If you have only one bank account in your home country, you are at risk! It may be frozen or restricted all of a sudden. Far-sighted individuals have an overseas account to switch to and feel safe. Otherwise, you may face more or less serious problems.
However, “crisis management” is just one of the possible reasons to open an offshore account. Foreign banks often provide better conditions for saving money by reducing taxes, offer interesting investment projects, ensure your confidentiality, and protect your assets better than the banks in your country of residence.
We will discuss all these benefits in detail below. In the meanwhile, we kindly ask you to take a look at our portal where you can read a longer article on top choices for offshore accounts and get in touch with specialists who will help you with any aspect of offshore banking and give you qualified advice.
Offshore Account: Drifting Away from Delusions
You will find a lot of erroneous statements about an offshore account, so let’s get clear on what we are actually going to deal with.
An offshore account is an account you set up in any jurisdiction other than the country of your legal or tax residency. An international account, a foreign account, an overseas account, or a non-resident account are all synonyms here.
There are countries that provide benefits to non-residents who open accounts in their banks, and these are identified as offshore jurisdictions. If a country is not an offshore jurisdiction, it will not provide any perks.
That is, the scheme that makes sense is opening an offshore account in an offshore jurisdiction.
Let’s Choose the Best Jurisdiction
The best jurisdiction is the one that meets your requirements and whose requirements you meet! It is as simple as that, but it means at the same time that we cannot offer a shortlist of the best of the best jurisdictions that would suit everyone. In other words, we will have to analyze the options.
Let’s look at the considerations that will help us assess any foreign bank:
- Examine the bank’s typical foreign customers. Are you one of them? Mind that the bank has the right to request additional documents to make sure you meet their expectations.
- What laws cover the bank’s activity? The local and international rules taken together will define the level of safety and confidentiality that you may potentially have.
- What are the main reasons and purposes for you to open an offshore bank account? Some clients need quick wireless transfers, others wish to keep a part of their funds for themselves, and yet another category intends to have reliable asset protection. And the jurisdictions and banks that will help you achieve these goals are not the same.
- Take a good look at the bank’s reputation. Study the bank’s history, management structure, and owners. Find feedback from customers and specialists.
- Pay attention to the cost of account opening and maintenance. Some banks want you to pay more at the stage of account opening and provide lower commissions and fees later on. Others will do the contrary. In any case, do not be lured by a low cost of account setup!
Analyze each bank you select using this scheme. If that sounds too difficult, simply click on the above link and contact our specialists: they will find out the details of your case and offer you a list of banks that will be best in your situation. By the way, this service is free!
Non-Resident Account to Avoid Tax Burden
The tax rates in a foreign bank depend on who wants to set up an account and the potential customer’s tax residency.
In most cases, you will not have to pay any taxes on the funds you deposit with a foreign bank. However, you may be liable for them in your country of residence: some jurisdictions oblige you to declare any capital possessed in other countries, including an account, to impose taxes.
How to pay less then? There are two possible strategies: becoming a legal or a tax resident of a country with lower taxes or moving your funds to a trust.
Contact us to find out more details.
Non-Resident Account to Ensure Confidentiality and Safety
Here are the top 3 countries that provide the highest possible level of banking secrecy:
- The US. Conditions may vary from territory to territory, however, so you will need to look for the best options. We strongly advise you to consider Puerto Rico as it offers really beneficial conditions.
- Switzerland, the world-recognized leader in the banking sector. Bankers will have to pay heavy fines if they violate banking secrecy in any way, so you may be sure they will do their best to keep your information secret.
- Singapore, a well-developed financial center that offers excellent conditions to large corporations and wealthy individuals.
Non-Resident Accounts with the Best-Reputed Banks
If you want to open an account with a bank that has a high reputation, you’d better stick to midshores and onshores. You will also benefit from stability, a customer-oriented approach, and excellent banking services. A few examples of such countries are Turkey, Singapore, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Montenegro.
Non-Resident Accounts for Asset Protection
What if you put asset protection as a top priority? There are three jurisdictions that we can highly recommend: Nevis, Belize, and the Cook Islands.
What makes them stand out?
Imagine that a creditor in your home country wants to seize your funds kept in an offshore account, files a claim locally and wins the proceedings. And still, your money will be safe as these jurisdictions do not recognize the decisions of foreign courts! The relative or creditor will have to start the procedure all over again by filing a lawsuit in the respective offshore jurisdiction.
However, the bond payable to the courts in advance (USD 100,000) deters most of them, so there are hardly any cases of money kept in Nevis, Belize, or the Cook Islands being seized.
Conclusion
As you see, each jurisdiction may be good if it fits the top priority. If you want to rely on a professional choice of the best destination, you are free to follow the above link and contact our experts. We will also help you easily open an account in virtually any foreign country without much effort on your part. If you still have any doubts, you can share them with us!
