Why Belize Still Remains an Attractive Offshore Tax Haven

Why?

Because the US is the world’s superpower and exacts such strong power and control over much of the world today and can inflict trade embargos, certain boycotts and the restriction of any international aid to countries it feels are illegally offering tax haven benefits to its citizens.

Other high tax jurisdictions, such as the major countries of the EU, are also being excluded from the tax haven benefits available in certain offshore jurisdictions as they have close ties to the US and UK and could also bring about trade isolation etc.

But Belize is Different.

In 1991 Belize began establishing itself as an offshore centre of note and introduced a series of offshore legislation designed to establish itself as one of the most attractive tax havens globally. It learned from the successes and mistakes of other tax havens around the world and designed its legislation carefully so that it would become THE most attractive tax haven globally. It began by allowing the creation of offshore corporations and it progressed to passing attractive trust law legislation which was developed upon and expanded throughout the 1990s.

By refusing to bow to world superpower pressure and by developing and improving offshore legislation Belize went from strength to strength as one of the most a credible and safe offshore havens.

Today, banks and international companies who base themselves in Belize find they benefit from a government committed to a no tax system and they work protected by laws and with infrastructure designed to ensure total privacy and provide complete asset protection.

Add to these benefits the fact that Belize’s primary language is English, the laws of the country are based on the British legal system and property prices and the cost of living in Belize are very low and you can see now why Belize remains one of THE most popular, successful and safe tax havens of the world...even for US citizens!

At this point (in 1996 to be precise) America began to pressurize Belize into joining a Mutual Assistance Treaty. Such a treaty requires information exchange to exist between the countries involved in it...information including the fiscal and banking records of residents and non-residents.

Belize agreed to sign an agreement but only agreed to cooperate with the information exchange policy where it would combat the likes of drug trafficking and international terrorism. Belize was not willing to disclose its banking information, nor was it willing to accept the need for disclosure of fiscal information where tax evasion was suspected for example.

This lack of complete cooperation was met with anger and hostility by the US and they punished Belize by placing it alongside the likes of Columbia on a list of countries unwilling to assist in the global battle against international drug trade and money laundering. The seriousness of America’s action must be stressed - Belize simply had to take positive action to remove itself from this list otherwise it would face the restriction of foreign aid, world political isolation etc and it would be crippled economically.

However Belize remained calm in the face of adversity!

And it remained true to its original convictions and continued to refuse to give in to the information exchanged demands of the US. Belize instead brought in further highly attractive offshore legislation to attract international banks to relocate to Belize!

At the same time it also introduced new privacy laws for the banks and it also included certain anti money laundering provisions such as America’s very own “know your client” rule.

This meant that Belize fell in step with US home banking policies!

Therefore America was no longer able to say that Belize was refusing to assist with the international prevention of money laundering and it had to remove Belize from its hit list! - August 2006