Non-U.S. Banks Are Beginning To Comply With FATCA Regulations We knew it was coming. Non-U.S. banks are beginning to comply with IRS regulations under FATCA. A friend wrote yesterday to say that her bank in Belize has sent her a letter explaining what they are doing to comply with the FATCA requirements and a waiver [...]
Gold Rings And Mustard Packs--Don't Let This Happen To You A colleague in Panama wrote to a bunch of friends last week alerting us to a scam currently being run in Panama City by a group of Colombians. A Colombian woman called her sister's apartment and asked to speak with the "child" of the house. [...]
I had the chance to return to Colombia last month for the Live and Invest Overseas conference in Medellin. After that visit and the opportunity to meet again with developer, investor, property, and banker contacts there, I’m happy to report that Colombia makes as much sense for investment today as it did when I first started looking […]
What's Wrong With This Picture? Last week, friend Paul Terhorst sent me a picture of a security chain lock on the door of the room in the hotel where he's staying in Laos. The thing was installed backwards, effectively making the lock useless. When I looked at the photo, I shook my head and thought [...]
The Easiest, Smartest First Step To Internationalizing Your Life Editor's Note: Lief is busy today co-hosting Live and Invest Overseas' Retire Overseas Conference taking place in San Antonio, Texas. He has suggested, therefore, that we rerun an Offshore Living Letter classique, the inaugural issue from January 2012. Lief will be back online Monday, in time for your next [...]
Time To File Form 8938 The second round of this year's U.S. tax season is coming to a close. Any U.S. person who applied for an extension must file his tax return by next Monday, Oct. 15. After weeks of procrastination and one miserable weekend, mine are almost finished. The big change this year is [...]
The Offshore Life With Kids Some folks' "going offshore" plan involves moving some cash to an offshore bank account. And that's great. At the other end of the spectrum is a fellow I met with today who up-ended his young family and moved to Panama well before retirement age. With two kids and a wife [...]
I met last week with a banker from a bank I’ve worked with for years. In conversation, I lamented the difficulties we would-be account-holders face these days when trying to deal with banks around the world, especially if the passports we hold are American. She responded to point out that it’s not only account-holders who […]
The Cost Of Holding Can Be More Important Than The Cost Of Buying I read recently about a home owner's association in Florida foreclosing on units because owners are delinquent with their HOA fees. The article focused on a couple of condo complexes where the monthly HOA fees had been increased to the point where [...]
Pay For What You See "'Buy what you see,' you tell us all the time, Lief," wrote a reader recently. "Yet, at the same time, you promote pre-construction investments. How does that make any sense?" Perhaps I should adjust the mantra from "Buy what you see" to "Pay for what you see." Taken literally, Buy [...]
Offshore Living Letter is a publication of Live and Invest Overseas. Our goal is to provide timely, actionable information on all things offshore, including: how to go offshore, diversifying your portfolio, wealth creation, protecting your assets, and much more.
