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The following research reports are available for purchase at the prices shown
- or they are FREE for our online subscribers.The following reports are included on our restricted subscriber's web site where they can be reviewed or printed by our paid subscribers. These reports are also available for purchase at the prices shown below.
However, by subscribing to our online library of research reports, you will have free access to ALL of the reports shown below, plus the searchable archives of over 4,000 discussion memos in our asset protection and offshore discussion forum, plus searchable archives for over two years of back issues of our asset protection and international tax reports.
The links on this page will take you to a summary description (below) of the various reports.
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When you form a foreign trust or foreign limited liability company for asset protection, when you seek access to investments not available to U.S. investors or when you establish a business operation offshore, you will soon be confronted with the U.S. tax rules for offshore investments. This extensive report provides a plain English explanation of the U.S. tax rules for all kinds of foreign investments including foreign bank accounts, foreign mutual funds, stock in foreign corporations, foreign bonds or mortgages, foreign real estate, foreign currencies and more. Printed copies of this report are available for $47 but the report is included in the online report library for our paid subscribers.
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At our first offshore tax seminar, participants kept asking us what they could do to save taxes offshore.Because the U.S. is one of a very few countries that taxes their citizens on their world wide income, there are very few ways to save taxes offshore that are not also available onshore. By the same token, nearly all of the legal ways to save taxes in the U.S. are available to save taxes offshore.
For future seminars, we reviewed all the legal ways to save income or estate taxes that are legal either in the U.S. or offshore. The report also includes an extensive discussion of the Tax Relief Act of 2001 that ostensibly repeals the federal estate and gift tax. We say "ostensibly" because the repeal will be repealed in 2011 unless the Congress makes it permanent, which we expect is unlikely.
If you are looking for a plain English summary of the legal ways to save taxes, we guarantee this report will show you how. It's based on more than 30 years of experience in looking for legal loopholes in the tax laws and working with clients who were seeking help in reducing their taxes. The price of the printed report is $67 but it's included as part of our online library of research reports.
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Whenever anyone is presented with the idea of using an offshore trust or foreign limited liability company or foreign annuity or foreign life insurance policy for asset protection, their first question is "How can I be sure my money will be safe in this offshore structure?"This report provides an answer to that question, in the context of the principles of risk managment. Because all risk is relative, the report reviews some of the risks and hazards of having assets in the U.S. It then describes the concept of risk management and reviews the various methods of mitigating risk -- which include risk avoidance, risk retention, insurance and diversification.
The report also describes the unique role of the foreign trust protector or company enforcer whose job is to act like an independent auditor to protect the interests of the trust grantor or the members of a limited liability company.
This extensive report is available in printed form for $47, but it's included as part of our library of online research reports.
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Money laundering is a crime that was invented by the Government to try to ensnare drug dealers who were too clever to be caught with drugs in their possession. A second purpose of the law was to permit the government to forfeit (confiscate) any property -- such as money -- that is associated with any of the crimes that are subject to the money laundering statutes. Over time, the variety of crimes subject to money laundering and forfeiture have been expended far, far beyond the original intent of the law. Now, these laws can be used to incarcerate nearly anyone who is guilty of any minor offense -- including tax evasion. Even the physical movement of cash can be a crime if it's not reported or if it's in excess of a certain amount.Anyone with any legitimate reason for having any assets outside the U.S. must be aware of these complex and encompassing rules because they can be a deadly trap for the unwary. Even if you don't have any reason to venture offshore, this summary of the money laundering laws and penalties will help you to understand why your government is not always your friend.
This extensive report is available in printed form for $47, but it's included as part of our library of online research reports.
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For those who are seeking asset protection but don't want (or can't afford) a foreign trust or a foreign limited liability company, a foreign/offshore annuity is an economical alternative. However, the U.S. tax law (since early 1998) has made fixed return, deferred foreign annuities subject to current taxation. In addition, there are severe tax disadvantages in putting money into foreign mutual funds or passive foreign investment companies.Thus, the offshore variable annuity has become the investment entity of choice for many U.S. persons seeking to invest some assets offshore. This extensive report provides a beginner's explanation of the concept of an annuity, the different kinds of annuities and the tax rules that apply to both domestic and foreign annuities. It also provides a list and contact information on foreign companies that issue annuities that comply with the U.S. tax law requirements regarding when something is an annuity and when something is not an annuity.
This extensive report is available in printed form for $47, but it's included as part of our library of online research reports.
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Offshore limited liability companies (LLC) are a cost effective alternative to the expense of a foreign trust for those who seek asset protection. The foreign LLC provides the owner with greater access to the assets than with a foreign trust. In addition, the cost of a foreign LLC is much less to establish and to maintain than a foreign trust.This extensive report by attorney Christopher Riser is an excellent introduction to the advantages and the disadvantages of using a foreign LLC for asset protection. It also discusses the applicable tax rules.
A printed copy of the report is available for $25.00 but it's included as part of our library of online research reports.
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This report is based on a seminar presentation in which J. Ben Vernazza was discussing offshore asset protection trust and I was describing the various domestic methods of asset protection for those who can't afford or justify the cost of an offshore trust. The report also describes some of the low cost methods that I've used to minimize the exposure of my family's assets to any potential litigation.HowToOrder
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This report is a collection of articles and news items from the Global Asset Protection Reports and from The Offshore Journal (now discontinued) that relate to privacy, email encryption systems and secure commerce on the Internet. As time permits, I plan to add similar news items from more recent issues of the newsletters.
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This report is a collection of articles and news items from The Offshore Journal and Asset Protection Strategies that relate to privacy, email encryption systems and secure commerce on the Internet. As time permits, I plan to add similar news items from more recent issues of the newsletters.HowToOrder
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The "Anderson Case" is a highly controversial District Court of Appeals case in which the lower court was found to have acted properly when it incarcerated the Andersons for contempt of court. The lower court concluded that the Andersons had the ability to recover the funds in a Cook Islands trust and that they intentionally created a situation in which they were not able to recover the funds after they ordered to do so. The Appeals court agreed with the conclusion of the lower court. A few asset protection commentators felt that this case represented the "death knell" of the offshore asset protection trust as a method of asset protection. Other commentators and advisors feel that the case is simply an example of how "bad facts make bad law". Many of the advocates of the offshore trust don't even believe the case represents any change in the law and the outcome was entirely predictable based on the facts of the case. This report is an extensive explanation of the background of the case and includes edited comments by many asset protection advisors and those who are critics of the offshore asset protection trust.
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Buried in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 was a provision that imposed new reporting requirements and stiff penalties on "Confidential Corporate Tax Shelters" and anyone involved in promoting such "dastardly deeds". Lest you judge that you don't need to read this because you don't have any corporate tax shelters, some proposed changes that could take affect this year would expand that 1997 law to cover virtually every conceivable transaction in which a corporation might derive any tax benefit. The existing rules are bad enough -- but the proposals are absurd.If you are a financial advisor of any kind or are a substantial shareholder of any kind of corporation -- foreign or domestic -- you should be sure that your local tax advisors are up to speed on this.
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This 38 page report provides a description of a risk management system for investors that combines the concept of asset allocation with tax planning. Most of the discussions of asset allocation gloss over or totally ignore the tax aspects of the subject. This report provides an organized approach to investment diversification that integrates all of the assets under the control of the investor or the family unit, and factors in the tax consequences of various arrangements so that the investor can minimize and taxes at the same time.
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This is a collection of five short articles that were published in The Jacobs Report on Asset Protection Strategies that relate to the general subject of how U.S. persons are taxed in connection with their offshore investments or business ventures. The complete report is about ten pages. It's written in very basic terms and assumes the reader has no prior background or experience in the subject. It also includes an extensive checklist (with comments) of the legally safe ways that are available to save taxes offshore.
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The Passport Financial Protective Trust is probably the most widely advertised trust package on the market because it was developed by two people with many years of experience in newsletter and mutual fund marketing. Their goal was to create a low cost and easy to understand trust that people could use to protect their assets from future creditors. One of the developers of the trust (Terry Coxon) was one of the editorial advisors for The Jacobs Report on Asset Protection Strategies for about five years.However, after the trust was introduced, some of my other editorial advisors began to inform me that they felt it was not an effective way to protect assets. The level of the disagreement reached a point where I felt compelled to take the time for an in-depth analysis of the criticisms of the trust. Because Coxon was one of my advisors, I also felt obliged to give him every benefit of the doubt with respect to the criticisms about his packaged trust and I offered to publish his reply to the criticisms.
This 22 page report is a recap of what I have published in The Jacobs Report on Asset Protection Strategies about the PFP Trust - including substantial portions of Coxon's response to the criticisms of his trust package.
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Offshore annuities have been promoted as a way to protect your assets offshore, to hedge your risk of a dollar devaluation (due to creeping inflation), and to also defer your taxes. A foreign annuity offers the same basic tax benefits available with a domestic annuity - but it's one of the few investments an American can make outside the US that isn't subject to a tax penalty of some kind.However, in January, 1998, the IRS released a new regulation (TD 8754) that was primarily intended to curtail the use of certain certificate of deposit arrangements that were being promoted as having the tax benefits of an annuity. (They were called "Retirement CDs") The method the IRS used to restrict the tax benefits of these CDs also had the effect of eliminating the tax deferral for certain kinds of annuity contracts issued by foreign insurance companies. The regulations consisted of abut 12 pages of very small print, and this report is a summary of my review of those regulations, with my opinion as the impact of the regulations on foreign annuity contracts. I boiled down the IRS regs to about 4 pages, but I've also included other news items and short articles that I have written on the subject. The complete report is 8 pages.
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This 28 page report is a compendium of articles I've written on the government's efforts to curtail the use of expatriation by Americans (and long term residents) as a way to save taxes. My review began with the tax bill that was introduced in 1995 that would have imposed an exit tax like the Canadian tax - which essentially taxes all capital gains at the time someone expatriates. However, that proposed law was vetoed by Clinton for other reasons. Then, in 1996, a very different kind of approach was taken that changed the burden of proof from the IRS to the taxpayers - if they had assets or total taxes in excess of certain levels.David Lesperence, a Canadian Barrister who specializes in immigration and emigration law and who has demonstrated (to me at least) that he has an exceptional grasp of US expatriation law, has written a number of articles and case studies that he has used in seminars on the subject. He has kindly given me permission to reprint his articles and case studies as part of this combination report. If you have any serious interest in the tax issues involving expatriation, this report is one of the most extensive available on the subject that isn't written by lawyers for use by other lawyers.
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In late 1996, the government passed a law that imposed strict new reporting obligations on those who create and fund foreign trusts, on the beneficiaries of foreign trusts and on the trustee of the foreign trust. The new law didn't make any fundamental change in the law - it just introduced extensive new reporting requirements and harsh penalties for those who fail to comply.This 15 page report is a compendium of articles from The Jacobs Report on Asset Protection Strategies that tracked the new law and it's subsequent interpretations and the views of international tax specialists who attempted to come to grips with the new foreign trust reporting rules. This report also includes a summary of the 1996 tax law in terms of who has to file reports on the transactions involving foreign trusts.
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This is a 45 page report I prepared for a larger publisher to sell to their newsletter subscribers as an explanation of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The price of the report was $37.50 but I've reduced it to $25 since it's not as "hot" as when it was written right after the law was passed. However, the entire report is available on the restricted web site for subscribers to any of my three newsletters.
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