- This topic has 9 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 7 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
Now that the secret is out, who here has an offshore account and how much i$ it?
My Swiss bank account is a numbered account with no name attached.
The whole purpose of having these account is to hide money and avoid taxes which the government may consider money laundering. Why would anyone admit that they committed a crime?
Abba_S
No, that is the sole purpose of criminals in having these accounts.
My 27 year old works in Europe in the yachting industry and is paid in Euros. She has an offshore account for convenience. Her Yacht is registered in the Cayman Islands and her account is there. Most US banks are not easy to bank with internationally.
Every year when filling out US tax return, the box that says ‘have a foreign bank account’ is checked.
This account is for convenience and to avoid the stiff foreign transaction fees US banks charge on every little thing.
This is unlike the people we are hearing about in the Panama Papers.
Many people have “offshore” accounts, including anyone who spends time in both Eretz Yisrael and Golus, since a bank account in one is an offshore account in another. For Americans, this requires filing one simple tax form per year.
The term “offshore” means “not in your home country”, and isn’t a big deal UNLESS you are doing in secretly (usually to avoid taxes, sometimes to avoid the local equivalent of the “Shin Bet”, the “FBI” or the KGB)
It reminder me of the time one of the NY tabloids wrote big expose on how the Bloomberg Foundation had off shore investments.
Any sizeable foundation will have off shore investments. It is prudent to diversify.
The so called terrible thing about off shore investments would be hiding income from the IRS. The way the tabloid found out about the investments was because they were specifically reported in the foundations 990 PF, which is an IRS form.
Just shows how the media makes an issue out of non issues and then all the silly people suddenly are outraged at the terrible avlah.
It seems that the government agencies are no different. They are completely disingenuous.
Abba_S – Agree with akuperma. If you have an Israeli mortgage, you will want an Israeli account, even if you don’t live there. Your accountant will be able to figure out if you owe anything, and how much.
The big deal is when you “hide” the money, like the PM of Iceland who resigned.
P.S. How awesome is it the the Pirate party is going to win elections (if they happen) 🙂
There are legitimate reasons for having offshore accounts such as if you have homes or do business in more than one country but if you are hiring a lawyer to setup a bank account chances are you are either hiding the money or laundering it.
As far as US bank charging foreign transaction fees, there are banks such as TD Bank and USAA (there are more) that don’t charge them. When my son was learning in Israel I setup an account give him the debit card I deposit money in and he goes to an ATM and takes money out and there was no fees charged to the account. The only problem is if you need to transfer thousands of dollars as ATM s have daily limits.
I surmise that Obama has an offshore account in Kenya where he was born.
@147 Isn’t Kenya a state?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.