Investment
The Benefits of Offshore Portfolio Management
If you have the equivalent of $500,000 or more to invest (more in some cases), you qualify for the services of an offshore portfolio manager. Some offshore banks reduce this minimum to $100,000 or even less for depositors willing to have their assets invested in a portfolio of offshore mutual funds. (U.S. investors should generally [...]
It’s Official: You Must Report Offshore Insurance, Annuity, and Gold Accounts (Part II]
In Part I of this entry, I described the impact of long-awaited regulations from a secretive Treasury agency called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Those regulations greatly expand the scope of investments that U.S. taxpayers need to acknowledge annually on Treasury Form TD F 90.22-1, the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) form. However, there [...]
It’s Official: You Must Report Offshore Insurance, Annuity, and Gold Accounts (Part I]
If you’re a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you need to know about an obscure Treasury agency called FinCEN, the “Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Last March, FinCEN issued proposed regulations greatly expanding what U.S. taxpayers are supposed to disclose about their offshore holdings. The proposals were retroactive to 2009. I wrote about them here and [...]
USA: No Overt Capital Controls…Yet
Over the last week dozens of readers have sent me a link to an article with the provocative title of “It’s Official—America Now Enforces Capital Controls.” In the article, author Tyler Durden states that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (part of the HIRE Act signed last month by President Obama): “requires that foreign [...]
Congress Enacts Obama’s Anti-Offshore Jobs Bill
The Obama administration continues to work diligently to crack down further on U.S. citizens and residents who invest offshore. One of those efforts has now come to fruition. The “Foreign Account Taxpayer Compliance Act” (FATCA) is neatly tucked into a jobs bill, cleverly entitled the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, H.R. 2847. Here’s [...]
Secret Treasury Agency Wants to RETROACTIVELY Expand Offshore Reporting Requirements [Part I]
Last week, the U.S. Treasury finally clarified exactly what it expects U.S. taxpayers to disclose about their offshore holdings. And—no surprise here—they want to know lots more about what you own offshore. Beginning last year, in 2009. And, if you fail to comply, you could face a $10,000 fine and even prison. In an announcement [...]