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Why deal with one nation on its terms; when you can deal with all nations on your terms? . . This article should not be construed to be a recommendation to evade taxation, as that is not the message.  This artice is meant to convey the methods of structuring legitimate offshore eCommerce in such a way so that taxes are limited to personal income and so that corporate profits can enjoy the benefits of a preferable tax jurisdiction for online eCommerce. Readers are advised to consult the appropriate authorities in their individual nations to determine the laws of their nation.  No one knows the laws of every nation, we do not pretend to.  This article is not intended to be legal advice. Period. The nature of the information in all of our articles is intended to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered but because the legality of the information presented differs from nation to nation we make no claims as to the legality of the information presented - For clarification we request that you please read our <  Disclaimer > before reading this article. .. EscapeArtost Private Offshore Web Hosting is located in a high security offshore hosting facility with a wide range of services, including offshore hosting, offshore secure email, offshore secure chat, offshore secure forms and more.  The main focus of the company is to provide an uncompromised level of privacy to its clients. Pronto Offshore Hosting is a subsidiary of EscapeArtist.com -  EscapeArtist  Offshore Web Hosting A New Concept In Offshore Offshore Web Hosting + Offshore eCommerce  Offshore eCommerce is a new paradigm for doing business. In this article you'll learn what it is, how to use it to make an international income from any location in the world. A new paradigm is something new, but it is also something that has a strong potential to change the historic definition of the model being discussed. Deterritorialization: The New Paradigm Three factors have created a deterritorialized world: 1 - The End of the Cold War The end of the cold war opened up access to half the world that prior to that time was terra inconcessus or, off limits, to the other half of the world. Prague, Budapest, and other great Eastern European cities have now become a favored destination of young expatriates seeking a 1920’s Paris lifestyle in the 21st century.  These cities are also excellent and inexpensive places to go to college, places where one can get a top quality degree in medicine for 25% of what the same education would cost in the United States. (There are no artificial quotas that block out qualified students.)  Expatriates now live in China, Russia, Bulgaria, and a host of other locals that were totally off limits just a few short years ago.  In essence, the fall of the Berlin Wall opened up half the world as a potential expat destination; a destination in which to conduct business, buy real estate, retire on a modest income, find employment, or to develop a more expansive and unique lifestyle.

The advent of the internet is the second factor. 

Consider online eCommerce. 

Among the innumerable things that the development of the internet has changed for the better, online eCommerce has had the greatest effect in freeing humanity from the concept of ‘location,’ as a factor in owning and operating a business. It is now possible to run a business from virtual cyberspace while living anywhere in the world, choosing the most preferable jurisdiction as a tax base, and using any number of jurisdictions as they may apply to manufacturing, distribution, banking, web hosting, and other related factors.  Online eCommerce correctly structured, absolutely frees commerce from the vagaries of oppressive jurisdictions and opens up the entire world and all of its jurisdictions as a multifaceted grab bag of economic multiple choice. We can now freely choose how we want to run our business, where we want to locate it in cyber-space and under what sort of legal system and tax basis we want to place it. …and best of all, if it’s structured correctly it is absolutely legal for most citizens of the world. (Note: There are rogue nations that own their citizens, such a Libya, North Korea, and others.  It is advisable to determine what the laws are of your nation if you live in a nation that is not free.)

Why would we want to remain in a war zone like Detroit or Baltimore living behind locked doors when we could live on a Caribbean Island or a ranch in Argentina running an online internet business?  If offshore real estate can be had for 30% of what you’d pay in your current location, and you can now work where you live, and live where you work, how long do you think it’s going to take your neighbor to realize the same thing?  This concept has been explained in detail on this website and that is what this website is about.

Everything just stated about eCommerce can equally apply to long distance telecommuting – which also allows the individual to choose where they prefer to live on a global basis while working for a company on another continent.

3- The Globalization of the Economy

The third factor is the globalization of the economy.  We now live in a world with a globalized economy.  Yes, there are some who are disadvantaged by a globalized economy and there are powerful nations that take advantage of smaller nations, but that has always been the way of free trade since the time of the pharaohs.  Under optimum conditions, free trade offers anyone with intelligence a chance to earn a living. 

It isn't necessary to leave the nation in which you now find yourself living in order to make use of eCommerce. There are three ways to set yourself free; the first is to do offshore eCommerce, the second and third involve leaving or not leaving the the nation in which you currently live.

Applying Deterritorialization To Making Money

If we as individuals are entering a deterritorialized world, so too can we as individuals utilize the capacity to make money through deterritorialized, [nationless,] business practices. In fact, there is every incentive to do so, because the benefits are much greater, the freedom unencumbered by meaningless legislation, the playing field more equalized and open to a wider range of possibilities. Plus the money we make belongs to us, not to some bullet-headed government official who didn't earn it and doesn't respect its worth. Only the laboring individual respects money, governments seek to squander it, because they do nothing to earn it. 

Most, if not all of the Fortune Five Hundred companies are international companies. Registering their companies offshore is a standard practice.  For example; many German firms that have large subsidiaries in Brazil have those subsidiaries registered as Panamanian Companies.  Why?  If they had their companies registered in Brazil they would be subject to immense taxation on their profits and they would be stuck using the Real, the Brazilian currency. If on the other hand they repatriated the earned money to Germany they would be subject to immense taxation on profits. By keeping the subsidiary Panamanian their tax obligations look like this: 

Tax Base On Panamanian IBC's for Foreign Source Income
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What kept smaller companies and individuals out of the game in the past was the geographical isolation of the individual vis a vis the world market. A few short years ago someone trying to sell a product internationally faced a daunting task as regards international regulations, astronomical advertising revenue requirements, difficult communication requirements, impossible shipping requirements, and oppressive legal requirements.  If they wanted to sell a product, and they lived in Libya, they were more or less stuck in Libya.  The requirements of going to a preferable location entailed a tremendous outlay of cash, not counting the market research required, the testing of the product via market research with huge cash outlays in advertising, relocation costs, immigration, legal obstacles and so on.  All these prohibiting factors have become meaningless factors with the advent of the world wide web. The world now consists of a global economy and the market for products is now global. Putting ones product before the entire world now is as simple as building a web site.  However, the standard procedure for commerce continued, because standard entrepreneurs used standard entrepreneurial procedures, failing to recognize that the opening of a world eMarket also heralded the opening of jurisdictional preference. i.e. If you live in Libya, you don't have to keep your web site, banking and business in Libya, you can move it to a jurisdiction that has preferable eCommerce incentives, just like the Fortune Five Hundred companies did and do. And you don't have to leave Libya to do so. i.e. Your business is offshore, regardless of where you happen to be sitting.
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The Property Of The State Shall Obey The States Wishes

The implications of this are staggering. Colonel Quadafi isn't going to like it. But even if he would try to write legislation against it, a daunting task in itself, because it amounts to saying that if you live in Libya you are a prisoner, (which might be true,) there is absolutely no way for Colonel Quadafi to know if any smart Libyan is running eCommerce offshore. In most civilized nations they don't have legislation against it, and most nations recognize that there isn't much they could do to stop it.  Even the USA would find the task of saying, 'you cannot open a hamburger stand in Brazil, nor a dive shop in Honduras, nor a chocolate chip cookie store in Paris,' a very difficult order. The distinction in the case of eCommerce, is that the location is virtual, and the profits paid to a corporation, (they were earned in Panama, which has no taxation on foreign source income,) while in the corporal act of opening a physical location in Tegucigalpa, the 'brick and mortar,' is a dead give-away that you are involved in commerce, that you are clearly making a personal profit and hence subject to taxation, both by Honduras and Libya, (if you are Libyan.)  It is important to note that once an individual takes money as profit from the Corporation that money is taxable if he is an American citizen.  As long as the money remains in the Corporation it is not taxable by Panama if it is earned from outside Panama.  In the case of opening a dive shop in Honduras, one can of course still make use of offshore eCommerce. If your clients are from Canada and they want to come to Honduras and dive with you, you can use an offshore merchant account and web site to take payment. The money does not enter Honduras, nor does it enter Canada.  It stays offshore in your Panamanian IBC bank account. Using our private offshore web hosting facility with its warp speeds also bypasses the need to use a web hosting company in a nation that doesn't respect privacy, or a government-scrutinized web hosting company in Honduras, which may be slow, expensive and undependable.  Using a Panamanian bank also allows you to bill in U.S. dollars rather than Honduran Lempira. Having to use the Honduran Lempira entails a loss of revenue through currency exchange fees.  Offshore eCommerce can be used for any business worldwide, even businesses you already own. In the case where there is a combination of both virtual offshore company coupled with a brick and mortar company, it requires that you separate what you pay to Peter and what you pay to Paul. Offshore money over the web, taxable dollars over the counter.

Separate The Sheep From The Goats An excellent modality for separating one aspect of your existing business from the other would be to create two separate companies. In the case of the dive-shop in Honduras, one company might be Billies Honduran Dive Tours Company, another might be Billies Dive Tours Reservations Company.  One company operates on the ground in Honduras, the other, online offshore.  The reservation division would be a separate entity from the dive business.  If you give the matter some thought, you can see how this concept can be applied to any business. (Note: I am of course only using Honduras as an example. The concept may be applied to any nation the reader wishes; Costa Rica, Italy, the Dominican Republic, or Libya.)

Flimsy Toyota Pick-Up After Having Hit A Solid Object

I once purchased a Toyota Four Wheel drive truck, that turned out to be a lemon.  I halted payment on the truck, because the dealer failed to address my complaints that the truck had a faulty clutch.  When we went into court, I found out that in my haste for justice I had quit making payments to Toyota Credit Corporation, not to Toyota Motors Corporation. Two separate companies.  They won the case.  I later found out that the model was indeed known to have a faulty clutch. I also learned that having more than one IBC is smart business, whether we are crooks like Toyota Motors, or just honest individuals trying to protect our earnings. I cannot think of a business that cannot benefit from using online offshore eCommerce. If you are reading this article and you cannot see how this might apply to your business, then think about the problem creatively. What is required is to find an aspect of what you do that can be done online, even if it only makes up a percentage of what you do.  That percentage will have a larger margin of left-over profit than the other percentage.

What must be stressed, is that regardless if we own a brick & mortar business, or a offshore IBC, one fact remains the same; and that is that we own a business in a location. An IBC located in Panama, is an entity existing in Panama, a paper interface that acts as a legal entity in your behalf. A brick & mortar dive shop in Honduras, Key Largo, or Sabratha, on the Mediterranean in Libya, are each and all also located in a specific location.  There is nothing exotic about owning an IBC, it is a legal entity and everyone who is rich owns at least one, possibly several.  When you buy stocks, you are buying stock in a corporation just like your IBC.  When you own an offshore IBC you usually own the entire company.  But you can also sell stock in it, or have partners.  Essentially there is no difference between a dive shop in Honduras and an IBC in Panama, as far as their standing in being a company, and thereby a business. It is not illegal to be in business, nor is it illegal to form an IBC.  In terms of the brick & mortar versus the offshore IBC, it is the matter of jurisdiction and structure that separates the two in composition,  jurisdiction being the important factor.  Each has distinct advantages, but the IBC has no disadvantages, while the brick & mortar is subject to confiscation, taxation and is difficult to turn into liquidity in times of need. 

The use of an IBC for eCommerce is the most logical modality for profitable eCommerce. Coupled with brick and mortar it creates liquidy, privacy and safety, while lowering ones exposure to the vagaries of government idiocy.

Using Your Offshore Income to Establish a Second (Safe Haven) Residence Offshore & Using Offshore eCommerce To Sell Products

Establishing a second residence offshore is a very sound idea. Having a second residency, even a modest beach cabin in Belize, Panama or the Caribbean is an important step towards protecting your family's future against the unforseen. I'll explain how to achieve this on the next page. Using Offshore eCommerce to sell products is a excellent avenue to making money.  On the next page I'll also tell you about someone who really knows how to pick products and how they go about doing it. 

Go To Page Two - Using Your Offshore Income to Establish a Second (Safe Haven) Residence - Picking Products To Sell Online -
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