Offshore Banking Guide | Benefits of Offshore Banking Services
If you are thinking to open an offshore bank account then you must go through the guide mentioned here in order to fully avail all the benefits of offshore banking.
An offshore bank is a bank that regulated and synchronized under international banking license. It is situated outside the residential country of the depositor. International banking license usually bans the bank from any type of business activity in the rule of establishment.
People often define offshore banking as an illegal act. So for their concern, let this guide clear their confusion. Offshore banking is completely legal however sometimes it is confused with tax evasion and other unlawful activities. But offshore banking is legal and is all about depositing your liquid savings in a well- capitalized and strong institution. It is related with branching out your political risk by getting best treatment for your deposits.
In simple words, offshore banking is all about depositing of funds by an individual or a company in a bank that is situated outside the residential country of the depositor. And this type of banking institution is a lot more sophisticated than an onshore bank.
And an account maintained in a foreign offshore bank is called an offshore account. An offshore account is generally maintained by an individual or a company because of the benefits it provides such as higher privacy, decreased or no taxation or exemption from paying tax, effortless access to deposits, and security against financial, local, or political instability.
An offshore bank provides the same services as an onshore bank but these banks offer more anonymity and privacy than onshore banks.
Benefits of an offshore bank
An offshore bank provides the same benefits as an onshore bank but an offshore bank facilitates secrecy and exemption from tax too. It provides many other benefits too such as more security and protection, highest service levels, convenience and easy accessibility, tax savings on investments, deposits, and savings, availability of many international financing opportunities, advantages from foreign exchange services, and many lending and credit facilities. These benefits of an offshore bank are explained in detail below.
- An offshore bank provides more security and protection to your capital. If your money is with an offshore bank that is based in extremely regulated and transparent jurisdiction, then you money is safe and secure. In simple words, in an offshore bank your money is money is prevented from all kind of threats.
- It offers highest service levels. An offshore bank generally provides extremely personalized services. It offers noon to night accessibility to the funds through mobile or online banking. Sometimes even a relationship manager is also assigned by the bank in order to facilitate your personal point of contact.
- It offers easy, convenient, and on hand access to funds. As an emigrant is really hard to maintain a bank account at one place. So for some, this is the major benefit and the major reason to keep an offshore banking account.
- It helps in saving taxes on deposits, savings, and investments. It permits one to keep the money outside of tax authority of one’s country and protecting it from the taxes of the residential country.
- One can avail international investment opportunities’. Good offshore bank offers a variety of options of funds and investments.
- It provides many benefits from foreign exchange services. Many offshore banks offer competitive foreign exchange rate than some regular banking services. This is one of the biggest advantages offered by an offshore bank for migrants with international financial obligations.
- It offers many premier lending and credit facilities. Many offshore banks provide private banking services. In these services, they offer flexible and customer- tailored credit and Lending facilities.
Opening and accessing an offshore bank account
The procedure of opening an offshore bank account is similar to the process of opening a bank account in your home country. For this purpose, an offshore bank will ask for your personal information such as name, date of birth, citizenship, occupation, address and many other things.
The bank will then verify your personal information and for this purpose the bank will ask you to submit a replica of your driving license, passport or other documents that are issued by a government agency.
You may even expect to submit a utility bill or any other similar document as your physical address or residence may affect taxation issues.
To open a bank account in an offshore bank, you have to submit a notarized copy of certain documents in order to assure document’s authenticity.
Along with these documents, an offshore bank may even ask for some additional requirements in order to discourage some illegal activities that are related with offshore banking such as money laundering, tax fraud or other unlawful activities.
Then, there comes the option of choosing the currency in which you want to hold funds. This is most probably the biggest benefit provided by an offshore bank. Before opening an offshore account one must know the consequences of holding funds in different currencies. For instance, some currencies provide interest on your deposits but can also cause tax liability. And it is mandatory to exchange currencies in order to make withdrawals and deposits. And this wholly depends on the exchange rates and fee structure.
These bank accounts are funded electronically through international wire transfers. Sending a wire transfer is a very common operation but many banks charge fees for this service of sending or receiving funds through a wire transfer. And this fee of wire transfers varies from banks to banks. It is practically impossible to deposit funds in person on a continuous basis and many foreign banks do not accept domestic checks.
One of the most profitable benefits of offshore banks is that they offer a wide range of options to withdraw your funds in order to serve you with the maximum convenience possible. Some offshore banks issue normal debit/ATM card but one must know the fees of using this. This method is really expensive and the fees can be minimized by withdrawing huge amounts of cash at a time.
Many offshore banks even offer checks. But this is not a first- preference as the checks drawn by foreign banks are not accepted locally sometimes.
So the best preferred way is to one offshore account and one domestic account. By this manner, one can transfer larger amounts from offshore account to domestic account through electronic wire transfer. In this manner, the depositor is served with good privacy and security and this method also provides greater convenience and ease to local banking services.
*So opening up an offshore account is all about filling some paperwork and providing the banks with some common identifying documents and some additional information in order to ensure that you are not going or planning to use this offshore bank account for any unlawful or illegal purpose.
It is very important to analyze various options before choosing the best currency for your funds because selecting the perfect currency and optimizing withdrawals and deposits is a really tough job. And one must not forget to consult with a tax professional about the bank deposits and receiving international wire transfers. This helps in ensuring that one is properly following all the tax rules and regulations.
Things one must know before opening an offshore account
- Opening an offshore account is very simple, economical, fast, and easy. But one must do it with proper understanding and correct mindset.
- As mentioned above, opening up of an offshore account is not expensive at all but while opening one should consider other costs too like transnational or recurring costs.
- Offshore banking is completely legal but you should not make any illegal use of it. One must not use it for money laundering, tax evasion, and for all the other illegal purposes. So in order to make legal and good use of an offshore account it has been advised to seek assistance of a reputed and a trusted International Corporation services provider.
- It is important and advised that you should report your account to your local tax authorities because not reporting your account could cause you huge tax penalties or sometimes even imprisonment. So in order to avoid all this, you must work properly, correctly, and legally with your assets management and you must follow the legal systems associated with this.
- One may need two or more offshore structures in order to facilitate protection work and tax planning. So to achieve the same one must seek advice and should consult with a trusted and reputed lawyer or offshore service provider.
- Depositing your funds overseas may benefit your personal finance but you should not forget to consider all the pros and cons.
Originally published at www.axioscreditbank.com on October 19, 2018.
