Re: Response to Duncan

[rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)]

As usual, I'm putting my oar in where it's not wanted, but the only way I
can figure out how to keep money out of the tax rolls if you're an american
citizen is not to make it here in the first place, and that doesn't work if
you're too aggressive in hiding it from the Uncle.

Forbes seems to think most of this money won't come back.  Since the
corporations are foriegn domiciled, these people get to tell the Feds the
most plausible story. Thrashing my shaky memory of the Forbes 400, the
examples of these people are:

Arneson:  (Princess Cruise Lines) money made on ships flagged in Panama, a
known tax haven. Foriegn crews, for the most part. Americans pay mucho
dinero for booze cruizes aroun' de islands, mon.

The two guys who own Duty Free Stores, Inc. Billionaires. Shaking down
japanese tourists.  One is still an american citizen who flies coach.  The
other ran afoul of the IRS and now has Hong Kong citizenship.  Wonder what
he's going to do in a few years...

Marc Rich.  We know about him. BTW, his wife is in the process of suing him
for divorce, and may get half.  If she can prove what that is.

There was a guy in Texas who made a great big pile in Liberian flagged oil
tankers.  I think he's lost it all by now, though, and we know what
happened to Liberia, anyway.

There's another guy who got into container ships in a big way early.
American President lines, I think.  Like Arneson, he made most of his money
offshore with foreign flagged ships.

Rupert Murdoch.  I believe he's a U.S. citizen now.

Oh yeah.  My favorite. Mr. Soros. The man who made the fastest billion (4
months?) ever.  His corporation is domiciled in the Netherlands Antilles.
He's also foriegn born, and I'm not sure he's a citizen.

The point here is that Tim's right.  You have to take some serious chances
in order to keep your money out of Uncle Sam's hands.  Either you risk the
big fun of a piss-fight with the IRS taking known money out of the country,
or you have to take a chance and make your stash outside the border.  To do
that, you must invest that money with an uncertain return.  If you're in it
for income, which would seem to be Tim's goal right now (it would be mine
if I were in his shoes, anyway, he wants to do other things than play
financial cowboy), putting that money in high risk foreign ventures is not
a good idea.

I have no personal finance credentials to justify any of the above
opinions.  I just read too much and I have a big mouth.  I'll sit down and
shut up now.

Thanks,
Bob Hettinga



-----------------
Robert Hettinga  (rah@shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone
Shipwright Development Corporation     who eats too little and sees Heaven and
44 Farquhar Street                       someone who drinks too much and sees
Boston, MA 02331 USA                       snakes." -- Bertrand Russell
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