Tax avoidance is fine. Tax evasion is illegal, no matter where you reside. A U.S. Supreme Court Judge stated: "The tax-payer has a right to so arrange his affairs as to make his tax as low as possible." And a French Chancellor: "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."

Punitive taxes are among the major obstacles in accumulating wealth today. Think of this. High-tax countries, i.e. most of the Western world, endeavour to relieve you of more than half your income while you are alive and working.

After you have gone, it will try to take at least 50% of what you have left, in estate/inheritance/death tax.

As privacy is eroded, most Western countries are following the United States' example. Frivolous, indiscriminate, costly litigation abounds, with lawsuits appearing everywhere and for everything. Well-informed lawyers know exactly what your assets amount to, and can ruthlessly pursue their clients' claims to them, unless action is taken to protect them. Offshore arrangements will do this.

But it's not just lawyers who can gather information on you. Private investigators, with access to advanced technology, can glean the deepest personal and business knowledge, without anyone knowing. According to a UK television documentary, the UK Inland Revenue uses undercover vehicles to eavesdrop on suspected tax fraudsters. Offshore arrangements can help avoid this.

Our lives are finite, but corporations can live forever. This means that you could use an offshore entity as a wealth preservation and estate planning vehicle to provide a source of income to uncounted generations of your family. Unless you protect your wealth and your estate, your heirs could lose more than half of it. Then, of course, the government becomes your biggest "heir".

By using a simple offshore trust, rather than a corporate one, in the event of the death of the settlor, the winding-up of the estate can be accomplished simply without delay.

If you truly wish maximum privacy for your business and financial affairs, combined with the most efficient wealth preservation planning, you should do something without delay, no matter where in the world you reside.

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