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Finance Allah Shmoop What is an offshore account And how

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do you open one Or rather why would you even

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want Teo Here's onshore That's us the US of A

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We have laws and rules which well most people follow

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anyway and we have taxes to pay for our military

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defense and our football stadiums and our congressional mistress Tag

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along travel We're not perfect but show us a better

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place and we'll salute them while we're standing So when

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you hear someone musing about opening an offshore account odds

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are good that they're trying to find a way to

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hide taxes that they probably legally owe to the U

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S Government No this is not always the case Someone

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might be running a small business importing coffee from Guatemala

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and they need a bank account offshore like in Guatemala

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Pay for the beans because you know the Guatemalan being

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selling company does not accept us dollars like really are

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Currency isn't good enough for them Yeah alright skepticism alert

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But it does happen And people do open offshore accounts

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often under very snazzy sounding marketing slogan names by large

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global banks that take extremely high privileges like commissions for

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doing so Offshore accounts aren't illegal and the clever marketing

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that runs behind them include things like uh diversify your

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political risk because the U S Government might go under

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and you should really have an account in the Caymans

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in the Bahamas and Bailey's because well those countries are

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solid Their banking systems are better protected than those in

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the US Oh and there's the lawsuit protections Logan That's

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a good one Like you might do something very bad

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in the US and gets sued for it and lose

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And then the way to make it harder for your

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sewers to collect the money you owe them is to

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squirrel away your money in a foreign bank That makes

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sense And yes it's OK to mumble a muse what

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kind of customer these offshore accounts are attracting And then

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there's the Diversify your currency slogan That's a good one

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Like you need an offshore account to do so Or

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like normal people should even begin toe worry about diversity

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defying their currency exposure A meaning like the presumption is

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that the average Joe will somehow do better than the

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thirty million dollars a year Wall Street talent who has

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actually trained on howto invest in currencies around the world

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by diversifying well buying New Zealand and Aussie dollars to

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do better than American dollars in some meaningful way You're

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really kind of bet the ranch on that Uh yeah

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Not bloody likely So don't forget the access to medical

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care argument That's always a good one The hi fi

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banks will plant all kinds of worry warts on your

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brain that somehow you can't get the medical care you

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need in the US And yes it's a slog here

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but that somehow having an off shore account you know

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I don't know that Philippines will give you better medical

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care access Really Yeah They market that in people who

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can read actually buy in Well the implication here is

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that you broadly get peace of mind or the ability

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to transact globally by having one of these very expensive

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accounts housed in the Isle of Man or Jersey or

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some other foreign shadow country Yeah you know the saying

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if it quacks like a duck and walks like a

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duck Yeah probably a goose Offshore accounts If you do

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get one you'll want your club card so you can 00:03:12.78 --> [endTime] always get into here

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