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| Offshore
eCommerce Can Make You Rich: Page Three |
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| Making
Money Offering Services Offshore |
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| An imaginary
couple, Harold and Olivia run a Telephone Answering and Serviced
Office Center for other offshore corporations. Let us imagine that they
operate their center out of the Free Trade Zone in Jamaica. Let us
further imagine that they use the latest in computer & telephone
technology to make their service ‘state of the art’ and totally ‘data encrypted.’
What this means is that Harold and Olivia have as their true product the
commodity of privacy. |
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| It would be
suspected that they have all the business they can handle from the growing
number of global expats looking for business privacy. (I’d be happy
to find such a service!) Because Harold and Olivia operate out
of the Montego Bay Free Trade Zone, they are entitled to the following:A
100 percent tax exemption forever, complete exemption from import licensing,
exemption from import duties, full freedom to repatriate profits up to
original capital without approval of the Central Bank. Additionally, Harold
and Olivia have done something else. |
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| They
have formed a Panamanian International Business Corporation (IBC) and use
a Offshore Merchant Account and a Offshore Bank Account. Their corporation,
does all its billing by debiting their clients credit cards directly.
Therefor all of the money they take in from their clients goes directly
into an offshore bank located in a “no-tax jurisdiction” outside
of Jamaica (and away from any eyes other than that of their own.)
Their own checks that are written inside of Jamaica are written by Harold
and Olivia themselves (on a local Jamaican checking account,) to pay their
employees and for other local expenses. Because Montego Bay has the
huge Jamaica Digiport International (JDI) earth-satellite station, the
Serviced Office of Harold and Olivia is more than just top rate. |
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| Their Serviced
Office Center can do: credit authorization, reservation services, toll-free
numbers, image processing, electronic publishing, mailing lists, and a
host of other telephony services most corporation services have not a clue
to. Additionally, they can provide these services with a degree of
privacy that does not and can not exist in the United States. (There are
a great many government agencies inside the United States that are set
up to protect us against privacy, because it is assumed that anyone who
wants privacy is a terrorist.) Because Harold and Olivia provide
jobs for sixteen Jamaicans, the island of Jamaica has little to complain
about and much to be happy for. |
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| Harold and
Oliva have happy clients, whose privacy and intelligence is respected in
a way that is uncommon in today’s world; their clients are respected as
if a human being's privacy and intelligence really mattered. |
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| Why would
Harold and Olivia use a Panamanian IBC and offshore Merchant Account if
Jamaica offers a 100 percent tax exemption forever? |
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| The 100 percent
tax exemption forever is an exemption against Jamaican taxes, not US taxes,
and if Harold and Olivia are Americans they are taxable by the US on everything
they earn wherever they earn it. Hence, the US views their Jamaican
income as taxable. But in the case of the Panamanian IBC, because
the money is earned by an offshore corporation, Harold and Olivia are not
liable for the money the corporation earns until they take it out of the
IBC account as personal income. They can even put a little check
mark on their Income Tax Return that states they own an offshore IBC, as
it is not illegal to own an offshore IBC, and the US likes people to put
the little check mark, because the US government has no way to know that
Harold and Olivia own an offshore IBC unless Harold and Olivia tell them
so. |
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| In this way,
Harold and Olivia can have their IBC pay their Jamaican branch only operational
expenses, thereby keeping their tax exposure and tax obligations to absolute
zero. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion will exclude up to $78,000 of
earned income (wages or self-employment income,) so Harold and Olivia can
pay themselves $78,000 each, because they live overseas. (There are
additional perks which we discuss in the article - Earn
Up To $78,000 Abroad Tax Free - Keep The Rest in an IBC - in our
Offshore Web Hosting / Offshore eCommerce section.) To clarify, Harold
and Olivia can take a combined income of $156,000 tax free as long as they
live overseas. |
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| All perfectly
legal. The bulk of their income stays in their IBC account, being
invested into real estate, gold, stocks, bonds, boats, or bushels of wheat.
See the article 'Earn Up To $78,000 Abroad Tax Free - Keep The Rest in
an IBC,' for greater clarification and for creative ways to use the Foreign
Earned Income Exclusion. |
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| In the above
scenario we used Jamaica for the expat business location, but Panama now
has better telecommunications than Jamaica. Panama's new continental
Fiber-optic network links directly into the U.S. backbone, giving Panama
the fastest offshore speeds in the world. It is possible to set up a low-cost
telephone system in Panama from the free trade zone that will rival any
telephone system in the world. |
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| The same legal
structuring is required. The operator needs a Panamanian IBC, an offshore
merchant account or biling system, along with a corporate banking capacity
and a website hosted offshore. Our web hosting company currently
provides structuring with a variety of packages to choose from. |
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| Services,
such as Offshore Call Centers and Offshore Fulfillment are going to be
in great demand as more and more companies move into offshore eCommerce.
Panama is in the right place at the right time with the right infrastructure. |
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| Its preferential
tax structure coupled with its modern attitudes are creating the new Hong
Kong of the Americas. It is destined to be the shipping capital of the
world. The entire nation is a port, couple with the new Super Port that
will have shipping, coast to coast rail, plus the new Colon International
Airport – which was recently awarded in a concession for 30 plus 30 years
to Consortia San Lorenzo (CSL). |
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| The airport
component of CSL is comprised of Airport Consulting Vienna and Birk Hillman
from
Orlando, Florida. Together they will undertake the development of one of
the largest cargo airports in Latin America. They both have a vast amount
of experience in the construction and operations of airports around the
world and in the region. The amazing tidbit about Colon International Airport
is that it will be the first airport constructed completely within an existing
free zone and completely privately operated. |
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| The time it
takes for goods to move onto airplanes is greatly reduced due to the inter
connections within the free zone and the logistical centers. With private
professional security in place, the post September 11 effects are not as
heavily impacted as conventional airports due to initial design with security
in mind. With the increasing number of freight and passengers into the
Atlantic Coast of Panama, the airport will be profitable in a very short
time allowing for the construction of a runway large enough to accommodate
the new very large aircraft. |
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| Panama's
Key Factors: |
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| 1.) Panama’s
Gifted Geographical Location and Economy – spin the globe any which
way and Panama always remains in the center. East – West / North – South.
The distance between oceans is only some 54 kilometers apart. Panama is
also the only foreign country in the world that has had the US dollar as
it legal currency throughout its history. |
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| 2.) The
Panama Canal – the canal averages over 14,000 transits a year which
translates to annual toll revenue of over $575 million. There are an average
of 28 ships awaiting transit on each ocean 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. |
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| 3.) The
Largest Port System in Latin America – the development of the port
system has only begun some 8 years before but has already become the largest
in Latin America. |
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| 4.) Use
of the US Dollar - No exchange controls, no devaluations. |
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| 5.) A Perfect
Record of Banking Secrecy. Panama is a real nation with real banks.
Not brass-plate banks like the Cayman Islands, Bahama and Bermuda, but
huge skyrises with banks from around the world. Panama has become the Hong
Kong of Latin America. |
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