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Making Money Offering Services Offshore 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. 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:
Additionally, Harold and Olivia have done something else. 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. 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. 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. Why would Harold and Olivia use a Panamanian IBC and offshore Merchant Account if Jamaica offers a 100 percent tax exemption forever? 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.
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. 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. 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. 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). 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. 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. Panama's Key Factors:
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A 100 percent tax exemption forever
