On Sat, 4 May 1996 jamesd@echeque.com wrote:

At 01:54 AM 5/4/96 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote:

...

Actually, I disagree with Mr. Sandfort on this one.

Taxation of International Income is a tremendously complicated field. (You can get an LL.M. in international taxation alone for example).

I do not believe the IRS particularly cares what all those tons of tax legislation books say, and I am sure they do not know.

Unicorn seems to be thinking in terms of constructing magic pieces of paper that will protect you from the bad boys, whereas Sandy is thinking in terms of making sure the bad boys cannot find your money.

The issue at hand was legal and non-tax evasion type advantages. If by "bad-boys" you mean private plaintiff's, then your position might apply to the question at hand. If, on the otherhand, it refers to the IRS or government types, it won't. The IRS may or may not know what's in the tax legislation books, or the code or the regulations which the treasury itself submits. This is not the point. The point, in legal tax avoidance cases, (as distinguished from illegal ones) is that _you the taxpayer_ know, and can defend your actions during process.

While doubtless magic bits of paper are useful to some extent if you are a genuinely multinational corporation, if the bad boys see smaller fry carefully concocting magic paper they will say "ah, tax haven", jump on you like a ton of bricks, extort information from anyone in their jurisdiction as to where your money is (which is why Sandy recommends a lawyer who works OUTSIDE the jurisdiction) and confiscate all your assets and not give them back until you can prove you have paid taxes on everything you might possibly have earned and some things you could not possibly have earned.

Again, the author was not asking for tax evasion advice, but tax avoidance advice. In any event, I'm not talking about technicalities or "magic pieces of paper," but rather utilizing the loopholes that are built into the tax process to your advantage. There are small loopholes in which you might get your head stuck, and larger ones that pose little or no risk, and still larger and intended policy oriented ones which are literally sanctioned by the authorities. Many of these are as available to the small taxpayer as to a MNE. God knows I've written enough about illegal asset concealing, but that's not the issue here. Replies to e-mail would probably be prudent. --- My preferred and soon to be permanent e-mail address:unicorn@schloss.li "In fact, had Bancroft not existed, potestas scientiae in usu est Franklin might have had to invent him." in nihilum nil posse reverti 00B9289C28DC0E55 E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information Opp. Counsel: For all your expert testimony needs: jimbell@pacifier.com