Isn’t it scary how much governments are intruding into our lives?
Think about it. In Australia, the average person now pays 69% tax. The OECD, who runs offshore tax havens, now controls most countries tax systems in the world. Everyone is paying far too much tax!
Paying higher and higher taxes seems to becoming more of our lives each day.
At Wealth Safe, we know the importance of having top quality international tax advice. On the one hand, as Kerry Packer said, we don’t want to pay the government any more tax than we legally have to. Yet on the other hand, we don’t want to go to jail for doing it either! We have seen what’s happened with Operation Wickenby, and how the Tax Office has targeted celebrities like Paul Hogan, Glen Wheatley, and others.
This has scared off many from international tax advice for their business and investments. Indeed, the days of using dodgy tax planning schemes to avoid paying tax are well and truly over. That’s why it’s so important to get solid international tax advice to maximise your tax savings in a way that won’t attract the wrong kind of attention.
Getting top quality international tax advice can assist you in many ways to minimise your tax. These include:
- Using offshore companies in all kinds of jurisdictions, e.g. Hong Kong or Singapore
- Offshore trusts
- International banking
- Using overseas foundations
- Using overseas charitable trusts
- Second mortgages overseas
- International tax treaties
- And many others!
We particularly love Hong Kong and Singapore. A big reason is the OECD are cracking down on offshore tax havens … it is more difficult to do international money transfers without being deeply scrutinised. Hong Kong and Singapore are established Asian countries and from our experience, are not only wonderful for international business or trading the markets, but are also low tax and are not the subject of OECD attention (nor likely to be).
Some examples of situations where international tax advice would be of benefit include …
- If you set up an overseas business with global clients, while still living in Australia, although you’ll pay tax when the money comes back into Australia, there are tax deferral benefits which can make a significant difference in accumulating and compounding wealth.
- If you choose to become a perpetual traveller and establish a residency outside of your home country (Australia, US, etc.) you will not have to pay tax on any offshore income from your business, or from trading the markets or your investments. You’ll only have to pay tax on your Australian or home country income.
- If you trade the markets and are still an Australian resident, you can set up a company in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Malta, and although you still have to pay tax in Australia, you don’t have to pay tax until you bring the money back into Australia. This gives you a tremendous opportunity to compound and build wealth.
- You have international tax treaties that can allow you to pay less tax, eg. capital gains tax in certain instances for companies which buy real estate in Australia, or buying assets overseas under certain treaties
That is why you need to work with experts who know what they are doing, and will slash your tax, but make sure it stays 100% legal.