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13 Jun, 2013
Foundations have long existed in civil law countries where the concept of an Anglo-Saxon trust is unfamiliar. But as competition for a larger slice of the global wealth management cake has intensified in recent years, several, mainly offshore, common law jurisdictions have incorporated foundations laws into their own suites of offshore legislation in order to attract new money from a rapidly increasing population of wealthy individuals and families in emerging economies such as China, Russia, and in Latin America. Guernsey is the latest jurisdiction to begin offering foundations, and is the focus of this feature.
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16 May, 2013
It’s hard to classify what Hong Kong actually is in one neat description. It isn’t technically ‘offshore’, it’s not really a country, but it’s more than just a mere city. What is clear though is that this densely populated 400 square mile peninsula and collection of islands in south eastern China, home to more than 7 million people, certainly punches above its weight in international terms, and in this feature we explore what makes Hong Kong tick as one of the world’s major business and financial centres.
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15 May, 2013
This feature explores the various plurilateral efforts underway to achieve more standardization in the exchange of information (EoI) for tax purposes between national revenue authorities, including the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) lesser known tax treaty TRACE project.
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18 Apr, 2013
This feature rounds up some of the key developments around the world with regard to the taxation of retirement savings and pensions.
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16 Apr, 2013
Located in the Irish Sea between the North West of England and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man's economy rests solidly on the provision of offshore financial services to wealthy individuals and multinational corporations in a low-tax environment. However, e-commerce, and in particular e-gaming, has quickly grown to become the second pillar of the island's economy.
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04 Apr, 2013
The island of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands between England and France, is a self-governing British Crown dependency with a thriving offshore financial centre.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey includes the inhabited islands of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqou and Lihou. Guernsey itself is the second largest of the Channel Islands and is situated in the Gulf of St Malo 130 kilometres south of England and only 48 kilometres west of Normandy, France. The island has a land area of 65 sq. km.
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06 Mar, 2013
A tropical paradise in the centre of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles has successfully transitioned from an agricultural to a services-based economy within which tourism dominates. However, the government has actively encouraged the development of offshore financial services, and the finance industry now constitutes the ‘third pillar’ of the economy.
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27 Feb, 2013
They致e tried a number of times over the past decade or more, but the Indian government has failed every time to force the changes it wants to the India/Mauritius tax treaty to stop foreign investors from avoiding Indian taxes. With the two governments once again discussing this issue, this article examines the history of the dispute, and the possibilities for change.
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20 Feb, 2013
Offshore financial centers have long acted as a linking channel for investment between “high tax” countries, and this feature examines how modern international business trends and the demand for ever more sophisticated corporate structures has fueled the demand for offshore legal services. There has always been a certain level of demand for offshore legal services, particularly in the sphere of wealth management and asset protection. Understanding trust laws in a foreign jurisdiction often requires specialist help, and it can be difficult to establish complex corporate structures from afar, hence the presence of well-established networks of legal and corporate services providers in most offshore jurisdictions.
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03 Jan, 2013
To stand still in the fast-paced world of financial services is to get left behind, and for this reason the UK Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey...
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