Whichever way you turn, the news is not good. Yesterday, the Halifax announced its house price index figures showing the largest drop in house prices (-2.5%), over a one month period since 1992. With the Bank of England’s announcement on interest rates due on Thursday 10th April, the indications are that a cut in rates is now inevitable. Whether the cut will be large enough to be a stimulus to the housing market is debatable. Markets are forecasting just a 0.25% cut which may be swallowed up by the banks and mortgage lenders in an attempt to recover some of the margins they have lost over recent months due to the inter-bank credit crunch.

This comes on the back of a week of indicators including figures showing that mortgage deals available from the banks and home loan lenders have reduced by 20%. Even so, there are still nearly 4000 deals on the market although fixed rates and discounted rates are hard to come by. It is just harder these days to wade through the available deals to find one that has the most suitable underwriting terms to meet an individuals needs.

The Euro has also hit an all time high against sterling and the dollar. This has helped dampen the holiday property markets in Europe which were once primarily funded by British purchasers. The knock on effect on holidays could also see additional negative impacts on economies such as Spain.

The major concern as we look forward must be reflected in the continuing slowing of the US economy. If a crystal ball was required, we need only look west to see what may lay ahead. Even with the Federal Reserve having ’slashed’ interest rates three times in quick succession and a stimulus package that will see most tax paying Americans shortly receiving a $600 - $800 cheque from the IRS in the next few weeks, overall sentiment in the economy is firmly on a downward path.

Gas, (petrol) prices are at nearly $4 a gallon, an all time high due mainly to the weakness in the dollar. The cause of the weakness being the interest rate cuts that the Federal Reserve made in an attempt to stimulate the housing sector. The ‘Catch 22 ‘ scenario seems set to drive the economy into recession unless the ECB and Bank of England join forces in an attempt to strengthen the dollar by cutting their interest base rates. This would not be a bilateral move of generosity on the part of the Anglo-Euro central Banks. Far from it. It is a given that if the US falls into recession that Europe will follow. The fact that the central banks across Europe act independently of government should mean that it would be easier to make such decisions. However, the Euro-zone is a relatively new animal and finds itself in possession of conflicting indicators from disparate parts of the kingdom. This makes decisive action harder to make, leading to delays that may leave more damage than they would have under the old European currencies regime.

With the latest figures from the Halifax and an interest rate cut imminent, the beneficiaries of the lower rates may end up being those who decide to refinance their home loan instead of moving house. The HSBC announced today, (April 9th 2008), that it is willing to offer refinance deals for people with expiring fixed rate mortgages. This may be the start of a rebirth in lending with those banks not unduly affected by US sub-prime losses getting ready to pick up the slack from the mortgage hunting public looking to avoid higher payments in the months ahead.

About the Author

For the best Loan rates the Loan Network provides all your mortgages, personal loan and refinance loan needs.

Panama and Guatemala are not the first names that spring to mind when you think of offshore tax havens and second passport jurisdictions for expatriation. Areas that probably spring to mind first are the salubrious locations of Monaco, the Bahamas or Switzerland. But these playgrounds for the rich and famous have been coming under attack recently from European government and in so doing so have left many to look further afield for their privacy.

One of the pitfalls in this has been though, that through the proliferation of information and services provided on the internet, the scammers are out in force. Their aim, to take your money and run. Due to the secret nature of many of the enquiries made, little or no recourse can be found once the money is lost.

The first rule that should be applied when looking for an offshore jurisdiction or service is to identify who you are dealing with. In terms of second passports or citizenship applications this should always be a licensed lawyer in the country you are looking to relocate to. Anything less than this and you will probably be waving goodbye to your money offshore, but into some-one else’s bank account! At least with a lawyer, you will know that they have been vetted by their countries authorities and there will be a procedure in place for recourse in the event of mal-practice.

The second rule which relates to citizenship or expatriation for tax purposes, is that you will be expected to appear in person when making an application. Not only this, but you will be appearing at a government office, a large building, flying the flag of the nation you are in. It sounds ridiculous to mention it, but there are so many tales of people who actually turn up in a country to apply for a passport and are taken to a little third floor office some-where in an obscure building and hand over their money after signing a few ‘legal’ documents.

The third rule is that your lawyer should always be present with you when the application is being made. He will be able to cover all matters regarding any assets you may be transferring into the country through offshore trusts or companies. In places such as Panama you are able to register under the ‘pesionada’ provision, giving you a multitude of discounts as a retired citizen. To do this you must show an income from a pension, trust or similar account. You can register at any age over eighteen as long as the income is sufficient.

I mentioned Panama and Guatemala at the beginning of the article because these are two of the lesser known jurisdictions for offshore tax havens. Saying that, Panama at one time had more offshore companies on its register than all of the Caribbean countries combined. Many of these were lost in the eighties when a combination of General Manuel Noriegas dictatorship and the formation of the first IBC companies led to a departure of many companies to the Caymans and Bahamas. Since stable government has been restored, Panama has once again become a prime location for offshore trusts and companies.

Finally with regards to second passports, there are a few no-nos to look out for and avoid. These include anything that purports to obtaining a diplomatic status passport, a passport from a third world African nation other than South Africa or an obscure nation that will require you to obtain a visa to enter a country like the USA or UK. Also avoid anything that involves marriage and adoption to enable you to obtain a passport. All these methods will put you in harms way should you attempt them. If you keep to the rules mentioned here you will safely find a lawyer in the country of your choice who will guide you successfully to your end goal. Good Luck and Bon Voyage!

About the Author

www.panamalaw.org are a Panamanian based law firm that specialize in offshore trust and offshore bank account formation. For information on residency and obtaining a second passport Panama Legal can guide you through the legal procedures.

The Federal Reserves latest cut in its prime rate by three-quarters of a percentage point may do little to assist home owners across the country who have built in fixed rate mortgages. It will however add stimulus to first time borrowers as interest rates start to reflect in some of the lowest mortgage rate products for several years. The reduction in the prime rate which now stands at 2.25% will also put further pressure on the dollar, weakening it against the major world currencies specifically the Euro, which has been gaining in strength almost as quickly as the dollar has been falling.

There are several repercussions to a weaker dollar, not least the resulting rise in the price of oil. US households already struggling with higher gas prices have been economizing in their spending patterns. It is this cutting back that has fueled speculation that the US economy is heading into a recession. A recession, that many believe has already arrived. But with the definition of a recession being at least two concurrent quarters of negative growth and the last figures released for the final quarter of 2007 showing 0.6% growth, it may be more realistic to paraphrase Mark Twain, that in relation to the economy, ‘ Reports of its death may have been over-exaggerated’. The dramatic fall in growth from 4.9% in the previous quarter cannot however be ignored, and if the downward trend continues at the same rate, then a recession may be declared by mid-June.

To rescue the economy, or for the cynically minded, to rescue the republican candidate, John McCain in Novembers election, a stimulus package including up to an $800 tax rebate will take effect in April. The package is supposed to boost consumer spending but the overall effect maybe solely to allow the administration the breathing space it needs to delay announcing that the economy, has in fact gone into recession. The influx of $1.5 trillion dollars into the economy should be enough to keep the statistics in the positive for at least a quarter leaving room for the administration to declare that by definition, the country is not suffering from the big R.

Like most things though, with every economic cycle there will be winners as well as losers. Whilst many of us whine about higher gas prices, food prices and energy costs, the lowest interest rates for nearly a generation will allow some to enter the housing market at a time when locking in their finance may stand them in good stead for the next twenty years.

When Donald Trump is quoted as saying that there are plenty of excellent investment opportunities available in the current real estate market, it is worth taking note. This aside, homeowners who can afford to, may also be attracted into the mortgage refinance market. With interest rates so low, the closing costs of refinancing a home loan in relation to the long term benefits of a fixed home loan at such low rates, now makes refinancing a serious option.

The problem that you may still have to be overcome in refinancing your mortgage is finding a suitable lender willing to loan money depending on your credit status. Mortgage lenders who have been seriously hurt by the sub-prime crisis and are finding it increasingly difficult to raise funds on the secondary market leaving less funds available to lend as mortgage finance. The result of this being, lenders have tightened the criteria for loans. Funds have been so scarce that the Federal Reserve has had to inject billions of dollars into the system just to keep the cash flowing around the market. This liquidity issue means that whilst interest rates may be favorable, finding the funds to borrow may need some serious leg work.

Whatever your circumstances, the economic road ahead may be rocky. If you are able to find cheap mortgage finance or refinance and take advantage of the current situation whilst interest rates are low, you may just emerge down that road in a stronger position.

In todays uncertain times, that would be a good result by any standard.

About the Author

The Loans Network for all your home loans, personal loan and mortgage refinance needs.

More commonly known for its ancient civilization history of the Mayan Empire, Guatemala has more recently become the focus of the worlds wealthy, who are beginning to look beyond the European tax havens of Switzerland, Andorra and Monaco following recent political debates at the European Parliament in the Brussels.

Problems are brewing between the tax havens, Euro officials and resident individuals who have for years, taken advantage of the tax benefits of company and individual offshore accounts in the neighbouring principalities. Member governments such as Germany have wanted to close the tax loop-holes that allow their citizens to cross the border into Liechtenstein to avoid taxes. Recently, the Germans went one step further and allegedly paid an employee of the LGT Group, (a Liechtenstein Bank owned by the royal family), to steal the account holder information of its customer base. Thoughts are, that if a government is willing to go to these lengths to obtain information on its citizens trying to avoid taxes, what will be next!

One of the beneficiaries of the situation could be the central American country of Guatemala who like their close neighbours Panama, have seen a resurgence of interest in offshore companies and offshore trusts since the E.U. began tightening its laws.

Guatemala sits in central America, with Mexico and Belize to its northern border and El Salvador and Honduras to the south. Known best for the Mayan civilization and its ruined cities and pyramids depicted in Mel Gibsons’ recent film ‘Apocalypto’, the native population has been the victim of several periods of violent unrest over its 12, 000 years of history.

Many of its native people were wiped out by epidemic following the Spanish occupations of the 16th century when much of central America came under the rule of Hernan Cortes. In more recent years, a thirty five year old civil war finally ended in 1986, but not before a period of genocide was committed against the indigenous population. Since 1986 and these first free elections, Guatemala has slowly regained her recognition as a free and democratic state and retaken her place amongst the international community of trade and commerce.

With many similarities to its neighbour Panama, Guatemala has very strict privacy laws, making offshore trusts a specialty of its modern banking system. In a Guatemalan trust agreement, the trustees, (those entrusted with the assets), are the Guatemalan law firm. The attorney/client privilege in Guatemala is encased in stone and underwritten by the courts who protect corporate and attorney rights above all else giving a privacy element to the arrangement that would be hard, if not impossible to penetrate. Combine this with the tax regime of not taxing offshore transaction income and Guatemala has all the necessary credentials to provide safe and secure tax haven to those looking beyond the once acceptable destinations now coming under fire.

Add to this, the stability of government and the use of English and Spanish as languages of trade, (Spanish being the recognised language), and Guatemala could finally be seeing a lot more flights from Europe to its shores, as those once reliant on the havens of Europe make their way to more secure destinations.

About the Author

Panama Legal are a Panamanian based law firm that specialize in offshore trust and offshore company formation. For information on residency and obtaining a second passport Panama Legal can guide you through the legal procedures.

It reads like an espionage tale from Len Deighton. Government conspiracy, illegal payments for stolen information and statements by royalty outwardly rebuking foreign powers. I am talking, of course, about the Liechtenstein bank scandal which has rocked the offshore tax havens that neighbor the European Union and could cause an outflow of billions to the more distant tax havens in the Caribbean and countries such as Panama and Guatemala.

It has been no secret for some time now that the member countries of the European Union have not been happy with their smaller neighbors such as Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Switzerland, who have happily provided favorable laws for wealthy individuals wishing to avoid punitive tax rates in their countries of residence. The E.U. has slowly tightened the noose of regulation with its Anti Money Laundering Directives and made it clear that they would like to see the end of the tax havens so they could reclaim the millions lost in tax revenue.

The recent events surrounding the Germans and the Liechtenstein Bank owned by the ruling royal family is more a symptom of this squeeze and reflects the lengths that some governments will go to to achieve its goals. It is alleged that the German government paid an employee of the Liechtenstein bank, L.G.T., a sum of money, believed to be in excess of six million Euros, for a CD containing confidential account holder information. The German government denies any illegal wrong-doing, but for many the writing is on the wall if governments will stoop to such under handed tactics to gain an advantage.

This, of course, is good news for countries such as Panama, who by contrast are still passing laws to tighten individual privacy and attract the very investors that are being shaken by events in the European tax shelters. Panama, who have a long history of tax shelter business, held more offshore companies on their company register than all the other Caribbean tax shelters combined in the early 1970s. Their business was dented through the 1980s due to politic unrest under ‘the Noriega years’. It was unfortunate that at the same time the BVI, British Virgen Islands also launched their International Business Companies Act (1984)(IBC), which, for a time led to an exodus of some of Panamas companies.

Through the 90s, the country has enjoyed a sustained period of political stability and has embraced itself as one of the leading providers of offshore company accounts and second passports. Its privacy laws are some of the tightest in the world and it is claimed that with the ability to with-hold access to the Panama canal, no country would attempt the kind of underhand tactics that befell the principality of Liechtenstein. Besides, it was the proximity to Liechtenstein, bordering the Germans, openly allowing German citizens to cross the border to open accounts, that it is primarily believed to be the reason for the Germans actions.

Whatever the motives, the Ecofin meeting held recently by E.U. members finance ministers, will result in nothing positive for the tax havens of the European region. This can only mean that the worlds wealthy will, more and more, be looking west to countries like Panama to accommodate their needs.

Panama Legal are a Panamanian based law firm that specialize in offshore trust and offshore company formation. For information on residency and obtaining a second passport Panama Legal can guide you through the legal procedures.