When I bought an apartment in Portugal last year, my standard offshore holding structure ran into a snag. Portugal has a black list of tax-advantaged countries that includes Nevis, where my LLC holding structure is set up. Using that Nevis entity to hold title to the apartment would have cost me unnecessary taxes in Portugal. […]
Example: Croatia Croatia was a good example of this a decade ago, before this country joined the EU. Back then (which is when I invested here), Croatia imposed a restriction on the foreign purchase of real estate… a form of reciprocity. For you to be able to buy property in Croatia, Croatians had to be […]
The tax questions are coming in fast and furious from U.S. readers as they and their tax-preparers pull together 2014 tax returns (due April 15 unless you are residing overseas or file for an extension). Some of the bad advice readers are getting from their tax “pros” would be funny if it weren’t so expensive. […]
The doctor I found was part of the health insurance plan that I had recently signed up for. He was listed as a primary care physician, but his specialty was cardiology. On my first visit for an annual checkup, the first thing the guy did was hook me up to some electrodes to check my […]
The IRS is in the news again, this time for confiscating the bank accounts of small businesses operating mostly on a cash basis. One restaurant owner had her bank account frozen by the IRS. She had US$33,000 in the account, which represented the entirety of her operating capital. Effectively, the IRS put her out of […]
A consulting client came into our office yesterday to ask me some questions about how to structure property investments he’s making in Panama and Colombia. This client has been working with attorneys in both of these countries as well as in the country where he set up his LLC, but he wanted to make sure […]
“A partner and I built an Internet business, then sold it about a year ago. Suddenly, I had some real money, and I thought I should get serious about what to do with it…where to put it.” The young man went on to explain that he attended an international money conference, where he met an […]
