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Choosing an offshore jurisdiction in today's offshore banking world can be difficult. Often the choice comes down to Switzerland and Panama when you are looking for a place to protect your assets. Switzerland is the established, well respected jurisdiction, while Panama is the up and coming jurisdiction. So many people ask struggle with this choice that we have decided to produce this article to help you make your asset protection decision. Switzerland minimum balances are $10,000 for a small bank, $25,000 for a medium bank, and $250,000 for a large well established bank. Panama banks on the other hand expect a very small minimum deposit. Financial institutions in Switzerland are particular about how you operate your bank account. If you deposit a large sum of money and then withdraw money each month, showing an overall declining balance you will be asked to leave the bank after a few months. Bankers in Panama do not have a problem with a declining balance. Today, the only real advantage Swiss banks have is their overwhelming size and stability. The problem is that they have become so large and respected they are really not an offshore jurisdiction anymore. They even require United States citizens to provide their social security number when opening a bank account! Panama, of course, does not require this information, since they do not co-operated with tax authorities anyway. (Panama has no tax treaties with anyone.) The Swiss banks, under Swiss law, must exchange tax information freely, under their many tax treaties (including a USA - Swiss Tax Treaty). Sadly, this has caused the demise of the once world famous Swiss bank secrecy. Today Panama is the new Country of choice when it comes to asset protection and bank secrecy. Panama does not co-operate with any countries and has no tax treaties. Only in severe criminal investigations is bank secrecy lifted. Panama doesn't recognize tax evasion as a crime, since it is not a crime in Panama. Although Swiss banks are larger than Panama banks, many people are now choosing Panama to protect their assets. Panama has much stronger bank secrecy laws, both on the books, and in practice. Panama banks are also very large and well established by anyone's standards.
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If you are considering setting up an Asset Protection structure in Panama or Switzerland you should look over other OffshoreLegal.org articles on www.offshorelegal.org/asset-protection/panama-offshore-asset-protection/panama-asset-protection.html Click here to get your own unique version of this article.
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