Well, I’m going to bite the bullet and do what I should have done a few years ago, which is to open an offshore account. The reasons behind this are, as I’ve probably mentioned before, my Canadian Banks reluctance to let me do business without; a) Taking over a week to do a simple wire transfer, b) Refusing to let me transfer funds via my currency brokers who can move money in under forty eight hours, or c) Charging up to five percent of the transferred amount do a similar task that otherwise costs me a more modest flat fee. Then there are the proposed ‘Tobin Taxes’ if I want to move money through mainland Europe. I know the proposed amount is ‘only’ a tenth of one percent, but you can safely bet your entire wardrobe that the banks will hike that up with ‘administration costs’. So the Eurozone, at least as my funds are concerned, will become a ‘No-go’ zone.
Going offshore is not that easy nowadays, there are all sorts of hoops to jump through meaning lots of form filling to prove who you say you are and that you’re not a tax dodger. Certified copies of this that and the other, all to go snail mail. Although I shall get mine couriered. Then there are the money laundering regulations which limit transaction size. Well, at least for individuals. Hell, you’d think you were considered a criminal just for moving your own damn money around.
Any old road up, taxes have already been paid, and the tax man on both sides of the pond has accepted my paperwork to say I don’t owe any more, so that’s a base covered. Unless some git of a politician decides it should be illegal to have more than your ‘fair’ share and changes the law to give my money to their ‘deserving’ cases (a.k.a. ‘vote buying’), in which case my money will immediately migrate to a less unfriendly domicile. Perhaps even become a domicile, who knows what the future holds?
I suppose it’s no use me bitching about the rules if I want to play the game. But now I have a stake, I intend to put my money to work internationally. Two main reasons. Firstly; I don’t want to rely on the largesse of the state when I finally retire. Secondly; I want to see what I can do to ensure our girls don’t have to struggle so much with buying houses, raising families, building lives. We already help them out when things are a little rough, but not all the time. That would be worse than no help at all and we’d only lose their respect.
Anyway, the rain has stopped, and it looks like it’ll be a nice weekend for the Classic Boat Festival downtown. I may go, I may chill out elsewhere. We shall see.
