A.L.E.R.T.
(America Law Education Rights & Taxation)

09-21-2001
The War On Tax Havens

Foreword from Gordon Phillips -- 

Interested in financial privacy? Still dabbling in the "offshore" arena? Better read the following excerpt [from the full article written by Ilana Mercer, a freelance writer (http://www.ilanamercer.com)] posted at the Ludwig von Mises Institute web site (http://www.mises.org) on September 10, 2001.

The War On Tax Havens -- by Ilana Mercer

"... Fronting for about thirty high-tax governments, the Paris-based organization [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)] has been leaning on jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the Isle of Man. If the junta of high-tax governments has its way...there be no place left to run ...If anything, the OECD's efforts are in keeping with government globalization...Hell-bent on forcing low- or no-tax nations to suspend their financial privacy laws, and on impelling these countries, through the threat of sanctions, to provide information to foreign tax collectors, the OECD has set about framing tax havens' practices as harmful, if not criminal. With the aid of the media, tax havens have been depicted as cauldrons of counterfeiting and money laundering (a strange accusation coming from governments whose national banks regularly inflate the money supply and dilute with fiat money the value of people's assets)... Sanctuaries such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Mauritius and San Marino are rolling over. In eerily uniform official letters to the secretary-general of the OECD -- the kind that read like coerced confessions -- the respective representatives all promise to implement the OECD's recommendations and follow, if necessary, with legislation of their own to end privacy and to facilitate 'exchange of information in tax matters'... From its equally suspect quarters, the UN is pushing for an international tax collection organization, for global taxes, and for an emigrant tax. This master plan will have individuals cornered by governments and paying a ransom if and when they wish to exit a particular jurisdiction. The UN plans for governments the world over to be able to tax income earned outside their borders (something the United States already does), the outcome of which will be a well-coordinated confiscation of private property."

### END OF ARTICLE

Gordon continues:

The mattoid elites who run the Global Plantation as their very own game of Monopoly are seeing to it that the halcyon era of "offshore investing" and financial privacy (i.e., doing business in identified "tax havens") is rapidly coming to an end.

To wit, all USPS mail sent between the United States and so-called "tax havens" is routinely photocopied on both sides by Customs (a Treasury Department agency) and archived permanently in the event of a future investigation. Remember, the government has unlimited quantities of money (they just print what they need) to pay for unlimited amounts of storage space, forever if necessary. You can be sure that your letter is safely "backed up".

And have you ever mailed a letter USPS from your home address (or from an address obtained by showing state-issued ID) to a "tax haven", perhaps just to request a brochure? Then you are on a separate list.

Likewise, 50% of all overnight courier packages (Fedex, UPS, etc.) to "tax havens" are either opened and inspected, or x-rayed. Perhaps yours.

All telephone, fax and electronic communications leave routing and billing records. All e-mail messages can be "sniffed" and traced to both originating and receiving computers. Was that you sitting there browsing through those "offshore" investment programs last night?

Even PGP is suspect (did Phil Zimmerman plea bargain his way out of a conviction by leaving a "back door" open for the feds. Dunno. Do you?) 

If an offshore "program" is under investigation (and how would you know?), you can be certain that its' clients are too. Why? Because all one client has to do is to screw up, and the whole program goes under the microscope. Does your favorite "offshore" program practice strict privacy procedures, or is your name sitting on their hard drive? Bottom line: is every other participant in your favorite program as careful (and intelligent ;-) as you are? If not, any one of them could put you at risk.

Not to mention that any banker -- anywhere in the world -- can be seduced with a big enough "cash bonus" into "rolling" -- i.e., into divulging a depositor's records (perhaps yours) to the Department of the Treasury, Interpol, FBI and other cyber-flatfoots.

Does this mean that it's now no longer possible to take advantage of "offshore" jurisdictions? The question begs asking: What advantage? Tax reduction, or even elimination? Or simply financial privacy?

The fact is that either is far better -- and more reliably -- achieved right here in the good old U.S. of A., where we still have the right to contract (see Article 1, Section 10), privacy in the mails (so far), and no internal passports (yet). 

So, Dear Reader, if you find yourself longing for tax "relief" and financial freedom, ask yourself this. Would you rather be restructured in a financially private manner so as to appear to walk, talk, and quack just like millions of other identical ducks (even though you're a goose) -- drawing no attention to yourself and spawning no "red flags" -- or a solitary "offshore" duck winging its way out over the ocean toward its favorite "tax haven", observed by no one but Customs, FinCEN, Interpol, downward looking radar and spy satellites? 

P.S. Stay tuned for future announcements from me on special private seminars I will be conducting on this very topic.