Barbados

As typing in to Google "Barbados offshore" found most results in a "bank" added to the previous quote,  I can certainly say that Barbados is mostly used for offshore banking. Barbados is the 51st richest country in the world looking at the GDP per capita. With a very well developed and mixed economic system.

Belize

Belize is an country on the board of central America, bordering Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean sea. It's the country with the lowest population density in the central America. Belize has a large variety of culture and languages, mainly due its location, a place where many travelers, explorers and fighters have gone trough. The main language of Belize is English, but due to the variety of the culture, many different languages are used in the every day life such as English creole and Spanish. Well know as the place of birth of chewing gum and Punta music.

Offshore fund

An offshore found is a fund, that is located in another place than the residence of the found holder. Many offshore financial centers are available as places for investment. Offshore funds are often regarded as collective investment schemes and the as the main from of offshoring where the underground economy comes from, thought the usage of shell companies allowing for some to complete tax evasion.

Why are offshore funds used?

Business process outsourcing

Business process outsourcing means the movement of an essential or non essential part of a business to another country. Now days even if the country's right next to yours it can still be regarded as an offshore or most likely near shore. Most large manufacturers or it service providers are know to outsource some part of their business chain to another location due to lower costs or another aspect that makes their business more effective.

Most popular places for Business process outsourcing:

How Europe parliament elections 2014 could change the offshore business?

In short - it shouldn't, but it could, because the EU parliament will have more power over the EU more than ever after this years elections. 2014 elections take place from 22-25 may and are going to take place in all of the Europe Union countries. In 2013 EU parliament made a document of its intentions regarding the elimination of Tax heavens and offshore financial transactions that could impact its budget and resources.

Anguilla

Anguilla is a country in the Caribbean and also one of the British overseas territories. Composed of the main island of Anguilla and a couple of smaller islands. The main gross domestic product comes from the tourism, fishing, offshore company and bank creation, also captive insurance. The official language is English and some adaptations of the English language are mostly used for communication. Most of the population is black with around 4% white and 3% of mixed descent.

Bahamas

The Bahamas is an island country composed of more that 700 islands. Population of around 310000. The official language of the country is English and its also the most used language in every day life and in business. The official currency of Bahamas is Bahamas dollar having the same value as the US dollar.

Offshore investment

The most simple way of explaining offshore investments are to just to say that the founds of a person are keep in another country differing from the owners residence.

Why invest in an offshore jurisdiction?

• The most common reason is tax advantages. Some countries have mutual treaties for double tax avoidance, this can be exploited to lover the tax of some finances.

Seychelles

Seychelles is yet another island country,only this time it found in the Indian Ocean. As with every island country most of its gross domestic product comes from the export of goods, mostly salmon, and also from tourism. The population of Seychelles is very mixed. Having British sailors, French settlers, Africans, and traders from the Middle East. The most widely used language is creole, but french and English are also the official languages in the country. For business English is mostly used.

Business in Latvia 2014

The year 2014 brings another thing from the Europe Union to the Latvian business system - Euro. A new currency, now used in the most of the EU countries, brings new business opportunities, easier payments and lower fees on currency handling. As there are many things that may happen to the economic system since the introduction on euro one can only hope the best. The business should grow and should the count of newly formed businesses. As so the Euro-zone should bring new heights to the Latvian economy and so increasing the GDP and even reduction of the public debt.

 The ease of starting a business in Latvia

Most of the statistic below are from doingbusiness.org
As with every passing year 2014 is no different, with an even better score that the previous years. Due to some reforms that took place when the euro replaced the lat, it's even easier to from a business in Latvia. The time taken and costs of incorporation have decreased. Less effort is required to gain construction permits. Since there in no longer a cost for currency exchange, trading across borders is easier than ever

Changes that have already taken place

An article on the changes that have already taken place in the fist quarter of 2014 due to Euro in Latvia - News.

Expected increase in the GDP

Most of Latvian bank forecasts suggest a increase of around 4% in the Gross domestic product of the year 2014. The expectation at the end of 2013 was around 4.7%. But the first quarter of this year has already passed and the expectations have been lowered to around 4.3%. The same amount if increase is expected in the following year of 2015.

More information on the introduction of euro in Latvia here (RU).

Offshoring

Offshoring is the term for any form of thing that is done abroad the country from with the person of action is resident. The most popular offshore processes are

• Banking
• Trusts
• Investment
• Fund

International business company

International business company is a type of an offshore company that is formed under a law of a specific jurisdiction as a company that is not allowed to engage in business in the country of incorporation and is untaxed.

IBC usually are recognized for:

• Complete local tax evasion, as long as it's not engaged in business in the country of incorporation, the annual reports may still have to be filled and the yearly agents and registration fees may still have to be paid.
• Confidentiality -  preserving the company owners personal data.
• Wide range of business  - The scope of the range may depend on the country in witch the company is incorporated.

Most know for and usually incorporated IBC are in these countries:

• Barbados
• Anguilla 
• Bahamas
• Belize 
• Brunei
• Dominica 
• Marshall Islands
• Seychelles
• Saint Vincent

Only on couple of these countries I have information in my blog. So there are a couple of upcoming articles needed to be written about the new countries in the previously mentioned list.

Cook Islands

Cook islands offer a fast, cheap and easy incorporation capabilities. In addition having nil corporate tax and low yearly fee. Only a yearly file return is mandatory, no account fillings are required.

Known for

The islands are mainly know for the vast tourist attractions, fishing, financial services and agriculture.

Political structure

Formally Cook islands where under the New Zealand jurisdiction, but now its a self governing structure under with only around 19 thousand citizens.

Language

The official language of the country is English and native language of Maori is also widely spoken.

Currency

The official currency still remains the same as it was before it was a self governing structure - New Zealand dollar.

Marshall Islands

Republic of the Marshal Islands, an independent sovereign island country located in the north Pacific ocean. Having more sophisticated infrastructure than any other country of the region and stable political and economical system due to finishing and recently developed tourism industry. Although sometimes reffed to as "controlled tourism", but still for most offering a great place for fishing, sailing or scuba diving in one of the lagoons. Offering great flexibility, great tax free solutions as long as your business doesn't engage in on of the following activities:

• Insurance

Offshore trust

Trust that is formed using the laws of the specific offshore country is called an offshore trust. The general idea is the same as with an onshore trust, only difference is that the laws are different. Usual choices for an offshore trust are in countries with more favorable laws that in the country of the trustee residence.

Usual uses of an offshore trust

One of the most common use for an offshore trust is asset protection. 

Capital markets or finance transaction in a company witch shares are held by a trustee.

There are even more uses for the use of a trust, but the main idea and purpose of a trust is complete legal confidentiality for the actual owner of any thing of value.

Trustee

Trustee is refereed to as an physical of legal person who has entitled the rights of the investors funds, real estate, or even company. The trustee is vied by the law as the owner of any of the previous mentioned things, but is not the actual owner. This is the main purpose of trusts, as to legally change the owner of a said thing, with a legal document that states that the actual owner is a different person.

Offshore banking

Offshore bank is a bank that is in a different country that the banks account holder country of residence. Making any bank, that allows non residents to create a bank account an offshore bank.
Offshore banking would be the use of any banking services in an offshore bank.

2014 tax changes

I'm going to compose a list of some of the notable changes to VAT tax that took place around the start of 2014.

Double taxation treaty

Double taxation treaty is a treaty between two countries that allows the taxes to be paid in one of the involved countries. Sometimes called Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, this title is a better representation of the treaty, because the treaties are for tax double tax avoidance, not for double tax enforcement.

Cayman Islands

Cayman islands are yet another British colony falling under the United Kingdom colony jurisdiction and sovereignty. The richest one of the Caribbean territories. Leading as the financial and economic center of the islands. The local registered company count in the Cayman islands is surpassing the local population count  more than three times not even counting the rest of the registered companies. With no corporation tax on most of the business conducted outside the Cayman islands and easy maintain ship of the companies, making Cayman islands another great place to incorporate your company. 

Tax heaven

What is a tax heaven?

Tax heaven is usually referred to as an offshore country or corporation. That offers some to all tax exemption. Each year there are more laws set in place in order to disallow the use of tax heavens, but there are may loopholes still available. Also most countries where the tax heaven are created usually provide little to no information to foreign tax authorities.