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I think what OP meant is that there are reasons for companies to be off-shore which are totally above board. A common reason that investment funds are in off-s
by ig1 11y ago
I think what OP meant is that there are reasons for companies to be off-shore which are totally above board.
A common reason that investment funds are in off-shore tax-havens is because they have lots of international investors. If the fund was say in the US all the investors would have to file tax documents in the US even if they weren't US based, by being based in a tax haven it means investors only have to file local tax paperwork and not paperwork in a second country.
- voidpointer 11y agoIs that really true? I am not a US citizen but I have an account with a US broker. I just need to file a single form once in a while declaring my foreign tax status and that's it. This can hardly be the reason why it is absolutely necessary to have offshore holdings. (Of course, I have to pay taxes at home for any profits and there are supposed to be mechanisms that ensure I do...)
- varjag 11y agoIf you deal in volatile markets with questionable rule of the law and weak property rights (e.g. Russia or much of the Middle East), then the ownership and its transfer is often structured with offshore companies. The leak however suggests the legit offshore cases are drop in the bucket in this overall money laundering business. Kind of like with file sharing, many would argue we need it primarily to get our latest Ubuntu ISOs and other legit uses, but we all know it's a lie.
- spacemanmatt 11y agoDunno. Netflix is cheap, I've only benefitted from filesharing swarms to get Linux ISOs in the past few years.
- ig1 11y agoI believe it depends on the nature of the investment and your relationship with the US. For example I believe in your situation you'd have to pay US taxes on dividends from US companies.