I am Tom Norfleet, the Founder and CEO of Citizenship Quickly-AAA Real Estate. I graduated from Presbyterian College in Clinton S. C. and got a BS degree in Psychology in 1975.
I went from being a Tennis Pro from 1972-1983 right out of college and owning a successful tennis retail business to owning a successful investment and insurance marketing company in the USA for many years and retired from that business a long time ago.
My firm was always in the top 1/10 of 1% in the USA in the Investment and Insurance Business.
I have an extensive background in the investment field having as my past certifications the series 6,63, and 26 in the USA and Modules M9A, M8, M9, M5 in Singapore.
Our firm at the present DOES NOT hold itself out as an Investment Advisory Firm nor do we recommend any type of Securities to our clients or give out investment advice dealing with securities. We also are not an accounting firm and we do not do tax work for our clients.
I work as a consulting coach for clients so they can implement ways to get their taxes as low as possible for themselves and their business.
I also show people how to maximize their business potential internationally and how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together so they can work and live tax free legally.
I can show you how to guard yourself and your business against frivolous lawsuits.
It is hard to believe this but 98% of all law suits that are filed in the world are done so in the USA because of the contingent Civil Laws there.
The USA has the only legal system in the world that encourages people to sue because it cost the Claimant nothing to hire a lawyer since the lawyer only charges if the case is won and since the lawsuit cost the Claimant nothing to implement the lawsuit, frivolous lawsuits are everywhere.
We show people from any country how to combat this problem and how to safeguard their hard-earned assets.
No matter what country you are currently living in once your business is taken internationally your chances of a law suit occurring drops about 95%.
A lot of my experiences explained below will help you make the right decision to keep you from wasting a lot of time and hard-earned money.
One of the best investors that ever lived was a guy by the name of John Templeton who started the Templeton Funds. John grew up as a U.S. Citizen in Tennessee, USA.
A company called Franklin Resources Inc. bought the Templeton Funds from John Templeton many years ago and this Joint Venture changed the name to Franklin Templeton Investments.
I got to know John Templeton very well back in the mid to early 1990’s because our firm marketed a lot of the Templeton Mutual Funds. He was a Billionaire and one of the humblest and giving human beings I had ever met. He gave millions of dollars away for needy causes and helped so many people.
He was a real Libertarian and a Yale graduate about the time my father was there in the 1920’s.
He lived in the USA in New York City when he started his company.
John was really the first pioneer that invested internationally in equities as early as the later part of the 1940’s before anyone was doing it. He invested in Japan in the early 1960’s when everyone made fun of products made in Japan and no one would hardly invest there at that time.
Equities were selling in Japan at ridiculously low-price earnings ratios when he started investing there. He made a fortune for his investors by investing in Japan early because he saw bargains that others could not see. Japanese Stocks went through the roof in the 1970’s and 1980’s but Templeton sold out before the collapse there and made a fortune.
He relinquished his U.S. citizenship in the 1960’s and moved to the Bahamas because of the draconian tax laws at that time for high income earners and the Bahamas had no income tax.
He moved the Templeton Mutual Fund Group to Florida to escape the ridiculous New York state income taxes for his company but he lived personally in Bahamas income tax free.
You think you pay high taxes. The below figures show you what John Templeton had to deal with before he relinquished his citizenship in the 1960’s.
For tax years 1944 through 1951, the highest marginal tax rate for individuals was 91%, increasing to 92% for 1952 and 1953, and reverting to 91% for tax years 1954 through 1963. For the 1964 tax year, the top marginal tax rate for individuals was lowered to 77%, and then to 70% for tax years 1965 through 1981.
In other words, living as a high-income earner back then was like living in Cuba under Castro!
John Templeton told me that his investing got a lot better when he left New York City and finally moved to tax free Bahamas and he could then finally make investment decisions without looking at the tax consequences of his investment decisions.
I talked to him in 1996 right before China took over Hong Kong and I asked him if he thought Hong Kong would lose its capitalistic system when this occurred and he told me he thought it would not and so far he has been correct even after over 20 years after the takeover occurred.
I also asked him if he was starting his business back over again what country would he run his business from now and he said without hesitation, Hong Kong because of its tax laws and its close connection to emerging China.
Many of the people in his office in the Bahamas and his top Emerging Market stock picker Mark Mobius who is now living in Singapore relinquished their U.S Citizenship also many years ago.
My company is in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis [two countries but one Federation] because I love the weather in the Caribbean. It does not get as hot as Florida or North Carolina in the summer and in the winter, you feel like you have died and gone to heaven.
The weather only varies about 5 degrees all year. St. Kitts and Nevis are about two miles apart and are located in the Leeward Island chain of countries which is the prettiest part of the whole Caribbean.
St. Kitts is about 80 miles south of St. Croix and I can see St. Barts and Antigua on a clear day.
The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis was recently rated as having the second lowest air pollution levels of all the countries in the world.
The tax laws are very good in this country.
St. Kitts does not have a personal income tax, capital gains tax, inheritance or an estate tax.
You can set up an Unincorporated Company to do local business and international business which is basically a Sole Proprietorship and there is a 4% gross tax on services or products after a quarterly deduction of about 2222 USD for services and 13,889 USD for products sold.
If your business is not going to be local but offshore, depending on your income, you might be better going with a Hong Kong Company where there would be no taxes if all income was offshore. I would need to talk to you personally on this.
Fees and sometimes taxes can be a lot higher on a Hong Kong Company than on a St. Kitts local company that does local and international business.
It would depend on a lot of factors.
You can cut back your business expense bill if you outsource for your employees and hire on a contractual basis not on a salary basis. This will not only save you a lot of money but will also cut back on employee headaches.
The minimum wage in the Federation is only 3.33 U.S. an hour which is still a lot lower than other developed countries offer but no match for countries like the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Serbia or the country of Georgia.
That is the great thing about taking your business international because now you have seven billion people to market your product or service to and with social media you can do it practically free.
You can shop the tax system you want by picking what country you want to run your business from, and you can shop where you want to invest based on value and no taxes. You cannot accomplish this if you are a U.S. Green Card holder, U.S. Citizen, or a legal resident for taxes in a country that taxes worldwide income.
I like to bike and swim in nice warm weather all year and St. Kitts offers that. There are decathlons all year long in the Federation. Your children will love the swimming, biking, fishing and sailing here 365 days a year.
St. Kitts is about 1200 miles south east of Miami Florida and has direct flights back to the mainland USA in as quick as a 3- 4-hour flight. Direct flights are to Miami, Atlanta, North Carolina, New York, and Toronto.
THE GREAT PART ABOUT ST. KITTS AND NEVIS IS EVERYTHING IS IN ENGLISH IN BOTH OF THESE COUNTRIES AND THEY ARE BOTH SOVEREIGN COUNTRIES UNDER ONE FEDERATION.
I have spent much time in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, Belize, the Caribbean, and many other countries all over the world and each has its advantages as a residency depending on what you want to do and how you want to get it done and I can help you make those decisions so you don’t make costly moves and find out the hard way that the move was a mistake.
[Yes, Tom Norfleet I am ready to sign up and do business with your firm.]
The avoidance of costly problems and good decision making needs to be analyzed by a professional such as myself before you pack up your bags and move to a new country that can cost you a lot of time and money.
I have listed below just a few of the many problems we have run into helping our clients that you need to think about before you make the big decision to move and they are:
Do you speak the language of the country that you are moving to and if not what percent of the people there speak fluent English or your first language?
Is your selling market a local market or a market outside the country you will be living in?
What sort of regulatory hassles are you going to be running into in your line of business even after your company is legally set up?
In Singapore, for example, even when you set up an Investment Advisory Company and that company is approved by the government as an approved company to operate you still cannot operate until [MAS] the Monetary Authority of Singapore approves your company to sell investment products which could take an additional year to sort out.
If you attempt to break this law, Singapore has heavy fines, prison and yes, they still flog there too.
There are many tests you have to take before you can even seek approval from MAS. That means you can go and pass about 5-6 grueling tests, go through all the expense and time of setting up your company which takes about 6-8 weeks to do and then MAS can turn you down but that rejection could take a long time to get.
You have to pass all the tests and set up your company before you can seek the approval from MAS. This sounds backwards but this is how Singapore does business.
MAS is not even taking large RIA firms now that want to be approved in Singapore. I was told this by a law partner with the largest law firm in Singapore.
They are advising all companies that it would be a waste of time and money for which they charge about 80,000 SGD to even set up a RIA Firm in Singapore now.
By not knowing these facts you could spend a fortune and a whole year of wasted time going around in circles taking tests that will do you no good and then getting a law firm to legally get your RIA Firm set up spending 80,000 SGD but then come to find out it was a total waste of time because MAS will not approve your company.
If your business is real estate or insurance, do you have to take any tests to get licensed and if so, is that test given in your first fluent language and is the study material also in your native language?
As stupid as this sounds Panama use to give a securities test to sell investment products in English and in Spanish but the study material for the test was only in Spanish. That has since changed there. By not knowing these things to look for your whole trip could be a tremendous waste of time.
I know a guy who went to Panama and was going to sell an offshore investment-insurance [hybrid] product and he went to the Insurance Department of Panama directly to see how that department wanted to regulate him.
Since the product was going to be sold outside Panama at that time the Insurance Department was not going to regulate him since there were no laws in place to regulate Life Assurance Products that were sold to entities outside of Panama.
This guy made a big costly mistake. He forgot to check with the Securities Division of Panama to get their approval and to check the requirements there also.
When the Securities Division found out the Insurance Department was not going to regulate him; they decided they would since the product was a hybrid product.
The good part of the story was the test to pass the securities test was in English and Spanish but the bad part was the study material was only in Spanish.
This guy ended up leaving Panama because his Spanish was too weak to read the material in the Spanish Language.
He thought about getting into the real estate business but the test and study material was only in Spanish and in that field of work only nationals of Panama can engage in.
The thousands of U.S. Dollars he spent to move his family to Panama was a total waste of money not including all his wasted time.
These are just some of the types of problems that can cost you a year or two of your time.
Regulators can also shut you down even two years or more into your business if not done correctly.
Singapore is a very popular place for western expats because of their tax laws but one thing that a lot of people do not like when they get to Singapore is once you set up your company, if you are going to be self- employed, you have to pay yourself a salary whether your company is making a profit or not and taxes have to be paid on that income.
There is an exemption up to a certain amount the first few years. The higher the salary you pay yourself the more likely you will be able to get permanent residency that would eventually lead to citizenship but also the more taxes you will pay.
Can you deal with the customs in the country you are looking into moving to?
In the UAE where Dubai is located if you speak negatively against the government there, they can throw you in prison and confiscate your assets.
Freedom of speech does not exist in the UAE.
If you are single and living in the UAE and you have a female in your room that you are not married to and the two of you are by yourself, this would be against Shariah Law and you can both go to prison for this.
If you are traveling to the UAE do not shack-up with your girlfriend especially in Sharjah which is the strictest of the Emirates.
Most hotels will require you to show proof that you are married to the lady with you at the hotel you plan to stay with but if the hotel does not ask you this, you are still responsible to know the law and not knowing the law will not keep you out of jail.
Don’t listen to dummies that tell you otherwise. I just met a Filipino female in General Santos, Philippines, and she was a registered nurse in Dubai and she and her Emirati boyfriend just got out of jail for accusations of sex outside marriage.
A woman was raped in Dubai and ended up spending about 15 months in prison because she had sex outside marriage.
If you sue in a Dubai court and you win the law suit, you will not be able to collect any of your legal fees. This is Shariah Law.
I don’t like sounding negative but I like to be honest with my clients. The UAE tax wise is one of the best places in the world to have a local business [not offshore business] if you can deal with the above issues.
Dubai can get up to 130-degree F temperature in the summer and some people cannot deal with that.
I would definitely not recommend Dubai if your income is generated outside of where you live because although Dubai does not have an income tax it has other fees that can be very high depending on your business such as visa fees for you and all of your employees and their family members, Sponsorship or Local Service Agent Fees, License Fees, required office fees and a 5% VAT.
You can avoid sponsorship or local service agent fees by having a Free Zone Company but the Free Zone License is higher than a Dubai Local License and you are limited to signing contracts only in the Free Zone.
Business owner’s visa fees would have to be renewed every three years and employee fees renewed every two years but the UAE is in the process of letting self – employed owners have 10 year visas but I am sure if they do this you will be paying more money upfront which could be a disadvantage because if your business closes down within that 10 years, those years you paid the visa fees for in advance would not be refunded.
If you go with a Territorial Tax Country you can avoid most of these fees and still not pay any taxes at all.
Let’s say you like Panama and you move all your possessions there and you want to get into the Insurance, Real Estate or the Retail Business. You will find out you have wasted your time unless you are already a Panamanian Citizen because only citizens of Panama can do these types of businesses.
The law in Panama Central America says that to become a citizen of Panama through the investment means of residency you have to have had the residency for five years before you can apply for the citizenship and passport.
To get the citizenship there you will have to pass a Spanish Test and relinquish your other citizenship.
Trust me folks; I don’t know of anyone getting citizenship in Panama after five years of permanent residency.
Count on at least 15-20 years of permanent residency before you get the citizenship and passport there.
Panama is a great place to run a business from but you need to know what you are doing before you jump in head first.
Let’s say you want to move to St. Kitts to set up your own Mutual Fund Company, Hedge Fund Company or Local Insurance Company. Great idea? No, not really.
These type companies cannot be set up locally with an Unincorporated Structure at 4% of gross profits.
You have to set up a Local Corporation and St. Kitts and Nevis’s corporate tax rate is 33%.
The Federation is a tax haven but not if you have to set up a corporation.
The Cayman Islands would be a lot better choice because the Caymans has no corporate income tax.
Most of the hedge funds outside the USA are set up there.
Let’s say you are a dentist living in high tax Germany. You agonize because every time you write a check to the taxman it’s about 50% of your earnings.
Well you could move abroad to a pure tax haven and make less money in the new country than your home country in Germany even with no taxes taken out because you have less clients in the new country and dentists in the new country make 50% less.
It’s not always greener on the other side of the fence.
I can help you make that decision.
If you are in the insurance business, are your contracts abroad as good as your onshore contracts?
What are the labor laws in the country you want to move to?
Panama has some of the worst labor laws of any country in the world which favors the employee over the employer.
These laws were implemented by a former dictator back in the 1980’s and has never changed because it gets a lot of votes.
If you trade investments for yourself or you are a contractor for Amazon or you are in the crypto business or have crypto investments or you have an internet business you should always make more money offshore with all the taxes you will save because these types of businesses you can do from anywhere.
I could go on and on with examples but this is why you need a coach to help you sort through these expensive mind fields that can just waste a ton of your time and money.
You will pay our firm a lot less to sort these things out for you in advance than jumping on countless mine fields that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars and countless wasted time.
I will not be able to help you unless you are really sick and tired of high taxes.
The reason I say this you will have to physically move out of your high tax country for this to work and each country has laws on how many days a year you cannot be present in that high tax country for this to legally work.
We don’t cut corners and neither should you.
Taxes will literally have to eat at you so bad that you have lost your desire to work; otherwise you will be like most and just suck it up and continue to stay where you are and continue to pay high taxes.
You might also have a spouse who is not supportive because he or she wants to be closer to the grown children or grandchildren who chose to stay behind in the high tax country if they are older in age.
My advice is to pick a tax haven country that is close to where you live. It can literally save your marriage.
Doing this is actually easier if you are single because it is only one person’s decision.
The key question is are you at that point right now?
There are ways you can still work in your home country where you are now, depending on what that country is, and exempt your taxes outside your high tax country but still be taxed on your business inside the country but I would need to talk to you on that matter because it would depend on that country and their tax laws.
This could still save you a tremendous amount of money in taxes depending on what your income and investments are.
High taxes can cost you a fortune over your lifetime not including compound interest.
The taxes that you pay are every year. Our fee is a lot less than the tax you will more than likely pay your government and is paid one time. Which is the better option?
You have to make the choice and go with it. Most people procrastinate and cannot make decisions and this can be a costly mistake.
I made the move years ago to leave the USA and to relinquish my U.S. Citizenship and I have never regretted my decision.
I can show you the steps to take so you can do it also or if you want to take baby steps and move overseas first and keep your current citizenship you can do that also and lower your taxes drastically.
I rarely ever advise relinquishing your prior citizenship except for U.S. Nationals since the USA taxes based on citizenship.
Trying to learn this yourself can be a very costly mistake because most professionals that you talk to in the country you are living don’t really have the experience to do this and that is why he is still in the high tax country.
You need to work with someone who has done this himself and has worked with a lot of people in putting together a program for them.
Sure you can go to Belize, Panama, Hong Kong or the BVI and set up an offshore corporation without our firm involved but then you are going to hit all the mind fields as I have explained above and then find out you really did not want to go with that route just wasting more time and money learning the hard way which in the long term just delays your success even more.
Local Service Providers don’t understand how to put the tax issue and the immigration issue together to fit what you want. We specialize in doing this.
They just want to sell you an offshore corporation, a second passport, a second residency or a property not really understanding what you are really trying to accomplish and then they do not understand your tax problem because more than likely that person is already in a tax haven country.
How will you know if I can help you? My suggestion is if you still don’t know, just read my whole website several times and listen to my videos and if you have learned something then the answer is yes. If Yes is the answer then I would suggest you go on our website and ask for some help.