What To Do? To Make International Investment Easier After 2013, Start Now
If you envision yourself investing internationally in the future, you have just under two years to prepare to transact international business without being turned away by foreign banks, or your having funds subjected to IRS withholding by banks handling transfers.
International business attorney Joel M. Nagel recommends the following strategies you can use to prepare for enforcement of the HIRE Act provisions that he outlines in this issue of Hemispheres.
- Move a percentage of your assets outside of the United States prior to December 31, 2012.
- Create a foreign trust as a non-US legal person to own and hold assets outside of the United States. While you will have to report such a structure and your income to the IRS, the foreign nature of the trust should allow it to continue banking in many jurisdictions when US accounts are eventually closed . Additionally, the gift and estate tax exemptions were united in the most recent tax reform extension bill, which increased the amount that an individual may gift to a trust (foreign or domestic) to $5,000,000.
- Hold assets in non-dollar denominated currencies.
- Have a heavier allocation toward precious metals, commodities and foreign real estate which should increase in value as the dollar deteriorates.
- Utilize foreign life insurance and foreign annuities to move assets out of dollar denominations and into legal structures which may be less affected by the impact of these new provisions.
Hemispheres will continue to explore these and other financial strategies in future issues, and update you on interpretations of HIRE Act provisions over the next 23 months.
