Why Hold Gold Offshore – It frees you from a number of things which we will denote below.

No Capital Gains Tax on Sale Profits – The bank we use that allows gold ownership in located in Hong Kong. It is a trillion dollar bank. Hong Kong has no capital gains tax so you pay no capital gains tax in Hong Kong. In many countries when you sell your gold it gets reported and capital gains tax is imposed. Additionally in many countries gold purchases in excess of $10,000 gets reported and why do you want the governments to know that you own gold. There is no inheritance tax or tax on offshore derived income (income coming in from outside of Hong Kong.

Protection From Theft – Gold ownership has its pitfalls. Storing gold in a safe is a good idea unless people know about it and then there is the risk of theft. Most gun safes can be opened with a sawzall.

Most people use gun safes to store gold. Few every buy safes rated by UL for 15,30 or 60 minutes of sustained attack with tools and blueprints. The gun safe is rated as a home security container for five minutes only of sustained attack.

Protection From Fire – Most of the better gun safes will hold up against fire long enough for the fire dept. to put the fire out in a urban area. In a rural area not so sure. Gold can melt. People hide gold inside the walls of their home and if there is a fire the gold will melt and probably never be recoverable.

Hiding Gold In the Ground – This is another common tactic that can be effective enough since gold will not rust. Problem is people with a metal detector can find you gold and dig it up.

Traveling with Gold – every week we get calls from a fellow who has a few hundred ounces of gold and wishes to leave their home country, usually the USA. If they try a border crossing out of the USA with this gold they risk confiscation. They have to declare it since it is a large amount. They can be asked to show proof of purchase for the gold. Then they can be asked to show that the money to buy the gold came from legitimate sources and the taxes were paid on the money used to buy said gold. Of course almost no one is going to travel with such documents so the gold can be held pending your production of these documents. I would not hold my breath until you get the gold back if ever. Cross border travel with gold in excess of a 8 or so ounces is difficult at best. Holding the gold in a trillion dollar bank account in HK is much more convenient and practical. It can be sold and paid in another currency in minutes online from anywhere in the world. Then you can use the bank Visa card you have to take the money out from an ATM machine anywhere in the world. Visa cards can be in USD or Euros.

Hong Kong Bank Secrecy – The bank account is opened in the name of an anonymous Hong Kong limited corporation (LTD). The name of the owner cannot be looked up in any database or public registry and in fact the government does not know who owns the corporation. The bank has bank secrecy. Bank deposits are covered by government bank insurance but only currency deposits not gold.

The online banking is most secure. The bank has phone support 24/7. Hong Kong has no tax treaties with USA, Canada, UK. Hong Kong has some double taxation treaties with some small obscure nations only.

Hold 10 Currencies in Hong Kong Bank Account – In addition to gold ownership you can hold ten different currencies in your Honk Kong bank account. If you spread your cash holdings out over 5 or 6 currencies you mitigate your risk tremendously in the event of one or two currencies dropping in value. If a sudden drop happens to one or two currencies the others will go up in value along with your purchasing power. This is strongly suggested. All the currencies of the world are junk secured by nothing but it is better to be holding five or six of them at one time than just one. Add in gold holdings and you should be ready to weather the storms ahead. Here is a list of the currencies one can hold in their bank account.

Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Pound Sterling, Singapore Dollar, Thai Baht, US Dollar, and Renminbi (Chinese Ruan).

Time Frame – It takes 2-3 weeks to form the HK corporation and get the bank account open.

Documents Required – Notarized color copy of a passport and driver license. A utility bill showing your address. These can be sent by email to us as scans attached to the email (staff@panamalegal.org).

Cost - $3995

http://www.panamalaw.org