On December 1, 2001, Argentina’s economy was in trouble. Unemployment was high, debt was high, and recession had taken hold. But life was somewhat ‘normal’.
Basic services still functioned. And no one had to really worry about… food. Or water. Then it all changed. Literally within a day.
On December 2nd, the bankrupt government imposed measures that essentially froze everyone’s bank accounts. You can just imagine– one day having access to your funds, and the next day being completely cut off.
Within a matter of days, people were out in the streets doing battle with the police. The government soon defaulted on its debt, and the currency went into free fall.
Overnight, people went from being able to pay their rent and living expenses to being completely cut off from my funds.
Everything became scarce. The electricity went out all the time. Even food on the grocery store shelves ran low.You would eat what you had available at home.
And in a way, food became a medium of exchange. Within just a few days, people went from having confidence in their currency to not trusting it at all. No one wanted to accept paper money anymore, especially for something as valuable as food.
And if they did, it would be at 2-3 times the normal price.
The best way to describe it is despair. And this is really the worst emotion you can have. Because when you’re in a state of despair, you’re hopeless. It’s a terrible position to be in.
Life becomes hell because you do not know whether you are going to be able to put food on the table the next day.
And in such a state of despair, you’re not in a position to make good decisions. It’s all about survival.
Of course, people thought, “why didn’t we see this coming? Why didn’t we do something sooner?”
If I only had established citizenship elsewhere, if only we had moved some money out of the country before, or taken steps to safeguard his pension, life would have turned out much differently.
It’s like that old saying– better to be a year (or decade) too early than a day too late. Because one should never underestimate the speed with which things can unravel.
When you’ve got a guy like Senator John McCain who says “The battlefield is the United States of America,” it tells you that almost nothing is safe in the US anymore.
Whatever remains of civil liberties is going to feel the full brunt of the state’s boot heel.
They’re already regulating some of the most fundamental aspects of life, from how we are allowed to educate our children to what we can / cannot put in our bodies to the very nature of money.
People are forced to hold their savings in insolvent banks backed by insolvent insurance funds backed by insolvent governments. And those insolvent governments have demonstrated that they are perfectly willing to directly confiscate accounts.
Retirement funds have proven to be an easy, tempting target. A number of countries including our Argentina example, and others such as Ireland, and Hungary have appropriated private pensions. Even the US government temporarily dipped into federal employee pensions.
Western governments are making every possible effort to take over the Internet. Despite every previous attempt (SOPA, PIPA, etc.) failing due to public outcry, they keep trying and trying (ACTA, CISPA, etc.).
They’re raising taxes, creating new ones (including Maryland’s new ‘rain tax’), imposing capital controls, racking up debt, and rapidly devaluing their currencies.
It all reeks of desperation… and it’s all so obvious. At least, for anyone paying attention.
Unfortunately it’s easy to lose sight of the truth. After all, how can there be any economic problems when the stock market is at an ‘all-time high’ and Nobel Prize winning pseudo-scientists tell us that debt levels don’t matter?
Truth is, these enormous challenges shouldn’t be ignored. The entire global financial system is sitting on a bed of dynamite. Central bankers are dousing the pile with gasoline while politicians are standing around smoking.
The potential for epic disaster cannot be understated.
This is not to say that the world is coming to an end. Far from it. History is quite generous with past example of once-great civilizations that collapsed under the weight of their own hubristic debt.
Things didn’t end. They changed. Simple. And that’s what’s happening now in a textbook fashion.
Governments in trouble almost ALWAYS resort to the same destructive tactics. When things are clearly on the decline, rather than INCREASING freedom and opportunity, they try to control EVERYTHING.
We’re already seeing the early stages of this with competitive devaluation, basic capital controls, and bank withdrawal limits.
These will soon give way to wider capital controls, increased border controls, wage and price controls, asset confiscation, and more.
It only delays the inevitable. The more they control, the more rapid the deterioration becomes. Again, this isn’t some sensationalist prediction; it is the very common historical trend.
The other thing that history shows us, however, is that there are always a handful of people who see the writing on the wall and take action.
Why A Dominican Passport?
Quite simply, it is the most economical insurance policy you could have – especially for US citizens. Located in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic is only 90 minutes from Miami. The weather is perfect all year round and the cost of living is low. It’s a great escape in case things unravel. Other factors which make this an ideal second passport …
Safety – Dominican Republic passport holder are relatively safe worldwide. These passport holders can travel on any continent without the fear of being kidnapped or worse. That’s not the case with US or European passport holders.
Cost – The procurement cost of the Dominican Republic passport can be as low as $24,900. This compares favorably with Dominica at $150,000 or St. Kitts at $395,000.
Wait time – A second passport from the Dominican Republic can be acquired in as little as 9 months.
Other reasons for acquiring a Dominican Republic passport – Buy and rent out property wherever you choose without punitive taxation; Avoid electronic logging of your existing passport; Take greater advantage of offshore business opportunities; Obtain employment worldwide and invest in offshore mutual funds and other vehicles closed to US passport holders.
The very fact that a second passport opens up the additional options already mentioned is actually reason enough to obtain one, but in case you need a little more convincing … Your passport is in fact the property of your government – and for US citizens, government which claims, and increasingly exercises, the right to confiscate it at any time. Even if you have sensibly removed the bulk of your assets to an offshore haven, they are no good to you here if you are trapped in your home country because your passport is no longer valid or has been confiscated. Most countries have laws which allow them to restrict not only entry but also exit from the territory. Exchange controls can be imposed overnight and the necessary legislation is already in place in the US.
U.S. citizens are subject to tax wherever they work and live in the world. But a Dominican Republic passport can open opportunities for sheltering income and protecting assets. If your citizenship demands fulfillment of military service contrary to your beliefs, it would pay you to a Dominican Republic passport that does not. If your passport allows your government to supervise your movements, monitor or control your travel in any way, or restricts your liberty to invest, borrow, or participate in any currency transactions, you are at a disadvantage.
If you wish to keep a low profile, for reasons of nationality, religion, race etc., a second passport can give you the necessary mobility you require. It could even save your life. As an insurance policy against future economic stability, political strife or war, you should think about a second passport. When catastrophe is imminent you’ve left it too late. A second passport in these circumstances would be worth its weight in diamonds.
Anyone who reads much about international tax law knows that the USA is the only country on earth that taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, even if they choose not to live there. This situation, though the US government doesn’t want to admit it, has led to long waiting lines at US consulates abroad as America’s brightest and most productive citizens queue up to renounce their citizenship.
British citizens still have the freedom to leave the UK, and as long as they don’t have any UK income they don’t even have to file British tax returns any more, never mind pay taxes.This, however, may be changing soon. France may not be a country we normally expect to follow the US example, but French politicians are increasingly stating: “We’re going to apply what the Americans apply… a tax based on citizenship.”
French politicians wants to tax “tax exiles” but not French expat workers. Good luck drafting laws that make that distinction work! We somehow doubt this proposition will come to fruition too quickly.
What advantages really are there to having French citizenship, if one does not live in France?
Granted, it’s a pretty good passport to travel on. And if you get into a spot of bother in Colombia or Afghanistan they might send some commandos from Paris to help you out. But is that worth paying more than half your income for?
France was also in the news recently due to a lone Al Qaeda gunman who went on the rampage in Toulouse, killing seven people including two children. A very, very sad case, but it shows again the probability that terrorists will single out French citizens just as they will single out American (or British) citizens.
You probably don’t need the implications of this news spelt out. Other countries have crazy politicians too. Will the UK, Australia, or Canada be the next country to propose worldwide taxation for its citizens? Or will it be Brazil or Russia or China? We don’t know, but it is highly on the cards that this will happen.
Could It Happen in the US?
Earlier last year, we were shocked to learn about Senate Bill 1813, also known as the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” Act.
Its original purpose was to “Reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes.”
Other purposes? What could that possibly mean?
Much of it described funds that would be allocated to create jobs building roads and digging ditches for the government.
But there was another section in this 1,676 page document, a small section, tucked away – all about tax delinquency.
There were two disturbing things we found almost immediately. The first one was that if you owed money to the IRS, your debt would be multiplied for inflation, and if that amount was not a multiple of $1,000, they would be so kind as to round it up to the next $1,000 mark for you!
But that wasn’t the real kicker… It also read that if you are believed to owe $50,000 in taxes or more, the Internal Revenue Service now had the ability revoke or deny your passport – eliminating your right to free travel.
I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when this act got shut down. But it got us thinking – could this possibly happen in the US?
When learning about World War II and the Holocaust, a natural question is, “Why didn’t the Jews just leave?”.
Obviously it wasn’t that simple. In 1935, the first of the anti-Semitic laws (called the Nuremberg Laws) were instituted – Mainly to get and keep the Jews out of any civil service positions.
In 1938, the Nazis ordered that all Jews were to register their wealth and property and Jews over the age of 15 were also required to apply for identity cards to be shown – on demand – to any police officer.
Soon after, Jewish passports had to be stamped with a large red “J” and were not allowed to leave the country.
Many who tried to leave were simply denied visas to do so. Those who did escape were officially stateless so no country would even take them in!
Then in 1939, Jews in Germany were subject to a curfew and doctors, lawyers, and dentists were forbidden to practice.
They were gathered in Ghettos and required to wear yellow stars on their clothing. Shortly after, the Ghettos were sealed off and the mass killings followed suit.
In the end, an estimated 11,000,000 people were killed – 6,000,000 of which were Jews.
In this case in history, people were forced to register all of their wealth and then denied the right to travel (sound familiar?).
US citizens are already required to register all their wealth and property. They are already required to have identification on them at all times. There are no secrets.
We ask you this:
Would it be so far-fetched that the government places a 75% tax on the wealthy? (Already happening in France…)
Would it be so far-fetched that the government creates “tax-police” that pull over Ferraris and other nice cars to ask for tax returns? (Already that’s happening in Italy…)
Would it be so far-fetched that while the economy collapses and wealthy people attempt to expatriate, the government imposes laws to take the majority of their wealth before they leave? (It’s are already trying that here!)
Lastly…would it be so far-fetched that the government decides it should stamp large dollar signs on wealthy people’s passports so that they can easily identify who they need to take money from?
Who knows …
Our solution: Getting a second passport.
Have the right to travel freely no matter what happens and do what others in history weren’t able to do: leave!
WHY NOW IS THE TIME TO GET A SECOND PASSPORT
Why should you get a second passport now? Simply, because if you don’t get the process started now, it may be too late. The trend is undoubtedly that things will become more difficult and more expensive.
We would say there is at least a 50% chance that some European nations, Canada or Australia will move to worldwide taxation of citizens in the next five years. Some might argue the chance is much higher.
One significant reason this might happen is simply that it is getting more possible to track international assets. Before there was not much point in worldwide taxation because it was unenforceable from a practical point of view. With information exchange on assets and bank accounts becoming the norm rather than the exception, this has changed. The US is blazing the trail with FATCA and will likely share the FATCA information with other friendly governments, who will thus have even more incentive to introduce worldwide taxation for their citizens.
We are not here to preach doom and gloom. We hope we’re wrong and that taxation of worldwide income for expats does not become the norm. But having a second passport up your sleeve would definitely seem like a smart strategy.
How to get one? We procure passports from the Dominican Republic as well as other jurisdictions. Please call our office at (809) 712-4412 or email
BankerTrust@gmail.com. One of our qualified professionals will contact you within 24 hours.
