.
Yesterday, the Dow fell 12 points. Gold shot up $30. And oil is headed back towards $100.
Gold refuses to go down. Stocks refuse to go up. But over the last ten years, gold has gone up big-time, while stocks have gone nowhere.
Why? Because America topped out in 1999.
We went to church on Sunday. The church was built in the 1860s by a group of Maryland Episcopalian planters who were breaking away from a pro-Union parish. Physically, it is a marvelous example of 'carpenter gothic' architecture from the mid-19th century.
Since we had been living in Europe for the last 15 years, we had few opportunities to attend our local church. But it once played an important role in our lives. Our family went every Sunday, and your editor was an altar boy for several years.
So, he put on his Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes - coat and tie - on Sunday morning, returning to the church he knew as a child, and took his place in a pew in the back of the church.
The first thing he noticed was that he was the only one wearing a tie...or a coat. The rest of the congregation looked as though it was ready to order foot-long hotdogs or spread out beach towels. A man who must have been 55 years old came in a pair of baggy shorts - the kind you would normally dip in soapy water and use to wash the car. Over his broad stomach he wore an olive-drab tee-shirt of the sort worn by Tennessee auto mechanics. This was a level of informality we had never before seen in an Episcopal church. Or any church, for that matter.
We were reassured when the choir appeared at the back of the church. It looked normal. Clad in bright red and blue, traditional vestments. With the cross going before them. But wait...there were two flags flanking the cross. One was a flag for the Episcopal Church. The other was the stars and stripes of the USA. Politics and religion - the state and the church - marched side by side up the aisle, as the choir pumped out a joyful hymn.
This church had become very pro-Union! Later, the choir sang two patriotic songs - "God Bless America" and the purely securely "America the Beautiful." Never before had we heard praises to Caesar sung in a church.
But it didn't seem to bother anyone. Christ and Caesar, Caesar and Christ... Most people like to see them together; they are as happy serving one master as the other. They like it even better when they have two of them.
It didn't bother us either. After all, the morrow was the 4th of July. Maybe they did this only once a year....
Meanwhile, on the Internet, a site called "Economic Collapse" anticipated the high spirits of Independence Day with a list of 20 "not-so-great categories" in which the US really is Numero Uno. Its author first assures us of his loyalty:
I love the United States. I love the American people.
Then, he opens fire:
America is like an aging, bloated rock star that has become addicted to a dozen different drugs. America is a shadow of its former self and it desperately needs to wake up before it plunges into oblivion.
If you do not believe that America is in bad shape, just read the list below. The following are 20 not so good categories that the United States leads the world in....
#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.
#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.
#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.
#4 The United States is tied with the UK for the most hours of television watched per person each week.
#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.
#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.
#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.
#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.
#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.
#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.
#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.
#14 Americans have more student loan debt than anyone else in the world.
#15 More pornography is created in the United States than anywhere else on the entire globe. 89 percent is made in the USA and only 11 percent is made in the rest of the world.
#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the US has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.
#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, US military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.
#18 The United States has far more foreign military bases than any other country does.
#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.
#20 The US has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, US government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.
The truth is that America has changed. Most of us don't even say hello to our neighbors anymore.
The United States was once the most blessed nation on the face of the earth, but now we are literally falling to pieces.
Does anyone have any ideas about why this could be happening?
Well, yes. We do have some ideas. But don't think for a minute that we're going to give you earnest advice on how to make the country a better place. There are approximately a million civil servants who are paid to do that! You can see for yourself what a good job they have done.
No, we're just going to explain how America became a country of fat poor people who - when they're not watching TV - are murdering and raping their fellow citizens.
In fact, we already have. It's in a book. About 5 years ago, with Addison Wiggin, we wrote Empire of Debt. We predicted how America's imperial mission would evolve. And we said it was unstoppable. Forget the debt ceiling. Forget the budget cuts. Forget the idle ranting and raving, posturing and pretending...this Bozo is going bust! Congress has raised the "ceiling" so often - 94 times in the last 94 years, the Capitol might as well be an open-air building. We wrote:
"The imperial spirit has gotten the best of her. She no longer plays a role that she can understand and control. Now, she is an imperial power: she must read from the script that has been thrust in her hands. She must provide security for the entire world... Someone has to do it. It is her turn to wear the purple, whether she wants to or not. Thus did she become the dictatress of the world; but no longer ruler of her own spirit - or her own finances."
Like a clown shot out of a circus cannon, America's trajectory is fixed. Just look at the "Number 1" items above. They are the marks of an imperial power in decline. Overseas, the imperial garrisons squander her military might. At home, the masses degenerate, squandering her wealth.
And here's the worst part: America will continue in this direction until she falls on her head.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning
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