News & Information from Our Firm

I continually receive certain questions from clients over and over again. From time to time in this section I will add short articles or blurbs that you may find helpful.

The first two items below deal with offshore sheltering of funds in the hope these funds and the earnings thereon will not be subject to U.S. Tax. The second item deals with the perennial issue of how does a single-member LLC (or any LLC for that matter) conduct its business so that the members do not become liable for the debts of the LLC.

OFFSHORE BUSINESS

Every year without fail come questions relating to setting up a company in a tax haven such as Bermuda, The British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, or similar countries. The notion always involves placing business or assets in an offshore company in a country that has no income or other business tax. Invariably the thought is that earnings can accumulate free of U. S. tax and that the business or account owner can somehow have access to these funds without paying a U.S. tax. A whole industry involving these business arrangements seems to be thriving. Well, not so fast. Only companies formed for real business reasons and for the purpose of carrying out real business operations are able to operate offshore and even so when these companies are part of a group of companies the U.S. rules frequently require consolidation of tax returns and/or reporting of foreign income. Setting up foreign business operations or establishing foreign accounts for legitimate purposes involve very complex provisions of the U.S. tax code, and if the purpose is U.S. tax avoidance even the most elaborate scheme will not work. Please read the tax article below that I condensed from an IRS publication to find out more on this topic.

LLC Operations

The second article below discusses how the members of an LLC should conduct their business through the LLC so as to keep creditors of the LLC from pursuing the members for the unpaid debts of an LLC. If you have any questions about this article please give me a call.

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE 1

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE 2