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Author: Lief Simon

17 Sep
How To Buy Real Estate Overseas

How To Buy Real Estate Overseas

Pay For What You See "'Buy what you see,' you tell us all the time, Lief," wrote a reader recently. "Yet, at the same time, you promote pre-construction investments. How does that make any sense?" Perhaps I should adjust the mantra from "Buy what you see" to "Pay for what you see." Taken literally, Buy [...]
13 Sep
Colombia: One Of The World’s Most Attractive Investment Markets

Colombia Qualifies As One Of The World’s Most Attractive Investment Markets

Low Debt, Low Inflation, And Continued Growth--This Is The Third World? In Monday's dispatch, I wrote about misguided misperceptions that persist related to life in Colombia. Most of the world continues to think this country is a no-go zone for safety reasons. Sure, wander off into the jungle regions near the border with Ecuador or Venezuela...or [...]
06 Sep
Panama’s new “Specific Countries” residency program is the easiest and quickest way to establish permanent residency in this country, even to obtain a work permit.

What’s Panama’s New “Specific Countries” Residency Program?

Easy Residency And Even A Work Permit In Panama Here's the most important thing to understand about the "offshore world": The rules can (and do) change fast. You can't assume you understand something today (to do with establishing residency, obtaining citizenship, opening a bank account, etc.) because you researched it a month or two ago. [...]
03 Sep
Establishing Irish Residency And Obtaining An Irish Passport

Establishing Irish Residency And Obtaining An Irish Passport

New Irish Residency Scheme Not A Sure Path To Citizenship In researching the lead article for the August issue of the Simon Letter on Irish citizenship, I came across information about economic residency options the Irish government came up with earlier this year. Some are touting these as economic citizenship options. Unfortunately, that's not really the case. [...]
30 Aug
Who Wants Egalite?

Tax Debates In France: Who Wants Egalite?

In doing further curiosity reading after my Monday dispatch to you about the current tax debates here in France, I found some hilarious comments posted on news sites discussing Hollande’s planned increase of the top marginal tax rate in France to 75%. The best was from a young lady who stated (I’m paraphrasing a bit): […]

27 Aug
Implications Of Hollande’s Tax Hikes In France

Implications Of Hollande’s Tax Hikes In France

Nevermind The Politicians Based in Paris the past few weeks, we've been getting questions from readers and friends about what we're going to do in the face of recently elected President Hollande's proposed big tax changes. Hollande plans to increase this country's top marginal tax bracket from 41% to 75% for income over €1 million [...]
20 Aug
Timing Currency Exchange For Property Purchase In Colombia

Timing Currency Exchange For Property Purchase In Colombia

Buy Colombia Now I don't try to time currency fluctuations, but, last week, my banker in Colombia e-mailed to tell me the Colombian government announced they would purchase US$300 million over the next few weeks. She thought, therefore, it might be a good time to transfer some money down there if I need to. Indeed, [...]
16 Aug
Politesse For Investors Abroad

Politesse For Investors Abroad

Speak The Language Of Investors Back in Paris after having been gone for several years, my French, limited when living here, is, well, more limited. But the good news is that this is Paris, and, despite what many Americans say, you can get by here, even full-time, with very limited, even hardly any French. Certainly, [...]
13 Aug
It Is Not Illegal To Move Assets Offshore

It Is Not Illegal To Move Assets Offshore

Moving Isn't Hiding Some recent reader e-mails have me scratching my head. Some readers rail against me for writing about ways both to save taxes and to protect assets by moving them offshore. These readers seem fully to believe that these activities are illegal. The only thing I can think is that they are mis-merging [...]
06 Aug
Emergency Offshore Summit, Panama City, Panama

Emergency Offshore Summit, Panama City, Panama

What We Learned In Panama This Week This week's Emergency Offshore Summit in Panama City was exhausting and exhaustive. The overriding theme was one that I've been heralding for years, specifically: The offshore world is an ever-moving target...so take action when you can. Otherwise, you could lose your window of opportunity. In Panama, one bank [...]