The advantages of going onshore

Of course, many onshore jurisdictions with high taxes, expensive labour laws and a legal and regulatory framework that make even simple business transactions unnecessarily difficult are broadly hostile to promoting business. The onshore world can, thus, be divided between regimes that are hostile to business and those that are relatively friendly to new business. It should be noted, here, that the word “offshore” while connoting small islands also embraces jurisdictions seen as “too friendly” to international wealth. Jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and Monaco are likely to arouse suspicion when they are used by residents of high-tax jurisdictions. The recent bad publicity that companies such as Starbucks and Amazon have received for using jurisdictions such as the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which do not tax passive income such as intellectual property royalties, has further extended the list of countries that are likely “to raise eyebrows”. To find a suitable onshore jurisdiction, that has the capacity to be helpful in legitimate financial planning, it is necessary to prepare a list of desiderata. The list may vary from person to person as different people have different needs. Having prepared such a list, the obvious next stage is to seek to find one or more jurisdictions that satisfy all or most of the desiderata.