Abusive Tax Schemes Often Cause Confusion in the Asset Protection Planning Arena
When clients come to see me for asset protection planning, it is clear that the client has preconceived notions about offshore trusts that are integral to some type of abusive tax shelters or other nefarious activity. This is not surprising. The media recently reported about a man from Niagara Falls, NY who was sentenced to 36 months in prison for selling and promoting an abusive tax shelter scheme that involved offshore trusts and domestic trusts. It is stories like this one that confuse many clients and give them unnecessary concerns about what asset protection planning is all about. As I always tell my clients, the asset protection planning we do for our clients is not designed to shelter income or avoid the payment of income taxes; instead it utilizes legitimate structures with the simple goal of helping these clients legally position their assets in a way which makes them less vulnerable to creditors.
