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      Super Cheap

      • Chitré, Panama
      • Santa Marta, Colombia
      • Phuket, Thailand
      • Dumaguete, The Philippines

      Cheap

      • Medellin, Colombia
      • Boquete, Panama
      • Kyrenia, Cyprus
      • Hua Hin, Thailand
      • The Algarve, Portugal

      Affordable

      • Valencia, Spain
      • Cascais, Portugal
      • Las Terrenas, The DR
      • Pisa, Italy
      • La Rochelle, France
      • Mazatlán, Mexico

      Luxury

      • Ambergris Caye, Belize
      • Kotor, Montenegro
      • The Panama City Beaches
      • Paris, France
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      • Home
      • Countries

        Top Destinations:

        Whether you’re looking for fun and sun, a peaceful retirement, or the chance to earn some extra income, you’ve got a real world of opportunity open to you… In short, we’ve done our best to narrow down your best options, but only you can decide the right country for you.

        • Spain
        • Portugal
        • Panama
        • Belize
        • Colombia
        • Cyprus
        • Mexico
        • France
        • Montenegro
        • Browse All Countries

        Best For:

        • The Best Places To Retire
        • Health Care Abroad
        • Cost Of Living
        • Investing in Real Estate
        • Establishing Residency
        • Gun Laws In The World
        • English-Speaking Countries
        • Safest Places For Retirement
        • Best Places In Latin America
      • Budgets

        How Much Will It Cost You To Live Overseas?

        The only honest answer is, we have no idea. And neither does anyone else. The only one who can answer that question is you. Here’s the most important thing to understand about budgeting your new life overseas…

        Super Cheap

        • Chitré, Panama
        • Santa Marta, Colombia
        • Phuket, Thailand
        • Dumaguete, The Philippines

        Cheap

        • Medellin, Colombia
        • Boquete, Panama
        • Kyrenia, Cyprus
        • Hua Hin, Thailand
        • The Algarve, Portugal

        Affordable

        • Valencia, Spain
        • Cascais, Portugal
        • Las Terrenas, The DR
        • Pisa, Italy
        • La Rochelle, France
        • Mazatlán, Mexico

        Luxury

        • Ambergris Caye, Belize
        • Kotor, Montenegro
        • The Panama City Beaches
        • Paris, France
      • Resources

        Global Living

        • Living & Retiring Overseas
        • Raising A Family Abroad
        • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
        • Offshore & Diversification

        Making Money

        • International Real Estate
        • Banking
        • Employment
        • Investing

        Follow Us:

        • Meet Our Experts
      • Real Estate

        Join our Weekly Newsletter
        Overseas Property Alert

        Sign up for our weekly newsletter to receive expert insights on the best international real estate investment opportunities.






          We Value Your Privacy! We will not share your email address with anyone else, period.

          Buying Real Estate For Cashflow

          • Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

          Explore Our Latest Posts

          • Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

          Go To The Overseas Property Alert Site

          • How To Become Independently Wealthy And Fund The Lifestyle Of Your Dreams
        • Conferences

          Upcoming Events

          • Explore Our Events Site

          International Property Summit

          Caribbean Virtual Conference

          Live and Invest In Spain Conference

          PANAMA CITY, PANAMA

          June 18-20, 2025

          VIRTUAL

          July 17-19, 2025

          Valencia, Spain

          Sep. 17-19, 2025

          LEARN MORE
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          LEARN MORE
          PRE-REGISTER
          • MORE EVENTS

          Contact Our Events Team

          Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
          1 (888) 627 8834
          From Outside North America:
          1 (443) 599 1221
          Working Hours
          Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

          Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

        • Store

          Unlock The World

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          Overseas Havens Reports

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          • Explore Our Store
          Your passport to a life well-lived abroad

          Services

          overseas living letter offers affordable retirement guidance
          The Simon Letter Wealth Protection Insights
          Global Property Advisor Global Investment Opportunities

          Our Customer Service team is here to assist with any questions or concerns CustomerService@LiveandInvestOverseas.com

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          Home Investing

          Reasons To Establish An Offshore Corporation

          The Biggest Mistake You Can Make When Going Overseas

          by Lief Simon
          Nov 05, 2020
          in Investing, Offshore
          0 0
          Clipboard with LLC operating agreement and pen on wooden desk background.

          iStock/Piotrekswat

          The question I get more than any other is to do with structures. 

          At every conference we host and in my email every day I’m asked again and again: “What structure should I use?” 

          Sometimes people come up to me at conferences with file folders in their hands. 

          “I just came back from a vacation in Panama… or Nevis… or the British Virgin Islands,” they tell me. They’re smiling. They’ve got nice suntans. And they’ve got these file folders…  

          “While I was there,” they continue, “I set up this corporation. Now I’m wondering,” they say, “what should I do with it?”  

          I give them the only answer I can, which is: I have no idea.  

          In almost every one of these cases, the person set up the structure because he thought it was a cool thing to do or somebody told him it was something he ought to do. His golf buddy at the country club has an offshore corporation, and he thinks he needs one, too. 

          That’s completely backwards.  

          This should work the other way around. 

          You should start with a purpose. Have a goal in mind first, then go out and find the structure and the jurisdiction that serve that purpose.  

          Which gets to the real question:

          Why would anyone want an offshore entity?  

          One of the most common reasons to establish a foreign entity is because you’re buying a piece of property overseas. A foreign entity can be the best way to take title.  

          I’ve bought real estate in 25 countries, and I own property right now in more than a dozen. Each purchase has been handled differently. Sometimes I’ve taken title in my own name, sometimes I’ve formed an entity to take title. 

          Sometimes I use the same entity to hold a second or third piece of property… sometimes when making a new purchase I form a new entity. 

          Why make it so complicated? In fact, my objective is to simplify. 

          However, I’m always balancing simple against two other overriding agendas—mitigating taxes and planning for probate.  

          The piece of property Kathleen and I own in Croatia, for example, is held in our own name. This is for tax purposes. You have no capital gains tax liability in Croatia when you sell real estate you’ve owned for three years or longer, as long as the property has been held in your name. 

          If it’s been held in an entity, you are liable for capital gains tax whenever you sell. 

          In other cases, holding a piece of property in an entity is the best choice for local asset protection or local probate. Again, it depends. There’s no one-size fits-all structure strategy.  

          Moreover, not only is there generally more than one right way to structure your holdings, but there are also, in every case, wrong ways.  

          In thinking this through for any particular property purchase, remember the competing agendas. The real estate agent’s agenda is straightforward. He wants to close the deal. So he’ll recommend the quickest-possible way to take title. That won’t necessarily be the best way for you. What makes sense for you is the strategy that balances tax liabilities with estate-planning and asset-protection benefits.  

          Start by assuming that maybe you don’t need a structure at all.  

          I have a great story to help make this point that I’ve been writing about for so long that the woman whose story it is got in touch at some point to say that she was going to start charging me a royalty every time I retold her story. 

          She was kidding, I think, so here goes…  

          Years ago, this woman made a trip to Panama because her friends told her she should check it out. Her friends also told her that she needed a Panama corporation… that she “had to have” a Panama corporation. So, when she traveled to Panama for vacation, she set up a Panama corporation.  

          I met her three or four years later at a conference. Her first question to me was, “What should I do with this Panama corporation I set up four years ago?”  

          “Dump it,” I told her after talking through her current situation. She had no need for a Panama corporation and never had. Why pay the annual fees to keep it current? There was no point.  

          Which is why, again, I say: Start with the goal. 

          Have an objective in mind and then set out to find the structure and the jurisdiction that meet it. Don’t put the cart before the horse.  

          And try to think long term. 

          It’s hard when you’re starting out, and harder, too, the younger you are. With decades of living and investing ahead of you, how can you predict objectives or challenges? You can’t really, so you have to stick with the very big picture.  

          Start by having a conversation with yourself, your spouse if you have one, and your attorney. Talk through what you’re most concerned about, what you’re trying to avoid, and what you’re trying to build. Are your heirs a priority? Or is your priority a concern over someone slipping on the stairs in one of your rental properties and suing you for everything they can get their hands on?  

          Try to think as much of this through as you can from the starting line, especially when forming entities to hold property you’re purchasing overseas. It’s possible to retitle a piece of property, into the name of another or a new entity, but retitling comes at a cost. Transfer fees can range from 1% to 10%. It’s not as simple to retitle property overseas as it can be in the United States. And it definitely can get expensive… 

          Lief Simon 

          Editor, Offshore Living Letter

          Tags: belize ibcComparisonibcinvesting in foreign propertyJoel NagelLief SimonLive abroadMove abroadOffshore CorporationOffshore LLCOffshore Trustpanama foundationretire abroad
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          Lief Simon

          Lief Simon

          Lief Simon has lived and worked in 7 countries on 5 continents and traveled to more than 75 countries. His real estate investment career began with a $5,000 down payment on a three-flat building in Chicago. Less than three years later, Lief sold the building for a leveraged return of 3,000%—$150,000 in profit after closing costs and commissions.

          From there, he turned his attention overseas and has bought property in 24 countries including France, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, Belize, Spain, Argentina, Cyprus, Romania, and beyond. Thanks to his decades-long career as a global property investor, Lief has built a multi-million-dollar portfolio that includes rental properties, significant land holdings, and 7 personal residences.

          Lief has established residency in 3 countries and acquired a second passport from Ireland.

          In 2008 Lief and wife Kathleen Peddicord made the most important investment of their lives—a 215-acre oceanside finca, known as Los Islotes. There, on Panama’s largely undiscovered Veraguas coast, they’ve installed underground electricity, water, and internet and built a forever family home that sits at the heart of their ultimate vision: a gold standard private residential community for those in search of a true safe haven escape.

          Lief’s latest book, “Cowboy Millionaire—The New American Pioneer,” collects all the wisdom he has learned in three decades of living and investing outside America.

          He offers advice on international diversification in his twice-weekly Offshore Living Letter and monthly Simon Letter dispatches. For real estate investment opportunities, check out his monthly Global Property Advisor service.

          If you’d like to meet Lief in person, join him for one of our upcoming in-country conferences. You’ll find further details here.

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                HOME

                Top Countries

                • Spain
                • Portugal
                • Panama
                • Belize
                • Colombia
                • Cyprus
                • Mexico
                • France
                • Montenegro

                Best For:

                • Health Care Abroad
                • Retirement Living
                • Cost Of Living
                • Investing in Real Estate
                • Establishing Residency
                • Gun Ownership
                • English Speakers
                • Safety
                BROWSE ALL COUNTRIES

                Budgets

                How Much Will It Cost
                To Live Overseas?

                Super Cheap

                • Chitré, Panama
                • Santa Marta, Colombia
                • Phuket, Thailand
                • Dumaguete, The Philippines

                Cheap

                • Medellin, Colombia
                • Boquete, Panama
                • Kyrenia, Cyprus
                • Hua Hin, Thailand
                • The Algarve, Portugal

                Affordable

                • Valencia, Spain
                • Cascais, Portugal
                • Las Terrenas, The DR
                • Pisa, Italy
                • La Rochelle, France
                • Mazatlán, Mexico

                Luxury

                • Ambergris Caye, Belize
                • Kotor, Montenegro
                • The Panama City Beaches
                • Paris, France

                Resources

                Global Living

                • Living & Retiring Overseas
                • Raising A Family Abroad
                • Foreign Residency & Citizenship
                • Offshore & Diversification

                Making Money

                • International Real Estate
                • Banking
                • Employment
                • Investing
                Meet Our Experts

                Real Estate

                Overseas Property Alert 

                 

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                VISIT SITE

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                Discover tips and strategies used by global property investing veterans

                READ MORE

                Explore Our Latest Posts

                 

                Learn how to invest and purchase property abroad…

                EXPLORE

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                INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY SUMMIT

                PANAMA CITY, PANAMA June 18-20, 2025
                LEARN MORE

                CARIBBEAN VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

                VIRTUAL July 17-19, 2025
                LEARN MORE
                PRE-REGISTER

                Live and Invest In Spain Conference

                Valencia, Spain Sep. 17-19, 2025
                LEARN MORE
                PRE-REGISTER
                MORE EVENTS

                Contact Our Events Team:

                Toll-Free U.S. and Canada:
                1 (888) 627 8834

                From Outside North America:
                1 (443) 599 1221

                Working Hours
                Monday – Friday 08:00 am – 17:00 pm EST.

                Reach us with your questions by email at: events@liveandinvestoverseas.com

                Store

                Overseas Havens Reports

                • Expats' comprehensive destination guides

                Conference Kits

                • Hours of coverage  from our latests conferences

                Lahardan Books

                • Titles on living and investing around the world

                Services

                • Overseas Living Letter: Affordable Retirement Guidance
                • The Simon Letter: Wealth Protection Insights
                • Global Property Advisor: Global Investment Opportunitites
                VISIT OUR STORE

                Free Report

                THE 10 BEST PLACES TO RETIRE IN 2025

                FREE REPORT: The 10 Best Places To retire in 2025

                Sign up to receive the FREE daily e-letter, Overseas Opportunity Letter and we’ll immediately email you our editors’ latest research report…






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