Who Form 8865 Offshore 2024

This is the story about the tricks used by those in the know to hide assets and skirt the rules. Half of all global trade passes through offshore tax havens, and an estimated one third of the world's wealth resides there. Many people use the offshore world for legal tax shelters or to smooth the way for international trade. But tax havens cost all of us. Without offshore tax havens, the Enron scandal wouldn't have been possible, nor would the massive fraud pulled off by Bernie Madoff or the Greek debt crisis. So, if you want to avoid paying taxes or launder money or create a front company to conceal your activities or hide your assets from the government or your spouse, or keep your property and investments secret, or open a bank account in another name making it almost impossible to trace it back to you, you can easily set up a secret company using one of hundreds of offshore agents. Let's look at the British Virgin Islands, home to half a million offshore companies, which is about 40% of the offshore companies on the planet. You can buy a ready-made shelf company or create your own secret company from scratch in about three days for just over $1,000. You may be asked to produce documents to establish your identity, and then they might check your name in a database to see if you're a terrorist. But don't worry; while the system may catch the big fish, it still lets scores of fraudsters and criminals slip through the net. For another $500 or so, you can hire a third person or even a shell company to be the nominee director of your offshore entity. These nominees rent their names so that you, the real owner of the company, don't have to disclose...