If investing offshore an offshore bank account is an ideal option that will help enhance your ability to trade effectively and manage offshore assets using an international platform. Many offshore investors turn to offshore banking mainly because of the highly specialized services that offshore banks make available to their clients, even more so for corporations and private investors.
Among these are multicurrency accounts which have many benefits if managed carefully and are ideally designed for international offshore trading, whether in goods and services or stocks and bonds. Individuals involved in offshore banking and who have significant amounts of cash usually require fiduciary assistance, asset management and tax planning services that are tailored to cater to their financial considerations and objectives. And since most of these services are reliably obtained in offshore banking, thousands of offshore investors bank offshore to facilitate and safeguard both their domestic and foreign investments offshore.
Back home many services that are offered by offshore banks are either restricted to specific clients, limited in scope or unavailable and therefore are not very helpful for offshore investing and trading. Unlike offshore banking, knowledge about foreign markets is usually limited thus making technical support for investments offshore relatively scarce or non-existent except if the bank has specialized and trained staff in securities market trading.
For a very long time, offshore banking has been viewed as something available only to high net worth individuals and wealthy corporations, but toady offshore banking is better understood and is accessed by small, medium to large businesses, individuals and families who are seeking new strategic and effective ways of accumulating and preserving their wealth through offshore banking. Offshore banking is also not exclusive to tiny islands and offshore shelters, but exists in emerging markets that are currently attracting significant numbers of offshore investors and investments.
Due to the amount of privacy that offshore banking clients are provided with, legislation has been enacted internationally to implement measures for stiffer due diligence policies that enable offshore banks to obtain more personal details from their customers. Some agencies that have been actively engaged in regulating offshore banking activities include the Financial Action Task Force and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In an era when doing business is facilitated by swift internet and mobile networks, offshore banking has been made as simple as banking at home. Offshore banking customers are provided with offshore banking debit and credit cards including online log in access to online offshore banking facilities. These features of offshore banking makes it easy to access money, transfer and withdraw funds, check account balances and make payments. Offshore banking customers are able to open multiple accounts such as personal accounts, corporate accounts, offshore trading accounts and merchant accounts depending on their financial and corporate demands. These offshore banking accounts are usually denominated in different currencies, enabling offshore investors to conduct their affairs in all major currencies or in the currencies of their choice depending on the number of currencies made available by the offshore bank.
More complex offshore banking services further enhance the ability to reduce tax liabilities through offshore banking products like offshore companies, similar to Seychelles companies, (international business companies), offshore trusts and offshore foundations. Depending on the size of the offshore bank, more offshore banking products may be available providing a wider range of tax savings and tax deferral options.
Many people wonder if offshore banking is legal, and the response is: Yes it is. Countries that levy tax on international income would normally stipulate the maximum amount of money or value of assets that its citizens may hold offshore. In the United States, for example, no taxes are applied to assets amounting up to a maximum of USD10,000; meaning that any amount exceeding this would have to be reported and subject to US taxes. Other offshore banking laws exist for companies in the European Union under the EU Tax Savings Directives. These offshore banking policies suggest that corporations and individuals involved in or considering offshore banking should become conversant with the relevant tax laws and policies of their countries. Otherwise, offshore banking is safe and can produce numerous benefits once used wisely and effectively.
