I will add this... NEVER put all your eggs in one basket anyway. Spread your money out just in case, becuse you just never know.

Exactly! :thumbsup

And don't rely on anyone for anything :-)

BTW.. Same goes for "legitimate" payment processors, merchant account gateways or any other bullshit names. Bottom line - they hold your money and that it better off in your hands and pasted behind wallpaper than any bank :-) As long as you have decent home insurance :winkwink:

Hi Slapass,
In 2 weeks I will be living in Vanuatu http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/pacific/index.html
One of the reasons is because Vanuatu does not having any taxes other than customs duties and stamp duty and Vanuatu has not entered into any Double Tax treaties with other countries.

They have a "Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act" which contains a procedure for co-operation with foreign investigators, and the "Serious Offences (Confiscation of Proceeds) Act" has anti-money-laundering provisions which could encompass fiscal crime but other than that tax evasion is not a crime in Vanuatu, since there are no tax laws, and the Vanuatu authorities are unlikely to assist an investigation into a tax matter.

Because I am Australian, for me to avoid paying tax on money I have earnt overseas I need to cut my ties with Australia and have no residences there nor dependents still living in Australia.I think this is probably similar to US law.

I love my lifestyle in Oz but the minimun tax I can get away with is 30%. Thats a big incentive for me to move but not reason enough if it was the only one.
Our deciding factor is that my wife is melanesian and it gives me and the kids an opportunity to experience the melanesian lifestyle.
Cheers.

Are you able to get any decent internet access there?

They only have one isp and they do have broadband.I am not sure how good it is but it could be no worse than what I am using here in oz where the best i can get in my town is 33.3 Kpbs dial up

WTF? Do you live in some small town?

If you are a US Citizen you can only have $72,000 of your income per year as not taxable overseas. Everything after that is taxed.

Yes on the sunshine coast. http://www.sunzine.net/suncoast/welcome.html

about the only place on the sunshine coast that can't get broadband and the dial up is hopeless.The government has now offered "HIBIS" which is a subsidy for Telstra to supply broadband by satellite.
too late for me now.

define stable banking country please

very informative thread (mostly thanks to webby)

swami please check this thread:
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...54#post6595554

How Hard is it to get a Visa and Settle down in the Panama ???


Especially for a Citizen of an asian country like me ???

Please care to throw some light on this regard
thanks

Or if anyone could chat with me ICQ to discuss this more .....i would be obliged :)

Swami, when do I get to come visit? Brazil is getting old. I need new waters to explore.

I was in Braizl and watching the Huge samba Parade. This Canadian was saying we as westerners are only interested in money. He said we both had enough to live in this country as well off for the rest of our lives. But we won't do it as we need more and more. All around us were people with 1/100 of our incomes and they were happy and having a great time. I too had a great time but today I am working. Sort of makes that whole new life thing appealing. I just want to know i can come back to the US when I get bored.

Bump de bump

bump for a great thread :thumbsup

Nice read...Thanks :thumbsup

More stable than the Caymans?

I did spend some time with a few people from Panama. it is intersting that they liked the invasion. Before it the banks were not safe and Noriega was not liked. Their biggest concern now was who would fix the canal if it needed repair. Japan is a bigger user of the canal then the US and has offered to intercede if they need help but who knows at what cost.
As has been pointed out they have the biggest banks in the world represented there so it is not like you would have to go "First Panama" to put your money in.

Hi Mpegmaster!

Odd you should ask that! :-) At the moment we are having meets with the director of immigration to get background info for some other webmasters in Asia and New Zealand.

Here's a clue... There is nothing to stop you "just moving" and living in Panama.. or Costa Rica or almost any Latin American county. The only condition is that technically you are supposed to leave the county for 24 hours every three months then ya can come back in. I know several people who have been doing this for.. over 15 years. They are not interested in residency and just come and go as they wish.

For residency, the qualifications are:

(a) Submission of current passport copies

(b) A clean police record in the country you were last resident - basically they do an check at the local Interpol office to establish you are not on the wanted list. Trivial offenses don't matter.

(c) Some evidence you can support yourself for a period of five years. Some people dump $12K into a bank account each year which means a $1000 month to survive :-) This $1000/month is the example for Costa Rica - other countries in Latin America seem to want less, - Nicaragua is only $400-$600/month etc. In real life, you can forget that after 2-3 years, - nobody is interested - you have "arrived" :-)

The other method is to buy some asset in the country to show an intention of staying. This can be a home... or, I've even heard of people just buying a car :-)

These are the main and brief critera for residency.

In your instance, depending on your country, that 90 visa may be different and this seems to depend on whether your country offers the same courtesy as the Latin American country. Example.. Think it is New Zealand, they only grant 30 day Visa's to Panamanins, so Pamana has the same deal with New Zealand. In instances like this, it is probably easier to just get residency than bother with visa time limits.

BTW.. Although the govt's consider the above amounts of money OK to live.. that may OK be in some instances, but in real life it is nicer to have more!:-)
But.. the cost of living is far less than.. almost any industrialized country. Domestic full time labor, such as maid/gardners etc.. is, depending on the country, around $80 - $250/month, but some places that can be $30 (pathetic!*s*). The salary of someone with some web experience - these are usually graduates, - is around $800 to $1800/month - averaging around $1200 ish.

Other things like.... eg heathcare.. In Costa Rica the healthcare system is good and matches any EU or North American facilities. The last cost I heard of for a family of four is around $250/year and includes *all* healthcare, dentistry and medication blah. There also also a number of private hospitals as an option. Most people use two levels of healthcare and only charge the expensive elements against the $250 type policy and just pay the doc for trivia stuff :-)

On property.. that is rising, but still "cheap" in comparison with "sophisticated" countries. There are a growing number of citizens from other countries moving here and hence the main reason for the increase. This is roughly around 15%/year, but can be higher.

It is much easier getting residency in Latin America than.. eg the US or the EU and often made easier by "who you know". These are small countries and knowing the right govt ministers is more "normal". I know of residency being completed in one day with two trips to offices with a lawyer, but it normally takes three months and during that time you can come and go as you please. 99% of any problems are easily overcome - it's much more laid back :-)

If you want to pursue living in Latin America, it's best to establish whether your country offers 90 visas to whatever Latin American country. Depending on that, you may wish to either apply for residency or not.

Hell yea Mr F!! :winkwink:

Caymans are no longer a confidential banking region and in the same category as the Bahama's and some other Caribbean islands.

The US have been gunning for Cayman for years and even "kidnapped" a bank manager from Royal Bank of Canada who was travelling on route thru the US. They wanted him to open up his bank records :-) But let him go in the end and slapped some massive daily fine on RBC in New York for every day they failed to open their Cayman accounts. After X million of fines - they opened them. Since then, protections have been put in place:-)

Cayman was and still is probably near the top of the league for money movement, but lately that has decreased mainly because of the uncertainty.

Tho.. no doubt *any* international bank is fine as regards "safety" - but it may be more comfortable when that bank is in a better jurisdiction :-)

Hi Webby, have you had any dealings or exerience with Cyprus? If so, what is your impression of them for privacy etc.?

did you have to cut ties to the US or are you still a Us citizen?

Hi slapass! Na.. I've never been a US citizen :-)

I still have citizenship of my country of birth and others I know of have... up to three "citizenships" or dual and triple nationalities :-) Eg.. Canada, EU and where they live offshore and come and go as they please.

The people from the US I know of have not, least the most of em, have not given up citizenship in the US. The only difference is they just live abroad and collect some allowance on their US tax return for doing so - around $70K-$80K.

There are some rules in the US, same as most countries, to establish foreign residency - tho you'd have to check this, but usually means not *actually* still living or maintaining a home there etc, but under certain conditions that may be possible to eg.. retain a home and rent it out and pay whatever taxes are due on this.

The main problem is US citizens have to submit revenue returns no matter where they are in the world. (This is the exception and not normal with other countries.) And... when it comes to "offshore" there is space on IRS tax forms where questions are asked :-) If these are answered "inaccurately", it is an offense in the US. The questions lead to what assets/revenue have been received from foreign activities - and this screws up the concept of offshore.

Oddly, the US people I know always seem to earn a dollar less than the actual allowances ie - if the allowance for foreign residency is $82K, they earn $81,999 :-) But, I don't know how this works at the US end - presume it must be useful.

I can't say specifically for the US, but it is normal to, eg... agree to be not living in your home country more than X weeks a year, else you may be subject to taxation. But, I've never found that a problem and visit family and friends, but then get the hell out to better places :-) Most friends want to visit anyway and have a holiday - ya can't get rid of em!! :winkwink: And a fair number have or are moving out once they saw the overall picture.

It's not just about taxes and money.. the lifestyle is better! I asked a US lawyer - what made him move with his wife and two children and mentioned that he is not gonna earn the same money as a lawyer than he did back in the US. His reasons were mainly because of his younger children and the lifestyle. He quoted some crime stats back home. On the money side, tho he would not earn as much, - in real terms he was better off because of the lower cost of living and little or no taxation. Each has their own priorities :-) But.. lawyers still earn good money - Mine ran out of wall space for works of art in his home and now plasters his office walls with art worth a few million:-) It's all relative :-)

Hi Manga1!

No.. I don't know about Cyprus in detail. I've been there and had a look a few years back and can say Cyprus is not a place that has much privacy, but they do have some reasonable corporate and banking facilities. Also, depending, there are some taxes/fees payable to the govt, but not unreasonable amounts.

You thinking of setting up a base there?

hey u got icq? i got some things to go over about setting something abroad.

Hey there buddy :)
Thanks a ton for the detailed information :)
Please let me know if you could help me out a little here since it sounds like you have contacts in panama director of immigration !
I would like to stay in touch with you through ICQ or EMAIL :)
I am from India and i am looking to move out in Jun or July !
So please let me know on how i can contact you
My email is : [email protected] or ICQ : 134901041

I would be very happy if I could discuss this matter further with you :)

Thanks
Mpegmaster

NEVER give up your US citizenship!!!!! Never. Because when the shit hits the fan and you have to get out of the place your in, for any reason, the USA is going to let you in as if you had been on vacation.

Though you may not want to live here, it's nice to have the US at your back if you need them. Not to mention, if you get into some shit down there, within reason, all you have to do is go to the US Embassy and see if they can help you. As long as you did not do something stupid or totally illegal, they will most times. That is what they are there for. I know a few people who's asses have been saved by a US Embassy in various countries.

Not to mention, it's hard as hell to get Visas these days to the USA. If your not a citizen any more, you have to get one just to come back and visit your family.

Bump for a great thread

I'd be saying the same thing. There is no reason (apart from one that possible reason - see below), that I'd give up any citizenship - what for? Because you live in another country has little to do with citizenship either of your home country or the one you reside in.

If anything, the reverse applies - it's nice to collect multiple nationalities/passports as they come up and as ya meet the qualification for getting them :-)

The only rare reason, and this is the exception which does not apply to me anyway. If I had more money than anyone could ever want ie.. not just a few million, but loads of the stuff and dual/triple nationality, - I'd be forced to consider dumping any US citizenship. The reasons are simply that US citizenship is more a liability than an asset under these conditions because of the IRS reporting requirements. The countries/nationalities don't have these same problems. Anyways , I doubt *anyone* on this board comes near the level of assets to justify this - it's all hypothetical :-)

interessting

Hi Mpegmaster!

OK.. Got your contact info!! There is another friend from India we are trying to get some background for at the moment - the same reasons as you!

I'll chase this up and see what immigration have to say, - I don't think it's a big deal - and there are some other options, but will just confirm exactly what they are first :-)

Another thing to think on is.... Pamana is "the" tax place in Latin America for corps (banking can be anywhere). You may also want to consider not living where the biz is formed, but in a neighboring country such as Costa Rica or Nicaragua etc. Even residents of .. eg Costa Rica do their "private" corp stuff in Panama :-)

Residency in both these neighboring countries is OK as well and the terms are much the same as previously posted, but the money is less in Nicaragua. BTW.. Nicaragua is not as some people think - a war torn desert *s* - they have better roads and communications than Costa Rica and there are some excellent opportunities in real estate there, tho others are moving in fast and grabbing them.

I'll check some stuff out and email you! :thumbsup


PS.. On this stuff we deal mainly with respected lawyers who know and are in contact with almost every govt minister and the President and also the Immigration Dir - and we have not asked them for "favors" *s*. The Immigration Dir is the best source for current info, tho he just implements what the govt "rules" are, but they are all very helpful and so far, we have never had any obstacles as long as the basic criteria is there. They are easy and good to deal with.

hey webbym can u hit me up on icq 152179941 thanks

Glad to hear that you are doing well in this regard :)
Will keep in touch with you and i expect an email from you :)

Anymore input. I've read every post and it has given me a few ideas.. not all good ones though ^^'

Panama city is the 5th biggest city in the world for banking. It's serious shit :)

Looks like i know where i need to settle down :)

Waiting for webb's email now with further information!

u got an email? i would love to talk to u and him ;)

Definitly they are,am planing to move to live to Panama next year or so..

PANAMA
THE BEST
FOR ALLLLL
HEAVEN ON EARTH.

You must be joking

Hmmmmm......anything yet ;)