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Death & Taxes: A Letter From A Private Banker
Submitted by Michael O'Brian via Sovereign Man blog,
One of the founding fathers of the United States famously remarked that death and taxes are the only certainties in life.
And as tax day rolled around once again in the US, individuals the length and breadth of the country were participating in the annual ritual of filing their income tax returns with the federal government.
Outside of the United States, banks, custodians, brokers and investment advisers are also working to meet a tax deadline coming soon—registration with the United States Internal Revenue Service to comply with FATCA.
Registration under FATCA has long been viewed as inevitable for foreign financial institutions. Most of these institutions were also quick to realise that FATCA would set a precedent—automatic exchange of information programs would follow elsewhere.
And over the last few years, as FATCA was being implemented, policy-makers the world over have indeed come to see FATCA as the tax compliance model to emulate.
The financial crisis and the witch-hunting scandals involving offshore accounts in recent years created an environment that was receptive to proposals for the multilateral exchange of tax information between and among countries.
Concerns about data protection and privacy issues posed by FATCA and FATCA-like mechanisms were drowned out by grand declarations about the principles of increased transparency and information sharing.
In June last year the G-8 released a declaration that directed that “tax authorities across the world should automatically share information to fight the scourge of tax evasion.”
Less than a year later and 44 countries have agreed to a September 2017 deadline for the ‘Automatic Exchange of Information’ between governments.
The financial information to be reported under the OECD’s standard includes investment income from interest and dividends, as well as account balances and sales proceeds from financial assets.
EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy gladly sounded the death knell: “Banking secrecy is set to die,” he said after Austria and Luxembourg finally acquiesced to demands and agreed to automatic exchange of savings account information on non-citizens.
And so the diminished privacy that has become a feature of our modern lives now looks set to pervade the conventional banking system.
Citizens will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but the wisest among them will continue to avail of the privacy and asset protection offered in certain jurisdictions.
While financial privacy within the conventional banking system doesn’t exist anymore, you can still achieve a great degree of privacy for your wealth by holding it in alternative assets like physical precious metals, real estate, collectibles etc.
And as far as banking goes, the least you can do for your monetary assets is to entrust them into the custody of a sound institution with solid fundamentals that won’t gamble away with your deposits.
Establishing a banking relationship in a safe bank abroad is something that anyone can and should do. This is not about hiding anything. As we can see, financial nudity is now the norm anyways. The main reason to do so is to protect your savings from shaky institutions and bankrupt governments.
If death and taxes are certainties, the prescription is simple: report and fully comply with your domestic tax codes and then chose a very private jurisdiction that will protect your tax-compliant assets from the risks that overleveraged big financial institutions subject their clients to.
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Death, Taxes and a Puppet in Chief.
Fixed it for Ya.
Yeah, let's all cheat on our taxes and go to prison. Idiots....
It's not whether tax advantaged locales still exist, its whether Uncle gets you.
I'll pay what's due as is. I got enough problems without antagonizing the IRS, DoJ, etc.
They are not "our" taxes as you and I did not create them and you and I hardly benefit from them in any greater portion than that by which you and I have been forced to sacrifice for the name of empire.
Christ! It's frighteneing that you had to explain that. I despair.
"Idiots" indeed lol.
drip,drip,drip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcLNoxiPBk
i just had my Local City cock suckers try and get some EXTRA EXTRA $$$ from me.. they should have known better. i pay Attention and i KNOW what i OWE!!! (they did not get shit extra!!!)
Own nothing, but control everything.
In the end, even this won't be enough. As this crisis comes to fruition, all but the assets of the tiniest few will be seen as fruit to be taken by those who don't comprhend what they are doing or what the invevitable side effects are. (e.g. when they seize 401Ks thinking they have tapped into wealth, only to find that extracting it requires selling into an illiquid market -- illiquid because no one would be dumb enough to own seizeable assets once it's already happened.)
Own small, portable, tangible, useful things, that are of value to you as an individual, but useless to a massive govenment. While they've been known to fuck with even the littlest of things, feeding yourself from a garden, protecting yourself with means of your choosing (preferably undocumented) and earning little.
At some point the hoards may come even for this, but when hundreds depend on food from a garden meant for four, rest assured the final reset is mere weeks away.
Long secret hiding places.
Come my little fishies. Here swim close to your Emperor. Nibble now. That's it... oooh! that's it..aaaah!
All hail Tiberius Caesar. Holed up in his villa at Capri the last two decades of his life. Villa Cabrineum as the latin pun went (Villa Caprineum= the villa at Capri , Villa Cabrineum = the randy old goats home).Syphilitic with festering purulent sores. And a boat-loads of imported youngsters of both sexes to entertain in the pool (the fishies).
Now what does that remind me of....
Great flick that focused on the 0.0001%. Vile creatures.
Got bitcoin ?
NSA (????alphabet agency) has EVERY KEYSTROKE ever made on your computer.
We continue "playing the game" at their discretion.
They don't need to take our $$$ (bitcoin) because we are glady handing it to them.
Ya, it's still waiting in the honey-pot.
Come on in said the spider to the fly.
MMMmmm dee-lish.
Don'tya got rumblies in your tumblies Pooh bear?
Come get the hunny-coin, it's all safe.
Death controls back up the debt controls. The only certainty is death, and the death controls are the central facts, upon which everything else depends. Inside that context, the articles published in the "Sovereign Man blog" continue to get everything backwards, because they all appear to be based upon understanding "sovereignty" backwards.
The fundamental process is subtraction, which thereby establishes the relative boundaries across which robbery occurs. Murder is the most extreme form of robbery. Sovereignty is based on the power to rob, which was developed through the history of warfare to create the War Kings, that made the sovereign states, whose powers were effectively taken over and privatized through the covert actions of the Fraud Kings, the central banks, and the corporations which grew up around those systems of private banks legally making the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts, which form of legalized counterfeiting was a fraud enforced by governments.
Inside that context, the "Sovereign Man blog" tends to propose some solutions to those problems which may be good enough for some individuals, and which may well be the most practical solutions for those individuals, within the current overall political context, in which the biggest banks are the biggest gangsters, which have captured control over the governments to legalize their crimes, and which therefore, are on runaway trajectories towards much greater crimes in the future, since it does not appear that the majority of people who are being robbed blind are going to understand those realities enough to generate better collective resistance. However, I point out that the only theory which has sufficient general merit is one through which the death controls are done better.
While it may well be the best strategy for individuals to try to protect themselves, by hiding from the monstrous runaway systems of globalized electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs, there is really nowhere on the planet to be able to hide enough from that. There is NO doubt that death and taxes are certainties, because they are necessarily built into the fundamental ways that human beings are able to perceive the world, and tell stories about that. However, in my view, every article that I have read which was republished from being on the "Sovereign Man blog" presents the concepts surrounding "sovereignty" backwards. While that can still provide some short-term strategies, there is not sufficient merit in that kind of backwards perception to grapple with the bigger problems, regarding how the established systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, are automatically running amok.
"Establishing a banking relationship in a safe bank abroad is something that anyone can and should do."
What a load of crap. If you're an American citizen, try opening an account in Singapore, or most any "safe" place around the world for that matter. The response will begin with "I'm sorry..."
You don't open an account. You open a safety deposit box. There's little difference thanks to Janet.
I agree that courtesy of the Fed, you now get almost nothing when keeping your savings in a bank. In fact, risk adjusted, I'm sure it is a negative yield not even looking at inflation because of the risk of the bank "confiscating" your deposits.
Only problem is when SHTF the bank will not even open, thus your chances of getting EITHER your savings or access to your safety deposit box is zero.
My back yard, tractor, storage locker, garage, etc. will do just fine. So will my personal obfuscation, unruliness, lack of cooperation, etc.
I personally do my best to be hard to track, monitor, pattern, target, etc. Lies, confusion, ever-changing patterns, lack of patterns, re-doubling and starting over. Then doing that again backwards with a twist.
I don't need a fucking bank for everything I do--just some things. I use a bank like a tool and a fool.
The only real financial survival heading into the future involves probably a job that let's you avoid direct deposit. We are so easily trained.
I work for myself. I may make a bit less (on occasion) than I used to but many times I make more. More importantly, I have no bookkeeper, ADP, direct deposit, mounds of electronic and/or paper trails.
I stick to the KISS method and generally turn a blind eye to any and all scams to rope me into following the herd.
Opened an account in Singapore last year. No problem. Maybe this will change in the future, but it is still possible AFAIK.
Already has changed, I'm afraid.
If they can force answering questions about new accounts, they can just as well do the same about existing accounts.
Yes - in fact you will be refused bank account and in many instances any type of service due to American citizenship. The banks just don´t need all the hassle and the spying and all crap they will be getting from the alfhabet soup.Slaves need slave training. Not bank accounts.
Enough of this "cleanest dirty shirt" approach to finances......
I didn't file State or Federal tax returns. Thanks to ZIRP, I don't have to.
I didn't file either thanks to the law which doesn't require around 99% of the people to file and pay an income tax.
Nor will I until a law is passed that says I have to. Currently no such law exists.
Requirements for filing 2013 Fed taxes:
Note. You must file a return if your gross income was at least the amount shown in the last column.
IF your filing status is. . . AND at the end of 2013
you were*. . . THEN file a return if your gross income** was at least. . .
Single under 65 $10,000
65 or older $11,500
Head of household under 65 $12,850
65 or older $14,350
Married filing jointly*** under 65 (both spouses) $20,000
65 or older (one spouse) $21,200
65 or older (both spouses) $22,400
Married filing separately any age $3,900
Qualifying widow(er)
with dependent child under 65 $16,100
65 or older $17,300
Source: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p554/ch01.html
The way I interpret this is if you make less than a certain amount you don't need worry about FATCA. In other words, the IRS is only worried about the big fish.
The government morons who think for us and rule us do not understand unintended consequences.
Either that, or they just don't care. Of all the regulatory changes in the past decade and a half, fatca has got to be by far the most onerous for anyone working overseas or having a foreign spouse or worse, deriving passive foreign income. More make work for the legal class: cpa's and tax attorneys living high off the fucking hog!
http://news.yahoo.com/more-renounce-us-citizenship-deny-stereotype-16250...
The real money will still find ways to hide. They will leave holes just for them.
The international working class will encounter the pain while the real rich will laugh....
I DO NOT Volunteer...! 8>p
Observe that they don't want just the tax. They could have arranged for anonymous tax withholding and that would have solved the problem right away. What they want to know is the actual individuals that hold the assets. Why? Because if they know who you are, the government can extort as much as much as they please out of you in the name of "social justice" as they please, whenever they please.
The Fat Cats implemented FATCA just because they could. Maybe they they think in a few years there would be to much resistance?
Every time a few world leaders get together they heartily agree that they should have more dictatorial powers.
It's only through absolute power that all problems can be fixed.
FATCA only applies to citizens and residents of the US, not the people in the 50 states of union.
It will probably be a pivotal part of the worldwide SDR currency that is the next step in this plan....
Little Cayman Hedge Fund Song http://youtu.be/bx5uegVP-78?t=35m18s
Grand Cayman http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=126377.0
- A British Overseas Territory located about 270 miles south of Cuba, the Cayman Islands has registered at least 10,900 funds, more than any other Caribbean island.
- 85% of the hedge funds operate from the Cayman Islands.
- A group of 45 bankers at Barclays bypassed potential curbs on pay and bonuses by jumping ship to set up a Cayman Islands company and manage $12.3 billion of Barclays’ most toxic debt. They will be paid at least $400 million over ten years.
"Citizens will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but the wisest among them will continue to avail of the privacy and asset protection offered in certain jurisdictions."
According to the system of government we are supposed to have in the US, each one of us is Caesar and the government is the servant of the people. Banksters and would-be rulers couldn't let that last, now could they?
For very little cost we can and do open off shore bank accounts that provide an ATM only numbered card, not debit or credit, can be used worldwide at any ATM and withdrawal limit of around $1,100 per day.
The card is valid for 10 years and there fore you can deposit into the numbered account and withdraw anonymously via ATM over $4,000,000.
Invoices for receipt of funds or loan documents can also be provided.
manloloko7@gmail.com
Costs nothing to ask.
People should also understand that there is a huge amount of propaganda regarding the efficacy of these agencies and the competence to do what they claim.
Simply consider the debacle and fiasco called obummer care and then multiply that by tenfold in the cases of the ass hats making their claims of how efficient they are.
Risible bollox and I can clearly demonstrate that
You wouldn't happen to be Nigerian, would you? I think I recieved an email from you once. Costs nothing to ask, you know...
To me the root question of taxes comes down to the basic governmental question posed generally by libertarians. Do you own yourself or does the State own you?
Most everyone would reflexively say they own themselves but when you get down to issues of public policy and taxes their thinking is actually that the State owns you.
If you own yourself and the State is there to serve you then you can decide what the state gets in terms of your income. As a nation we decide this together. If the State owns you, then it decides how much you get to keep.
Regardless of how you want to answer this question, I assert that most every state in the world including the USA believes it owns you.
Absolutely, that's why they all treat foreign investors so well. Most Americans don't understand that the US is a huge tax haven for most of the world, with non-resident aliens paying zero capital gains taxes on appreciated financial instruments. US stock market is working just fine, for our foreign owners.
You are owned from your birth certificate to your death certificate.
Owned by your lords and masters.
burped
According to Tullett Prebon Group Limited:
http://www.tullettprebon.com/Documents/strategyinsights/TPSI_009_Perfect_Storm_009.pdf
perfect storm
energy, finance and the end of growth
Summary
The economy as we know it is facing a lethal confluence of four critical factors – the fall-out from the biggest debt bubble in history; a disastrous experiment with globalisation; the massaging of data to the point where economic trends are obscured; and, most important of all, the approach of an energy-returns cliff-edge.
Through technology, through culture and through economic and political change, society is more short-term in nature now than at any time in recorded history. Financial market participants can carry out transactions in milliseconds. With 24-hour news coverage, the media focus has shifted inexorably from the analytical to the immediate. The basis of politicians’ calculations has shortened to the point where it can seem that all that matters is the next sound-bite, the next headline and the next snapshot of public opinion. The corporate focus has moved all too often from strategic planning to immediate profitability as represented by the next quarter’s earnings.
This report explains that this acceleration towards ever-greater immediacy has blinded society to a series of fundamental economic trends which, if not anticipated and tackled well in advance, could have devastating effects. The relentless shortening of media, social and political horizons has resulted in the establishment of self-destructive economic patterns which now threaten to undermine economic viability.
We date the acceleration in short-termism to the early 1980s. Since then, there has been a relentless shift to immediate consumption as part of something that has been called a “cult of self-worship”. The pursuit of instant gratification has resulted in the accumulation of debt on an unprecedented scale. The financial crisis, which began in 2008 and has since segued into the deepest and most protracted economic slump for at least eighty years, did not result entirely from a short period of malfeasance by a tiny minority, comforting though this illusion may be. Rather, what began in 2008 was the denouement of a broadly-based process which had lasted for thirty years, and is described here as “the great credit super-cycle”.
The credit super-cycle process is exemplified by the relationship between GDP and aggregate credit market debt in the United States (see fig. 1.1). In 1945, and despite the huge costs involved in winning the Second World War, the aggregate indebtedness of American businesses, individuals and government equated to 159% of GDP. More than three decades later, in 1981, this ratio was little changed, at 168%. In real terms, total debt had increased by 214% since 1945, but the economy had grown by 197%, keeping the debt ratio remarkably static over an extended period which, incidentally, was far from shock-free (since it included two major oil crises).
If I recall correctly, TOTAL debt to GDP currently exceeds 350% in the US. The hundred year median is around 160% - with a previous high during the Great Depression of around 240%. We're in uncharted waters boys and girls!
If US citizens aren't allowed to open a foreign bank account then what's wrong with Gold and Silver? The aim is the same, to get money OUT of the direct control of your country's idiot politicians.
Folks, they're cming after YOUR money because they're running out.
~"If US citizens aren't allowed to open a foreign bank account then what's wrong with Gold and Silver?"~
Absolutely, positively, nothing.
"Hark, the day cometh. No man shall own that which he does not possess."
(And yes, you can quote me on that.)
while gold and silver are conveniently compact, you needn't restrict yourself ... any object which maintains any resale value but which does NOT involve a title or registration or deed or other public record of ownership, can also be advantageous as a store of value .... think lumber, chainsaws, tractors, plows, jewelry, hand tools ...even tulip bulbs .....
Someone may have already stated it but it is worth repeating. The writer went off the rails when he quoted the words of Christ about "rendering unto Caesar ......." Bullshit on that! I am tired of people (including my fellow Christians) using that whimpy copout. The author may not agree with the statement either but should have stated so. I DON'T HAVE A CAESAR, PEOPLE! One day I may be forced to stand up and show DC they are not my Caesar. They are pushing it a little hard lately. People and Nevada just showed the federal gov they were not subject to a Caesar. If DC believes they are Caesar, they better get with it cause I believe there are many of my fellow Americans who are tired of their power trip BS. NEVER will there be a Caesar over me and my family. I will die first......question is will you.
Dont jump on me here because I am trying to state the truth but..........the reason many of you are so enslaved is because you have made money your god and that money is controlled by the federal gov and therefore the fed controls you. You people need to break away from you super dependency on the dollar and the bulllshit things the dollar buys. We cannot fight them with their own money. That is like trying to fight a shark in the water. Bring his ass out on land and lets see how bad he is. If you are willing to die for your freedom, then you should be willing for that freedom to sacrifice a little of the plastic shit they are selling in the stores. Live within your means, stay away from debt, and get a focus on the real fight and the real enemy. Money is the chain they are using to enslave the masses. Work towards self -sufficiency and less dependence on Walmart or any other Nazi controlled corporation.
barter is taxed same as cash in the us; just because one doesn't transact with dollars doesn't mean one somehow avoids the legal responsibility of filing. very few can afford to earn so little that they aren't required to file a return. sure some say they don't have to file; i've watched the irs throw liens on people's houses for more trivial reasons. if someone has family or land that they are responsible for in the us, you're certainly right, the fed controls them.
I am not referring to tax evasion or a complete withdrawal from the system. I am just saying instead of........ full steam ahead........ lets all figure how we can become filthy rich.......overnight.......and buy whatever we want whenever we want it in any quantity we desire. Why not have a little moderation....remember people, not things, are what is important.......remember you can't take it with you......money can't buy happiness.......be thankful for what I have........the point of life isn't stacking.........
By falling prey to the lies of the consumer nation we become slaves to our covetousness that requires money to satisfy our rampant wants. Just like a crackhead that needs more, more, and more and is a slave to crack, shoppers become slaves as well to "things". We are destroying ourselves and our freedom so we can buy and stack more things. There is no difference.
The most important thing to know about taxes is this. Tax courts are ONLY for taxpayers. The definition of 'taxpayer' is one who is liable for taxes. Automatic lose.