What You Need to Know About Offshore Investing

Here are some of the more common questions clients have about offshore investing. If we don’t answer your questions, below, please feel free to contact us.

Is Investing offshore legal?

Investing outside Canada is perfectly legal, according to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

What is an offshore company?

It refers to a company that is largely owned by residents of one country, but is located and operates outside that countries’s borders.

What is a tax haven?

Many offshore companies, including Carib Capital, are often located in countries which allow people and/or businesses from abroad to pay lower or no taxes than they would have to pay at home.

Where are some of the more common tax havens?

Barbados, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Bermuda, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Cyprus, Singapore, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos are just a few of the more popular tax havens for Canadians.

Is it legal to create an offshore company?

It is absolutely legal for Canadians to have offshore companies, they can be used for many issues such as business finance, mergers and acquisitions, and estate or tax planning.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is what you can do with offshore companies, that you shouldn’t including potentially illegal dealings. Many offshore companies also do not report tax on passive income. Passive income could come from interest on investments or rent.

Offshore investments are a smart and legal way for Canadians to realize the type of returns they want, without the risk they may need to take at home.