Offshorecash.net

Offshore banking in Belize began when the outdated 1977 Banking Act, which did not adequately provide for a sound regulatory and supervisory authority, was repealed and replaced by the enactment of the Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1995, and the introduction of the Offshore Banking Act, 1996, and the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, 1996, which incorporated the best features of offshore banking legislation in Panama, Cayman and the British Virgin Islands.

A Belize Offshore Bank can carry on the following activities within Belize:

* establish, maintain, and operate a business office in Belize;
* transact offshore banking business through its business office in Belize without restrictions;
* transact offshore banking business with a local entity in Belize licenced under the Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1995.

The major local banks offer a full range of international banking services including foreign currency savings and checking accounts earning tax-free interest and operated for the purpose of exchange control on a non-resident basis. Such accounts are offered to IBCs, individuals and trustees. Credit card services are also available.

Belize Offshore Banks are not subject to exchange control regulations.

The Central Bank of Belize was established pursuant to the Central Bank Act of 1982, the Bank Act. The Central Bank has a statutory obligation under the Bank Act to foster monetary stability and promote credit and exchange conditions conducive to economic growth within the context of the government’s economic policy. The Bank Act provides the Central Bank with the statutory authority for regulating the activities of the Belizean banking system. Besides the Central Bank of Belize, in 2003 there were five commercial banks; eight offshore banks; seventeen domestic and one offshore insurance companies. In addition there was one government-owned development bank (the DFC); fifteen credit unions; three building societies; one government-owned savings bank; one government-owned small farmers and business bank; and eleven casas de cambio as of 2002.

Two categories of Belize Offshore Banks are currently available, “A” Class - Unrestricted and “B” Class - Restricted. A “B” Class bank is restricted to carrying on such business as is specified in its license. Both types of bank need to have local offices, but a “B” Class bank is not allowed to solicit deposits from local residents.

THE COMMERCIAL FREE ZONE

The Commercial Free Zone Act 1994 established a Commercial Free Zone at Corozal to attract foreign investment. The Zone provides facilities for various activities including manufacturing, processing, packaging, warehousing and distribution of goods and services.

Businesses established in the Free Zone are free of foreign exchange restrictions and receive a range of other benefits including duty exemptions and tax holidays.

Goods and supplies entering and leaving the Free Zone for commercial purposes are exempt from import or export duties, quotas, stamp duties and revenue replacement duties. A ‘Social Fee’ of 1.5% is charged on all goods and services imported into the CFZ, except for fuel which is charged at 10%.

There is exemption from business tax, income tax and any new corporate tax levied by the government during the first ten years of a CFZ business operation. Dividends paid by a business in the CFZ are also exempt from tax for the first 25 years of operation. Thereafter income tax is charged at between 2% and 8% on Free Zone businesses, but these rates can be reduced by up to 2% through tax credits earned by the employment of Belizean workers. In addition, CFZ businesses incurring a net loss over the 10 year tax holiday may deduct the loss against profits in the 3 years following the tax holiday period.

Three locations have been designated as EPZs under the Export Processing Zone Act. The San Andres EPZ occupies 28.5 acres of land in the northern section of the country, only 8 miles away from the Mexican border, right next door to NAFTA. The other two Zones are both located approximately 9 miles from Belize City, the country’s commercial capital. The EPZ adjacent to the Philip Goldson International Airport covers 4 acres, while the Price Barracks EPZ covers 14 acres.

In the EPZ, facilities are provided for activities in manufacturing, processing, packaging, warehousing and the distribution of goods and services. In fact, amendments made to the legislation in 1994, provide investors with the added option of constructing their own facilities and developing infrastructure within an EPZ, including independent utility installations. This option enables an EPZ to enhance its economic development, since it does not necessarily have to use the electricity or telephone facilities provided by the two local monopolies, The Belize Electricity Limited and The Belize Telecommunications Limited respectively.

Other benefits of locating in the EPZs include full import and export duty exemptions; exemptions from capital gains tax, property and land taxes, excise, sales and consumption taxes, taxes on trade turnover, on foreign exchange and transfer tax; tax holidays of 20 years with an option to extend and deduct loses from profits following the tax holiday period and; dividend tax exemption in perpetuity.

Internet Gambling Law

Belize is one of the few countries that has enacted legislation allowing for the establishment of online wagering. Its Computer Wagering Licensing Act, 1995, which came into force on May 28, 1996, provides for the proper conduct and regulation of gambling via the Internet.

Besides legalizing wagering by Computer Internet, the Act also provides for the licensing of computer services operators who provide Computer Internet users with the facility to wager against each other on sporting events or other games of chance.

The Belize Computer Wagering Licensing Board vets all applications for licenses to provide computer wagering services and, with the prior approval of the Minister of Home Affairs (Minister), can grant exclusive licenses. They are also responsible for the control and regulation of all persons who provide computer wagering services.

In October 2004, Prime Minister Said Musa, who is also the minister responsible for gaming control, signed a Statutory Instrument which adjusted the Online Gaming regime to make processing and monitoring more efficient while reducing the normal fees associated with licenses in Belize to US$15,000 from US$50,000. A license is required by International Business Companies conducting or intending to conduct gaming from within Belize with the exception that no business is conducted with residents of Belize.

According to the new rules, only persons with integrity and competence and with adequate financial means will be considered for a license, and only one license can be held at any one time.

Other regulatory requirements include the maintenance of a separate bank account for processing wager transactions. Licensees may charge a processing fee not exceeding 5% of each transaction, or the sum of US $20, whichever is greater.

There is a 15% withholding tax on payments of winnings or prizes made by holders of computer wagering licenses.

The Conservative government, having just shut down one costly tax avoidance scheme, income trusts, now has another in its sights, offshore tax havens.

”There’s some significant tax avoidance there,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said, after revealing to the Commons finance committee that the government is reviewing the use of offshore tax havens to avoid paying tax.

Using offshore tax havens to avoid tax, just as corporations were using income trusts to do so, is not illegal but is costly to the government, he said.

Last year, Statistics Canada revealed Canadian direct investment in offshore financial centers, including ”tax havens,” had soared eight-fold since 1990 to $88 billion in 2003.

”Canadian enterprises invested substantial and growing amounts in countries known as ‘Offshore Financial Centers’, many of them in the Caribbean,” it said. ”These centers include countries that are often referred to as ‘tax havens’, as well as those which have important financial sectors, such as Switzerland, but also Ireland,” it said.

The largest increases went into Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Ireland, the five countries being among the 11 nations with the most Canadian assets.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser has charged that multinational companies operating in Canada have avoided ”hundreds of millions” of dollars in taxes over the past decade through the use of tax havens, while one university study put the tax savings to Canadian banks alone at $10 billion over that period.

Flaherty later introduced a motion in the Commons to amend the Income Tax Act to prevent ”non-resident trusts and foreign investment entities” from using offshore tax havens to avoid tax.

”The motion will amend existing income tax rules to help ensure that income earned by Canadians through foreign jurisdictions, including tax havens, is subject to tax as if it had been earned in Canada,” he said in introducing the motion.

However, he said the amendments are separate from the overall review of income trust funds which is still underway.

The amendments mainly deal with the taxation of income earned through the use of non-resident trusts and foreign investment entities, the department said. They carry through on long-standing proposals that were first announced in the 1999 budget but whose implementation has been delayed by repeated proposals for changes.

Meanwhile, Flaherty continued to defend his decision to break an election promise not to tax income trusts, saying they were being used as a tax avoidance scheme by some corporations and that they threatened to push the government back into a deficit.

The loss in revenues resulting from the escalating number and size of corporations that were converting into trusts would have eventually pushed the federal government back into a deficit, he told the committee.

”The alternative would have been to impose a heavier tax burden on individual Canadians and their families and that’s not fair and we did not want to go there,” he told reporters later.

However, Liberal finance critic John McCallum argued that the government could have given investors a 10-year grace period before imposing the tax as the Americans did when they shut that tax loophole, rather than the four it did.

‘You would have the same long-run consequences but you would have very substantially reduced the meltdown which all sorts of Canadians who invested in good faith suffered,” McCallum said.

Flaherty responded that the Australians only gave investors a three-year grace period when it took such action, suggesting that is the model he followed.

Meanwhile, the Conservative government’s decision to tax income trusts faces a legal challenge from Democracy Watch. Duff Conacher head of the government accountability advocacy organization refused to reveal the grounds for the court challenge before today but it’s likely related to the breaking of a written commitment in the Conservatives election platform to not tax on trusts.

Source: Montreal Gazette

Not sure yet if you really want to go to Belize? You definitely want to go if you like . . .

Luxury Resorts

Deluxe duvets. Your own villa on a private island. Fine wines and gourmet dinners. You may be traipsing around Mayan ruins or diving the Blue Hole during the day, but at night you can look forward to indulgent pampering at Belize’s luxury jungle lodges and beach resorts. Here are a few of our favorite haunts.

Cayo Espanto, near Ambergris Caye. Really want to splurge? A stay on this small, private island will cost you almost as much as a Toyota Prius, but you’ll have your own butler, personal chef, and gorgeous views of the sea. www.aprivateisland.com.

Azul Resort, North Ambergris Caye. It’s all top of the line at this hip and exclusive beach resort. Kick back with a killer frozen Mojito at the seaside Rojo Lounge. www.azulbelize.com.

Blancaneaux Lodge, Mountain Pine Ridge. Francis Ford Coppola’s riverside jungle lodge hints of Beverly Hills. www.blancaneauxlodge.com.

Caye Chapel Island Resort, Caye Chapel. Super-size beach villas next to a challenging seaside 18-hole golf course? No, you’re not in Boca Raton — you’re on a private island. www.cayechapel.com.

Inn at Robert’s Grove, Placencia. Imported steaks, a wine cellar, tennis, and hot tubs on the roof — who needs Hilton Head?www.robertsgrove.com.

The Lodge at Chaa Creek, Cayo. Soak up the carefully tended landscaping, deluxe garden suites, spa, Cuban cigars, and expensive cognac. www.chaacreek.com.

Turtle Inn, Placencia. Just wait until you see the garden showers. www.turtleinn.com.

Fishing

Some of the world’s most exciting sportfishing can be had off Belize’s coast and cayes. Go for the “grand slam” of tarpon, bonefish, and snook on the shallow flats between the mainland and the reef. Sailfish, wahoo, marlin, and barracuda abound farther out. Several specialty resorts and fishing camps, such as Turneffe Flats and El Pescador, cater to the angler but most hotels can help you organize excellent fishing trips.

Turneffe Atoll. Bonefish, tarpon, permit, snappers, jacks, barracuda, wahoo, dorado, and billfish all ply the waters.

Glover’s Atoll. Shallow tidal flats around the atoll make for plenty of bonefish; there’s also permit, jack, and barracuda.

Placencia. If you don’t want to ante up the big bucks that the resorts charge farther north, head here — it’s become one of Belize’s main fishing centers. Budget hotels start around BZ$50 a night. Permits are the number one catch inside the reef, or cast a line in the Placencia Lagoon or the deep sea beyond the reef.

Punta Gorda. If you’re serious about fishing, this is where you need to be. The waters off PG are world-famous for permit fishing, and the Port Honduras Marine Reserve has at least 100 species of fish.

Ambergris Caye. There’s surprisingly good saltwater fishing on the northern cayes—look for bonefish, permit, and tarpon.

Chetumal Bay. Your chances of coming home with something are best at this large fishery in northern Belize. Myriad bonefish, tarpon, and permit await.

Caving

One of the most exciting ways to see Belize is to head underground — there are hundreds of caves all over the country. You can canoe down subterranean rivers in some, ducking under low-hanging rock stalactites and dodging bats while keeping your eyes trained for Mayan artifacts. The easiest caves to visit are in the Cayo; you don’t need a guide to visit open caverns such as Rio Frio and St. Herman’s. Before you head out to the cave, make sure to find out if it’s open to the public, if you need a guide, and if the cave has a river, and if the water level is low enough for visitors.

Actun Tunichil Muknal. Go here for amazing limestone formations, many undisturbed Mayan artifacts, and calcified human remains. It’s the top caving experience in Belize.

Barton Creek Cave. Canoe about a mile on an underground river through Barton Cave, which has some Mayan artifacts and skeletal remains.

Rio Frio Cave. Though it’s more a natural tunnel than a cave, it’s still worth a visit for its large entryway and path above the Cold River.

Che Chem Ha. This cave, once used by the Maya for grain storage and ceremonial rituals, is on private land about 25 minutes from San Ignacio in the Vaca Plateau.

Caves Branch Caves. The Caves Branch River cave system has become a popular place for cave tubing. You float on an inner tube on an underground river through the caves, the only light coming from your headlamp.

Scuba Diving and Snorkeling

Don your scuba or snorkeling gear and soak up the cast of aquatic characters offshore and around the Barrier Reef. One moment you may come upon an enormous spotted eagle ray; the next you may find the feisty little damselfish, a bolt of blue no bigger than your little finger. Bloated blowfish hover in their holes like nightclub bouncers, lean and mean barracuda patrol the depths, and queen angelfish shimmy through the water with the puckered lips and haughty self-assurance of supermodels. Graceful sea fans and great chunks of staghorn coral add to the exhilarating underwater experience.

Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Snorkel with nurse sharks and stingrays at Shark-Ray Alley and keep your eyes peeled for moray eels in the reserve.

Glover’s Reef. This is probably the least visited and arguably the most pristine dive and snorkel area of Belize. You can see nurse sharks, eagle rays, and manta rays, and go wreck diving.

Turneffe Islands. Mangroves line a shallow lagoon, creating a rich nursery for sea life where snorkelers and divers alike can see reef sharks, dolphins, eagle rays, large green moray eels, and turtles.

Blue Hole. The underwater sinkhole, one of the most famous dives in Belize, forms a perfectly round, deep blue circle.

South Water Caye. If you want to shore snorkel, come here. The beach is sandy and the island is one of Belize’s most beautiful.