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September 2, 2015 Vienna, Austria Recently I wrote to you explaining why I’d just purchased shares of Royal Dutch Shell. Shell is a giant in the oil industry that’s been in businesses for more than a century. And while I almost never buy stocks, they were practically giving this one away. When I
On August 5, 1861, facing rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and a horrible defeat at Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861 into law. It was the first time in US history that the federal government would charge an income tax on its citizens. But Lincoln felt that it was
April 14, 2015 Santiago, Chile 70 years ago, the United States of America had just emerged from World War II as the most dominant superpower in the world. At that point America’s economy was the only one left standing. And the US government had essentially dictated terms in establishing a new global financial
April 1, 2015 Santiago, Chile Several months ago, the government of Australia proposed to tax bank deposits up to $250,000 at a rate of 0.05% (5 basis points). Their idea was for the money to be invested in a rainy day Financial Stabilization Fund to insure against in the unlikely event of a
March 17, 2015 Santiago, Chile William Shakespeare was definitely not one for following the rules. The playwright was famed for the ways in which he bent the English language in unusual ways to create some of the most significant literary works to date. It was part of his genius, really, in that he
Puerto Rico Tax Incentives:Ultimate Guide & My Personal Experience With Act 20 & Act 22 AUTHOR LAST UPDATED When I wake up and see the ocean in front of me, I have to pinch myself. Here I am, living in a beautiful place that’s part of the United States… yet I pay ZERO
February 24, 2015 Singapore At the end of September 2011, just days before his passing, the company that Steve Jobs founded had a $25 billion cash hoard. Nearly half of this was stashed overseas. What’s more, Apple was running billions in profit through multiple Irish subsidiaries, neither of which were taxable by the
February 12, 2015 Puerto Varas, Chile Twenty-seven years ago at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, George H. W. Bush accepted his party’s nomination to run for President of the United States. (This was when he announced Dan Quayle as his running mate, to which Senator John McCain later remarked “I
January 30, 2015 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile The Japanese are known for being great savers and for prioritizing family ties. So it’s particularly important for them to make sure that their savings get passed along to their children. It’s part of human nature to want to pass along our knowledge and our wealth
December 9, 2014 Santiago, Chile In the moment after the musicians finished their last song, the silence was broken by the faint tune of someone singing “Mu isamaa on minu arm”. The singers on stage quickly looked at each other nervously, but seeing strength in each other’s eyes they began to join in.
November 26, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile I can’t say I’ve known too many guys in my life named ‘Boris’ who were shy about standing up for themselves. The name itself means ‘wolf’ in an extinct Turkic language. And if the current mayor of London Boris Johnson is going go to toe to
April 15, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Among all the great stories and conversations passed down from the ages, probably my favorite is one from the ancient historian Lucius Cassius Dio about Roman emperor Caracalla. Caracalla ruled in the second century AD, and he was notorious for bankrupting the Roman treasury and waging
April 12, 2014 Buenos Aires, Argentina Two. Billion. Hours. That’s how much time people in the Land of the Free waste each year preparing and filing their tax forms to the IRS– roughly 13 hours for each of the ~150 million individual returns filed. And if you’re doing your own taxes this weekend,
March 26, 2014 Sovereign Valley Farm, Chile Bitcoin tax rules finally came to the Land of the Free yesterday. And I have to imagine there are some not-too-happy campers this morning, if they even know about it. Bitcoin taxes were inevitable. I’ve written about this numerous times, and have even gone so far
February 13, 2014 Santiago, Chile The IRS scandal caused a massive uproar last year when it was revealed that the agency was deliberately targeting non-profit political groups solely based on their names or political themes. One of those groups was called True the Vote, a grassroots, non-partisan organization that recruits and trains volunteers
