Welcome to Offshore Living Letter, Your #1 Resource for Offshore Diversification

Author: Lief Simon

17 Jun
FBAR Filing Requirements

FBAR Filing Requirements

A Humble Suggestion For The IRS If you haven't completed your FBAR form (TD F 90-22.1) for 2012, here's a heads up: The deadline is less than two weeks away. Remember that postmarking the form by June 30 isn't good enough. The Treasury Department must receive the thing by June 30. Completing my FBAR was my weekend project. I'll [...]
27 May
Where To Diversify Your Investments, Your Assets, Your Business, And Your Banking Offshore

Where To Diversify Your Investments, Your Assets, Your Business, And Your Banking Offshore

Planting Flags I'm reviewing and clarifying my ideas related to the Five Flags theory of diversification in preparation for my opening remarks at the Wealth Retreat I’m hosting in Panama next month. If you're new to the idea, the "Five Flags" are to do with residency, citizenship, banking, assets, and business. Not everyone needs all five flags [...]
16 May
Safety Concerns Living And Investing Overseas

Safety Concerns Living And Investing Overseas

Where It’s Safe? We received the following e-mail from a reader this week: "We hear so much about bombings and uprisings abroad," the reader wrote, "why would South America be safer to live in than North America? Don't those countries have more of a national safety threat?" How in the world to respond? The irony [...]
06 May
Tax And Estate Planning For The Middle-Class Millionaire

Tax And Estate Planning For The Middle-Class Millionaire

Addressing The Plight Of The Middle-Class Millionaire A friend in the tax business told me today about a law firm he knows that targets clients with net worths of US$100 million or more, the ultra-high-end of the wealth management market. That's a market with fewer than 3,000 potential clients in the United States. Still, the [...]
22 Apr
How To Make Your Personal Going Offshore Plan

How To Make Your Personal Going Offshore Plan

The Easiest Way I Know To Piece Together Your Personal Offshore Diversification Plan I spoke last week with a reader who is all set to move himself and all his assets offshore. He already has a second passport and has made a connection with a banker in Switzerland. He has business contacts in several countries [...]
19 Apr
Portland Man Strips Naked For TSA

Portland Man Strips Naked For TSA

Naked Travel And Other Strategies For Survival The guy who got naked going through airport security in Portland yesterday took the show-and-tell approach to internationalizing your life that I recommend to an extreme. Having been pulled aside and swabbed for explosive residue, he was informed that he'd tested positive. Rather than arguing with the TSA, [...]
18 Apr
Staying IRS Compliant As An American Overseas

Staying IRS Compliant As An American Overseas

Late Tax Filing Concerns Of The American Abroad The tax filing deadline for U.S. persons was Monday. Today, the IRS, in its "Tax Tips" e-letter, detailed the penalties for not filing your 1040 form on time. In fact, you face two potential penalties related your 1040 form. Failure to file on time and failure to [...]
15 Apr
Taxes For The American Entrepreneur And Investor Overseas

Taxes For The American Entrepreneur And Investor Overseas

Is It Really Possible To Reduce Your U.S. Tax Bill By Going Offshore? Today is tax day in the United States. Too late to do anything about your 2012 taxes other than to file a last-minute extension if you need to. Meantime, you can (and should) begin to think about ways to mitigate and manage [...]
11 Apr
The World's Next Top Investment and Retirement Haven?

The World’s Next Top Investment and Retirement Haven?

The World's Next Top Investment and Retirement Haven? "This is your first trip to Colombia, and you've chosen to focus on Medellin? That'll save you a lot of time. This is the place to be in this country right now..." So remarked one of the real estate agents Lief and I met on our first visit [...]
08 Apr
Relocating Overseas With Your Children

Relocating Overseas With Your Children

Go Offshore And Take Your Kids With You With more and more people looking to move not only their assets but also themselves offshore, the question is coming up more often. That is, readers are writing regularly to ask: Should I move with my kids? Decades ago, a term was coined for children who grow [...]