Your Globalnomads editorial team have been reading with much interest the scandalous news from the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The German government have admitted paying “up to five million euros” for information stolen in 2002 from LGT Treuhand in Liechtenstein. LGT Treuhand is associated with LGT Bank, the chairman of which is Prince Philipp of Liechtenstein. LGT Bank have published their own side of the story here.

According to reports on CNN, Pierre Mirabaud, head of the Swiss Bankers’ Association, was forced to apologise for comparing methods of the German authorities to the Gestapo.  Your Globalnomads team makes no such apologies and we state for the record, in our freely expressed opinion , that we agree 100% with Mr Mirabaud. It’s just sad that he didn’t have the guts to stand by his word.

If somebody steals your car and then another person buys it knowing it was stolen, both parties belong in jail. Theft of data is no different.  We know governments have always dealt in secret with lowlifes and sometimes it is necessary, but when they have the gall to  boast in public about spending five million euros of taxpayers’ money on stolen goods, you have to wonder where society is going.

And let’s not let off the hook either the Brits, who according to the Financial Times also paid a hundred thousand pounds for a copy of the same list (maybe it was so much cheaper because they bought the pirated version?) Gestapo tactics in London too. Of course the information might be useless and out of date and not refer to any tax evaders at all, but the deterrent effect of the publicity was apparently worth the hundred grand: “HMRC would pay rewards ‘where sufficient information is received that deters a significant fraud.’ “

Probably right – a hundred thousand pounds spent on advertising or tax enforcement might have less deterrent effect than a hundred thousand pounds paid to a criminal. But whatever happened to ethical standards? What about all the people who actually think and will be outraged by this abomination?

Anyhow, how can we as Global Nomads turn this situation around to our benefit? For sure, the answer is expatriation. We certainly don’t support tax evasion, and we sincerely doubt the claims of the German authorities that most people on the list were involved in tax evasion. There are much better ways of avoiding taxes completely legally.

Undoubtedly included on that list were some smart Germans who had officially relinquished their residence in the fatherland and headed off for warmer climes. And the German taxmen will be fuming right now that there is sweet diddly-doo they can do against these smart Germans, because they did nothing illegal. Right now we are busy working on a residence report, explaining how expatriation to affordable places like Andorra, Dominican Republic and Paraguay can slash tax bills for the matter of a one-off payment of not too many thousands of euros.

Now is the time to ask yourself, if you still live in one of these Gestapo states, whether you really want to stay around there, and whether you feel it is morally right to pay taxes to governments which spend taxpayers’ money buying stolen goods. At the very least, you can keep your options open by doing some research and looking into other options. Enjoy the Global Nomads report series.

Filed under: Banking Secrets, Finance+Economy, Investing Offshore, Nomads' Grapevine, Offshore Tricks by editor Date 25 February, 2008