If you are rich and unscrupulous, how do you hide your ill-gotten billions, evade taxes and steer clear of the law at home?
A vast leak of 11,500 confidential documents from a Panama-based legal firm, Mossack Fonseca, gives a rare glimpse into how some of the wealthiest people in the world use offshore financial bolt holes to conceal billions of dollars in assets.
At the heart of any strategy is the shell company, created to give the appearance of being a legitimate business when its only purpose is in fact to stash away assets while keeping the real owner's identity hidden.
Adding a further cloak of anonymity, many schemes rely on trusts. You hand over the legal title of your wealth to a trustee, who then manages it on your behalf.
To complete the package, place it all offshore where your home country's laws do not apply and the authorities will find it hard to track down your wealth.
"There are hundreds of thousands of trusts in the world," said Transparency International France president Daniel Lebegue, based not only in Panama but also in Guernsey, the Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, Foundations, which can be set up to manage huge riches with opaque structures, also are often used for the same purpose, including in states such as Liechtenstein, Mr Lebegue said.
To shift your riches around, one of the favoured tools that crops up in the Panama Papers is the 'bearer share'. Unlike ordinary shares, a bearer share has no name written on it and requires no identification to cash in.
The use of offshore entities is not illegal in itself. But to remain legal, assets kept offshore usually must be declared to the tax authorities in your country of residence.
Not everyone follows that rule.
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A vast leak of 11,500 confidential documents from a Panama-based legal firm, Mossack Fonseca, gives a rare glimpse into how some of the wealthiest people in the world use offshore financial bolt holes to conceal billions of dollars in assets.
At the heart of any strategy is the shell company, created to give the appearance of being a legitimate business when its only purpose is in fact to stash away assets while keeping the real owner's identity hidden.
Adding a further cloak of anonymity, many schemes rely on trusts. You hand over the legal title of your wealth to a trustee, who then manages it on your behalf.
To complete the package, place it all offshore where your home country's laws do not apply and the authorities will find it hard to track down your wealth.
"There are hundreds of thousands of trusts in the world," said Transparency International France president Daniel Lebegue, based not only in Panama but also in Guernsey, the Bahamas or the British Virgin Islands, Foundations, which can be set up to manage huge riches with opaque structures, also are often used for the same purpose, including in states such as Liechtenstein, Mr Lebegue said.
To shift your riches around, one of the favoured tools that crops up in the Panama Papers is the 'bearer share'. Unlike ordinary shares, a bearer share has no name written on it and requires no identification to cash in.
The use of offshore entities is not illegal in itself. But to remain legal, assets kept offshore usually must be declared to the tax authorities in your country of residence.
Not everyone follows that rule.
Click Here To Register For Free Trial Services OR Give A Missed Call : +6531581402 Follow Us
On Twitter : www.twitter.com/epicresearchsg Like Us On Facebook : www.facebook.com/EpicResearchSingapore Need Any Assistance Feel Free To Mail Us at : info@epicresearch.sg
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