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Like many of you, I am an entrepreneur. In high school I was a bag boy at the local grocery store, then unloaded trucks for UPS, and on to go-kart track ticket taker. Also during that time I worked mowing yards and other various odd jobs. My income producing years began at around age 12.
As an adult though, my working life has been almost exclusively consumed by entrepreneurial ventures. Whether this is a product of my upbringing or genetics, I don’t know – but regardless I am a full fledged, committed, life-long entrepreneur. In addition, I am an unrepentant capitalist.
Call me a capitalist pig, opportunist, greedy – or what have you. I say thank you.
I suspect many of you reading this newsletter are on the same page. From a philosophical perspective, my view is that free-market trade is the most efficient way for a society to be organized and the only way to gradually improve the quality of life for all people of the world. Entrepreneurs and investors are the drivers of the world economy and thus should be rewarded for the risks they take bringing an improved standard of living to the world’s citizens.
The problem is that today, the entrepreneurs and the investors are being punished for their productive capacity. They are drowning in bureaucracy with compliance issues that force them to spend huge amounts of time and resources filling in forms in an attempt to appease – and pay the salaries of – parasitic bureaucrats working government jobs that serve no purpose except to receive payment that pays their salaries.
Sounds a bit like circular logic, doesn’t it?
We are at a precarious point today with most developed nations facing serious debt crisis issues. We are on the verge of massive change, and yet bureaucrats keep doing the same things day after day.
As Albert Einstein so famously stated, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Unless you have some magical powers, it is very doubtful we will convince politicians around the globe to begin thinking rationally and get their fiscal houses in order. It isn’t likely we will have the ability to affect enough change to turn the tides at this point.
But what about you? Are you still doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results?
As an entrepreneur and unapologetic capitalist, I decided a few years ago that it was time for a change. I was disgusted with the way things were going in the US. I was sick of spending 30% of my time complying with government regulations that had zero impact on productivity and no real value to society. I was tired of paying 40-50% of my income in taxes forcing me to work for free for the first several months of the year just to subsidize the parasites in Washington and those patsies in their pockets.
I hated it. I hated the idea of hiring people to work for my company just for the sake of filing forms and complying with draconian legislation. I hated the idea that my tax dollars paid for government agencies and programs that I completely disagreed with. I hated that my money was paying the salaries of people too stupid to work for me.
Once I was issued a $2000 fine by OSHA because one of my employees was one rung too high on a ladder without a harness. The OSHA inspector was making a spot check at my client’s location and my employee had stepped up the ladder one rung higher than allowed while taking a sign down. I looked and looked and never found any specific rules stating how many rungs you are allowed to go without a harness. To no avail I was forced to pay this stupid fine.
Several years ago with another company I used to own (sold it a few years ago), I received a notification from the Michigan tax department that I owed $8000 in taxes from 3 years prior. Of course there were also significant penalties and interest that increased the amount to over 3x the original tax bill.
After researching what went wrong, I found that my company actually did pay the tax and the State of Michigan not only deposited the funds, but they acknowledged receipt of payment. This information was sent over to the state and we received a written response apologizing for the error and explaining that the state made a mistake and applied the funds to the wrong account (our withholding account).
Two years later I received notification from the State of Michigan that unless we paid the back taxes owed along with all penalties and fines the company would have its bank account frozen and I personally would be pursued by the state for non-payment of taxes and charged criminally.
Luckily I saved the letter that came from the exact same office noting the error and sent that to them hoping it would resolve the issue. It took 2 years of calls and letters to finally get them to concede they made the error and leave me alone. For all I know they may be trying to pursue this again.
Hence, my decision was made to leave US soil and seek out greener pastures.
I wrote an article last year titled, “Expat Hank Bails on America”. But today, my viewpoint is that “America Bailed on Entrepreneur Bob”….and thus drove me to become an expat.
While governments today may think they can continue to tax you and regulate you into oblivion, the reality is that technology allows you and I to become citizens of the world. We can operate our businesses from any locale and thrive because of our knowledge, skills and drive.
We are no longer limited to running our companies in Kansas. We have no more geographical boundaries. Sure, if you are a plumbing contractor, it is going to be tough for you to fix toilets and broken pipes in Kansas while you are lounging on a beach chair in Bali. But the idea is that you are not constrained to running a plumbing business. The entrepreneurial mentality transcends industries.
My point is that governments are now playing their last card. The writing is on the wall. Twenty years ago it wasn’t easy for you to just liquidate your personal assets and move you and your business to Panama. Today it much simpler than you may even realize.
And herein lies the problem for bureaucrats – they cannot own you anymore. You can just leave and escape the shackles that previously bound you. As more and more people realize their options, the house of cards tumbles.
As a humanitarian (who am I kidding) it is my job to educate you and provide some of the necessary tools to help you make the transition and internationalize your life and your assets. We do this in a number of ways:
- Private asset protection and offshore consulting
- Develop asset protection strategies to help you create a veil of privacy and minimize risk
- Set up structures for your business and investment needs – eg. Seychelles Offshore Companies, Private Wyoming LLC’s, Cook Islands Trusts, Offshore Banking, Offshore Brokerage Accounts, etc.
- Connections to my personal Rolodex of international contacts
- Educational and fun seminars like our upcoming offshore event – “Global Escape Hatch – Panama 2012”
Contact us today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation. Until next time, live well.
