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A Credit Card Account for your Offshore Entity is
comparable to a corporate credit card. It is owned by your Trust/Foundation/IBC,
but you, its trusted agent, get a card with your personal
name on it, although the funds you draw on by using it belong
to the Entity.
For this to work, it must be organized so that your Entity's
offshore bank will have no incentive and no obligation to
report any transactions of this card to anyone inquiring
about you. Now, there is nothing illegal or suspect
in this - those funds belong to your Entity, not to you, so you
should not be held responsible for any transactions on this
account, other than what you have agreed to between yourself and the Entity. It is the same with a corporate card: the employee
who uses it is not personally responsible for how it is used,
except for the responsibility he/she has to the employer. It
is the employer who is the sole responsible party when talk
comes to tax returns and answering questions
to the government! With your Entity established in a country
that has granted it freedom from such reporting, this is not
an issue that in any way whatsoever has anything to do with
your own tax returns...
Most Trustees/Councils/Boards will be happy to organize such a credit card
for your Trust/Foundation/IBC, and it is really quite simple. The terms
for its use will vary, just as you would expect it.
International banks are just as different as the banks in
your home country. However, you need to get things organized to that the bank does not have your ID on record In the post-9-11 era, this can be quite a challenge, so you should expect to have some hoops to jump through in order to get such a credit card.
You should be aware that you must make sure
the credit card is issued and supported by a bank that is
domiciled in another country than your own, and also in a
different country than the country where your Trust/Foundation/IBC is
established. If not, you run the risk of the government
in the bank's country suddenly wanting to legislate new laws
that could compromise your Entity's privacy. With your
Entity being in a different country, you eliminate that
incentive.
One final warning: don't even consider establishing a
Credit Card Account for yourself in a foreign country!
No matter how smart it might appear, it will tempt you to
commit fraud by not reporting the transactions to your
own government. Every time you use your credit card, you
provide your signature, so if somebody wants to come after you,
it is possible to trace you, even if your bank maintains your
anonymity! Fraud is a serious crime, and it remains
a crime whether or not your government ever finds out about
it... Besides, it is crazy to expose yourself to such
risk when there is a fully legal way of obtaining the same benefits
by doing it through your Offshore Trust.
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