Tax Haven Myths and Facts

If you're looking for the cheapest place to live this is a very interesting and important lesson. Taxes have a dramatic impact on creating the Cheapest Places to Live.

Watch it once, watch it twice. If you find yourself resisting - defending, justifying - pause, write down your objection and then keep watching!

Tax Haven - Myths and Facts

Having previously discussed the Economic Benefits, as well as the Moral Necessity of Tax Havens, and their role in creating legitimate tax competition and liberalizing economies, Dan Mitchell discusses the facts surrounding six of the biggest myths about the idea of tax havens:

1. Tax havens promote tax evasion.
2. Attacking tax havens promotes more compliance with tax laws.
3. Tax havens create higher taxes elsewhere.
4. Tax havens promote bad policy.
5. Tax havens are all rogue political regimes.
6. Tax havens promote money laundering.

Enjoy!

Click Here - Organized Exploitation: Tax Havens: Myths vs. Facts - to watch the presentation.

Shared via AddThis

Panama Video

Here are a couple of videos I came across from our friends at Prima Panama. Unfortunately, Prima is no longer offering their Premium Passport service, which I must say was excellent. I believe the airport VIP greeting is still available through a different group. I will let everyone know on the Learn About Panama Blog as soon as I have additional information. For now enjoy these scenes and interviews by our friends at Prima.

Part 1



Part 2

Cheapest Places to Live

On search for the cheapest places to live my wife and I settled on Panama. We discovered there are so many nuances which make for a cheap place to live. It’s not just about house prices or the price of gas. It’s all about what motivates you to spend money and how you spend the money you have. In Panama we found we could live on a small fraction of what we lived on in Canada and all without sacrificing a thing. In fact, during our Panama retirement we found we were truly living like royalty. Fresh fruits and veggies are so much more flavourful and healthy than the ‘manufactured’ food we pay a fortune for in America. We dine out on gourmet fare – fresh fish and fine wine for under $25 - and thats for two! Then there are the tax benefits and the great discounts which come with a ‘Pensionado’ Visa. And you don’t even need to be retirement age to get one!

See more progress on: Find the Cheapest Places to Live

A Panama Retirement at 18!

Did you know Panama is one of the Cheapest Places to Live because you can become a Pensioner at 18 years of age? It's true. Foreigners can apply for the 'Pensionado' Visa as long as they are at least 18 years old. You have to prove you have a monthly income of just $500 to get the visa unlike the Retire Belize program that has a requirement of $2000 a month this one has a low qualification. Once you have it you get all kinds of incentives and discounts on just about everything! It really helps make Panama a Cheap Place to Live.

Another cool part of this visa and living in Panama is that you can still run your own business. Due to the tax laws in Panama you can run a business as long as no income is derived on Panamanian soil. You may be thinking, Huh? What it means is you can't own a typical business but you can have a virtual business. Internet based businesses are ideal because the income comes from all over the world. You can save even more by taking advantage of Panama's extensive offshore banking community.

I encourage you to take some time and Learn About Panama. It may just open up a world of possibilities for you like it did for em.

P.S. I'll pass on more details about the Pensionado Visa in my next post. Plus you will learn lots more about Panama even about the flora and fauna and the amazing Panama bird watching. Maybe we'll even find an elusive Quetzal!

Cheapest Places to Live

Frugal vs Cheap

I've always been frugal - but not cheap. In fact my friends describe me as being quite generous. So, why would I be so interested in finding the Cheapest Places to Live?

In Search of Cheap Places to Live

Well post 9/11 my wife and I became very interested in what was going on outside our country. After just a little research it become very apparent that there are many cheap places to live without losing any of the comforts of home. Really? Most people think everywhere outside North America offers a sub-standard quality of life and a lower standard of living. It's simply not true. We are fed the myth that the '3rd World' exists everywhere else but North America.

Behave and Pay Your Taxes

I learned early on that one of the biggest perpetrators of this myth is our own government. What would happen if all of a sudden people woke up and realized they could have twice the lifestyle for half the taxes or in some cases no taxes in other parts of the world? How about quality Health care for a fraction of the price? Housing, groceries, entertainment all for far less!

Discovering our Piece of Paradise

Although our initial research led us far and wide - from the United States to Australia, Europe and even Africa - we kept returning to Latin America. It seemed there were some exciting things happening in this part of the world and the benefit of staying a little closer to family and friends was apparent. One country in particular which kept showing up on our radar was Panama. We really knew very little about this little country. Have you noticed how the media does an amazing job of presenting us with 'shock and awe' and interestingly buries the follow up story in the back pages. In the case of Panama our most recent memory was of a drug crazed Noriega led dictatorship. He was removed in the 70's but what of Panama now?

To Know and Not To Do is Not to Know

Spending weeks and months on the internet or buried in books certainly offers an amount of intellectual understanding but for me the only true way to 'know' something is to experience it. So, in January 2003 my wife and I packed up our suitcases and two young sons and headed off to explore what was purported to be one of the cheapest places to live and what we discovered to be the best place to retire.

The Rest of the Story

In future posts I am going to share our real life experiences and practical research to unveil if Panama truly is one of the cheapest places to live in the world.

If you want the full story about our Panama travels you may want to check out our website and sign up for our free newsletter at LearnAboutPanama.