C. Brooks, CPA, Pennsylvania
"Best book on tax havens I've ever read."


John S. Southwick, Mass.
"Your book is better than Marshall Langer's Practical International Tax Planning."


tax lawyer - NYU School of Law
I commend you on your jurisprudential reasoning and treatment of international tax matters discussed in your newsletter


Certified Public Account, with offices in Newton, Mass., and Providence, R.I
"I have devoured the book already, twice. What shocks me is the detail and accuracy of your book."


Certified Public Account, with offices in Newton, Mass., and Providence, R.I
"I have devoured the book already, twice. What shocks me is the detail and accuracy of your book."


comments from a Certified Public Account, with offices in Newton, Mass., and Providence R.I.
"I don't know where to begin describing my happiness with the purchase of Tax Havens of the World. I have devoured every word of the book already, twice. What shocks me is the detail and accuracy of your boo. I have asked tax lawyers everywhere the same topics, and the only answer I get is that ... offshore is not possible ... and I don't do any. Great Answer."


Captain Mike Burke, Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, Ltd., Miami, Florida
"I'd like to meet you since you've taken the time and effort to pass this useful information along to me. How about being my guest on a cruise sometime in the future?"


C. Brooks, CPA, Pennsylvania
"Best book on tax havens I've ever read."


John S. Southwick, Mass.
"Your book is better than Marshall Langer's Practical International Tax Planning."


international tax lawyer, a graduate of the NYU School of Law, whose law firm has offices in Geneva, London [Imperial House] and the United States
"I would like to repeat that I find your analysis of the Tax Code to be excellent. I enjoy each and every issue of the Tax Haven Reporter. I commend you on your jurisprudential reasoning and treatment of international tax matters discussed in your newsletter. Please let me know if you would be interested in receiving articles for publication dealing with other specific areas of international tax law and/or estate planning such as e.g., Swiss Banking Secrecy, use of trusts, doing business in Russia, or Tax Haven related topics of interest."


Book Description
Tax Havens of the World (8th edition/2003) covers all the major havens, including the Caymans, Bahamas, Bermuda, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Singapore, etc. The author has over 18 years reading and writing about tax havens and the US Tax Code that covers their use and abuse. Learn how non-resident aliens trade NYSE stocks, bonds, options and commodities - TAX FREE -legally - offshore like thousands of offshore banks and companies (IBCs) do! Avoid federal income and estate taxes with the latest "trend" - the foreign offshore estate. US (domestic) estates - even with the repeal of the federal estate tax after 2010 - will still be subjected to Federal income and gift taxes, as well as State income, inheritance and estate taxes too! See page 254 of this edition. The Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla and Bermuda have no personal income taxes, no corporate income taxes, no capital gains taxes, no withholding taxes, no estate, gift or inheritance taxes, no sales taxes, no employment taxes, no death duties, and no probate fees. Guarantees against future taxes are provided by these governments for periods up to 50 years. Exempt trusts can receive a guarantee up to 100 years.


From the Publisher
New 2003 (8th edition) of Tax Havens of the World is my best work. - the author. The author has over 13 years hands-on experience offshore in the no-tax havens of the Bahamas and Anguilla.The author is the head consultant for an offshore firm that has formed over 1,300 companies and a like number of trusts in these Caribbean jurisdictions. The First edition of Tax Havens of the World by Thomas Azzara was in 1985 - 18 years of continuos publication.


From the Author
New 2003 (8th edition) of Tax Havens of the World is my best work. - the author.


From the Inside Flap
"Over and over again the courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does so, rich or poor, and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more tax than the law demands; taxes are enforced extractions, not voluntary contributions." - Judge Learned Hand "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest amount of hissing." - Jean Babtiste Colbert (French Statesman: Minister of Finance - 1619 - 83) C. Brooks a CPA from Pennsylvania writes.. "Best book on tax havens I've ever read." "They have no right to put their hands in my pockets." - General George Washington (1732 - 99) "The absence of income or significant corporate income taxes, along with political stability, is the bedrock on which foreign investment in The Bahamas has been built." - Embassy of the United States (Nassau, Bahamas) (April, 1990) "One of the most effective applications of offshore trusts is in an ownership combination with a limited company." - Richard Graham-Taylor, partner Ernst & Young, Grand Cayman (January 1990) "The legal right of a taxpayer to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes, or to altogether avoid them by means which the law permits, cannot be doubted." - United States Supreme Court, Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465 (1934) "There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist - the taxidermist leaves the hide." - Mortimer Caplin


About the Author
The author has over 13 years hands-on experience offshore in the no-tax havens of the Bahamas and Anguilla.The author is the head consultant for an offshore firm that has formed over 1,300 companies and a like number of trusts in these Caribbean jurisdictions. The First edition of "Tax Havens of the World" by Thomas Azzara was in 1985 - 18 years of continuous publication.


Excerpted from Tax Havens of the World by Thomas Azzara. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Other legal tax loopholes Offshore banks and companies are not subject to U.S. capital gains taxes on their publicly traded Wall Street type stock, bond, and commodity trades. The United States has never taxed the capital gains of the non-resident alien, unless the foreigner was "doing business within the U.S.". "Doing business within the United States", generally means operating through a U.S. office or permanent establishment from within the U.S. However, the U.S. tax code even exempts a non-resident company from U.S. capital gains taxes even when it does have an office and staff inside the U.S., and if all the company’s business amounts to merely trading in the Stock Market. From his home or office on Fifth Avenue in New York, or the Sears Tower in Chicago, or from Beverly Hills, any person working for an offshore company could call his broker at Merrill Lynch or Paine Webber and day trade NYSE, NASDAQ or AMEX listed securities 1,000 times a week, and no tax on the profits would be owed the U.S.Treasury. Today, nearby tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Panama, Barbados, Anguilla and The Bahamas rival the industrial cities including London, Tokyo and New York for business. The pint-sized Cayman Islands now boast more commercial banks (600+) in the commercial registrar than in all California. The dollars on deposit in these Cayman banks exceeds $800 billion, which is also more than all the commercial banks in California. The Bahamas, just 50 miles off the coast of Florida, was once the third largest financial center in the world next to New York and London. Today, the Bahamas ranks in the top ten as a financial center, just behind the Cayman Islands. There are more than 390 banks and trust companies registered here in Nassau. The Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, Anguilla and Bermuda have no personal income taxes, no corporate income taxes, no capitol gains taxes, no withholding taxes, no estate, gift or inheritance taxes, no sales taxes, no employment taxes, no death duties, and no probate fees. These governments for periods up to 50 years provide guarantees against future taxes. Exempt trusts can receive guarantee up to 100 years. Unfortunately, the American taxpayer cannot qualify very easily for the aforementioned tax exemptions allowed nonresidents; unless, he can avoid both the Controlled Foreign Corporation provisions enacted during the Kennedy Administration and the Passive Foreign Investment Company provisions enacted in 1986. Most tax attorneys and big 8 accounting firms will probably tell you that this is not possible. This is not to imply that U.S. taxpayers don’t attempt to secure the above tax exemption afforded foreigners anyway. They do. The bottom line is, while the foreign investor can get a complete tax exemption from U.S. capital gains taxes from the U.S. government on its publicly traded stock, bond and commodity transactions, the U.S. person operating in an almost identical manner is taking on risk. The investment-banking firm of Warburg, Dillon Read (on Park Ave. N.Y.) has offices in 39 foreign countries - including the Bahamas, Hong Kong and the Channel Islands. Makes you wonder why, doesn't it? And, Warburg, Dillion Read are not the only large U.S. investment firms offshore. The list of U.S. companies with operations in the tax havens is too long to name here, but include Brown Brothers/Harriman & Company (Cayman), Solomon Brothers (Bahamas), CitiCorp Bank & Trust (Bahamas), Chase Manhattan (Cayman Islands). UPDATE: Manhattan Prosecutor Criticizes Caymans Tax Pact By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON - December 8, 2001 New York Times "Federal Reserve data show that $800 billion is being held in Cayman Islands accounts for Americans, an amount equal to roughly one-third of all domestic bank deposits." Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, is critical of the agreement that Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill signed last week with the Cayman Islands to share information that would help the United States track down suspected income tax evaders, calling it "a sham." Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau told senators recently that about $800 billion in U.S. dollars is on deposit at some 600 banks licensed in the Cayman Islands -- more than twice the amount deposited in all New York City banks combined. UPDATE: Enron, it is said, had approximately 600 subsidiaries registered in Cayman. None of them were listed in the local telephone directory and it is likely that they comprised little more than pieces of paper in filing cabinets at the offices of the Cayman law firm of Hunter & Hunter, which provided registered agent services to Enron. Source: Offshore Alert (2-11-2002)(email "FlashNews")