Monthly Archives: June 2017

Offshore company requirements for US citizens

The US government has some tight restrictions on offshore companies.

As a US citizen, youll need to disclose any interest in an offshore corporation on your taxes each year. The same goes for any offshore bank accounts you are an owner of or signer on, in most cases.

Failure to comply with these rules in the US (or any other western country that requires them) can lead to steep penalties. You can reduce taxes with an offshore corporation, but you wont benefit from a low tax if you get whacked with penalties and fees.

Tax deferment is one way for offshore companies to reduce taxes. The system in place lets you defer the taxes that will be imposed upon your company indefinitely.

You can take the money youre no longer putting towards taxes and reinvest it in your company. You wont have to pay these taxes off until you sell the company.

If youve been deferring taxes for a number of years, and using those funds to either continue to build your business or invest otherwise, you will be coming out far ahead of those who never start an offshore company. Try as those homebodies might to reduce taxes, tax-free compound interest from your offshore company will blow their onshore earnings out of the water.

Remember those bad blogs and articles from earlier? Well, offshore corporation misinformation isnt the only thing you need to be wary of

There are plenty of cheap start an offshore company service providers advertising on the internet. They offer the lowest price and the best results. Oxymorons.

Unless youre an African warlord, youll want to steer clear of these service providers. Flouting the law, avoiding and ignoring sound legal and tax adviceIf thats your M.O, the lowest-priced provider will get you set up in no time (I mean, maybethere are plenty of scams out there).

And while the process of forming an offshore corporation is straightforward (and can be done in a matter of minutes, in some countries), laying the proper groundwork before and after the official process is important.

You need to consult with a provider who understands the rules and regulations in your home country, which most so-called lawyers on some deserted island have no idea how to handle (since most of them are just deflated volleyballs with painted-on faces).

The best thing you can do is choose the right representative. Overpaying a little up front is a no-brainer when it comes to your peace of mind down the line. The next step after reduce taxes shouldnt be reduce jail time. Youre asking for trouble if you dont vet these cheap offshore corporation services before buying in.

Once your offshore company is approved and set up, the next step is to open a bank account (and possibly an offshore merchant account).

Whether or not youll have to physically travel to the bank depends on a few things, including where your company is incorporated, your nationality, and where you intend to bank.

But dont let that turn you off. The most important first step towards an offshore corporation is to simply take action. The sooner you get your business set up, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits. And it can be a life-changing processWhat other process lets you reduce taxes, insulate your assets from turmoil, and keep greedy hands away from your hard-earned assets?

Look, if youre serious about starting an offshore company, I might be able to help.

Every month I personally help five people build their own Nomad Capitalist lifestarting an offshore company, getting a second passport, opening an offshore bank accountwhatever they need to build more wealth and live a life with more freedom and success.

If youre ready to stop spending your time (and money) reading article after article on offshore companies, you might be ready for my help. Be honest with yourself, here.

If youre committed to pursuing the Nomad Capitalist lifestyle, then you should fill out this application. If my team and I decide youre a good fit, the next step is a phone call with me.

This isnt a free consultation, and this isnt a sales call where I try and convince you to do something you dont want to do.

I dont work with you unless youre already convinced this lifestyle is for you, and youre 150% committed to making it happen.

Your phone call will confirm that youre qualified for my services and that I can help you achieve your goals. When the call checks out, we get to work.

By the way, at five people a month, Im not cheap to work with (I dont need to be, and you shouldnt need me to be, either). If youre looking for the best spot to bury your gold, or a soapbox to spout your anarchist rhetoric, or a week to think it over then youre probably in the wrong place, and I cant help you.

Still interested? Lets see if I can help.

Read the rest here:

Offshore Company: How a foreign corporation can reduce ...

Offshore wind giant Dong Energy has become the first to plug an offshore wind farm into a battery system to store power to be used as needed.

The world-first hybrid system has powered up on the Merseyside coast to store electricity generated from the first phase of Dong Energys 90 megawatt (MW) Burbo Bank wind farm in order to help to balance the frequency of the power grid.

The new 2MW battery system helps to combat criticism that renewable power could lead to flickering light bulbs, or even blackouts, by disrupting the normal power grid frequency of around 50 hertz.

Richard Smith, National Grids head of networks, said the system operator plans to call on Dong Energy to release electricity into the grid to help stabilise the frequency.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how the Dong Energy solution of storage connected to the offshore wind farm will provide services to help us respond to day-to-day operational challenges," he said.

Benj Sykes, Dong Energys UK boss, told The Telegraph last month that battery storage technology is a game changer for the booming offshore wind market.

Mr Sykes was speaking ahead of the launch of the second phase of the Burbo Bank offshore wind project which uses the worlds largest operating wind turbines to produce almost 260MW of power.

See more here:

Dong Energy plugs offshore wind farm into world-first battery system - Telegraph.co.uk

Danish wind manufacturer MHI Vestas launched a 9.5-megawatt offshore turbine this week. The machine is an upgrade from the company's 9-megawatt model released earlier this year.

In January, Vestas reported that its new machine -- an 8-megawatt-capacity turbine that can be uprated to 9 megawatts at certain sites -- generated216,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in one day. That was a record for any commercial offshore wind turbine, according to the company.

Vestas also says its 9.5-megawatt model, which features blades that are 80 meters long, can produce enough electricity to power more than 8,000 U.K homes.

"With only minimal design changes, including a redesigned gearbox and cooling system upgrades, this turbine continues the legacy of the proven V164 platform and is available now to all MHI Vestas customers," saidTorben Hvid Larsen, the company's chief technology officer,in a statement.

Vestas is at the leading edge of turbine design. Windpower Monthly has a list of the biggest turbines on the market today. The Vestas V164 8-megawatt model topped the rankings.

In less than a year, the V164platform was expanded to 9.5 megawatts.

Manufacturers are regularly developing turbines rated in the 5- to 8-megawatt range. Some are already looking beyond 10-megawatt designs -- and researchers are even toying with the idea of 50-megawatt capacity turbines.

"For many years, 3- to 4-megawatt turbines were standard; now 8- to 10-megawatt models are common, and by 2024, 13- to 15-megawatt models will likely hit the market," wrote McKinsey researchersin a recent analysison the economics of offshore wind.

"This reduces the cost per megawatt. Even as turbines have become larger, they have also become better. In the 1990s, the expected lifetime of offshore wind parks was only 15 years; now it is closer to 25 years, and new sites project an operational lifetime of 30 years."

Meanwhile, energy supermajors are looking to use those mega-turbines to build out mega-projects.

Shell said this week it is eyeing 10-gigawatt offshore wind parks, according to Recharge News.

We believe that a few large, integrated projects up to 10 gigawatts, with an anchor tenant who takes the biggest risk for about half the project, need to be developed to ensure we all learn how best to do this" saidMark Gainsborough, the executive vice president of Shell New Energies, speaking at a European offshore wind conference.

Shell has an equity stake in half a dozen offshore wind farms around the world. In December, it partnered with Mitsubishi and a group of Danish companies to develop a 700-megawatt offshore project.

What's driving wind technology change? Listen to our Interchange episode with Ryan Wiser, who discusses the evolution of turbine size and applications.

See the rest here:

Vestas Launches 9.5-Megawatt Offshore Wind Turbine; Shell Looks ... - Greentech Media

June 7, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Offshore wind turbines built according to current standards may not be able to withstand the powerful gusts of a Category 5 hurricane, creating potential risk for any such turbines built in hurricane-prone areas, new University of Colorado Boulder-led research shows.

The study, which was conducted in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, highlights the limitations of current turbine design and could provide guidance for manufacturers and engineers looking to build more hurricane-resilient turbines in the future.

Offshore wind-energy development in the U.S. has ramped up in recent years, with projects either under consideration or already underway in most Atlantic coastal states from Maine to the Carolinas, as well as the West Coast and Great Lakes. The country's first utility-scale offshore wind farm, consisting of five turbines, began commercial operation in December 2016 off the coast of Rhode Island.

Turbine design standards are governed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For offshore turbines, no specific guidelines for hurricane-force winds exist. Offshore turbines can be built larger than land-based turbines, however, owing to a manufacturer's ability to transport larger molded components such as blades via freighter rather than over land by rail or truck.

For the study, CU Boulder researchers set out to test the limits of the existing design standard. Due to a lack of observational data across the height of a wind turbine, they instead used large-eddy simulations to create a powerful hurricane with a computer.

"We wanted to understand the worst-case scenario for offshore wind turbines, and for hurricanes, that's a Category 5," said Rochelle Worsnop, a graduate researcher in CU Boulder's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC) and lead author of the study.

These uniquely high-resolution simulations showed that under Category 5 conditions, mean wind speeds near the storm's eyewall reached 90 meters-per-second, well in excess of the 50 meters-per-second threshold set by current standards.

"Wind speeds of this magnitude have been observed in hurricanes before, but in only a few cases, and these observations are often questioned because of the hazardous conditions and limitations of instruments," said George Bryan of NCAR and a co-author of the study. "By using large-eddy simulations, we are able to show how such winds can develop and where they occur within hurricanes."

Furthermore, current standards do not account for veer, a measure of the change in wind direction across a vertical span. In the simulation, wind direction changed by as much as 55 degrees between the tip of the rotor and its hub, creating a potentially dangerous strain on the blade.

The findings could be used to help wind farm developers improve design standards as well as to help stakeholders make informed decisions about the costs, benefits and risks of placing turbines in hurricane-prone areas.

"The study will help inform design choices before offshore wind energy development ramps up in hurricane-prone regions," said Worsnop, who received funding from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program to conduct this research. "We hope that this research will aid wind turbine manufacturers and developers in successfully tapping into the incredibly powerful wind resource just beyond our coastlines."

"Success could mean either building turbines that can survive these extreme conditions, or by understanding the overall risk so that risks can be mitigated, perhaps with financial instruments like insurance," said Professor Julie Lundquist of ATOC and CU Boulder's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), a co-author of the study. "The next stage of this work would be to assess how often these extreme winds would impact an offshore wind farm on the Atlantic coast over the 20-to-30-year lifetime of a typical wind farm."

The findings were recently published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

Explore further: Utility plans vote on New York offshore wind project

More information: Rochelle P. Worsnop et al, Gusts and Shear Within Hurricane Eyewalls Can Exceed Offshore Wind-Turbine Design Standards, Geophysical Research Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073537

A New York utility is set to vote later this month on a plan to construct an offshore wind farm off eastern Long Island.

There has been a hiccup at the nation's first offshore wind farm as it prepares to start delivering power.

Local authorities approved the largest offshore wind farm in the United States on Wednesday, to be located near Long Island and capable of powering some 50,000 households.

For the past 24 years, Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, has been developing a complex computer model to study air pollution, energy, weather and climate. A recent application ...

(Tech Xplore)A small team of researchers with Sorbonne Universit and cole Nationale Suprieure des Arts et Mtiers-ParisTech has found that using flexible blades on a wind turbine can dramatically increase its efficiency. ...

A new design for gigantic blades longer than two football fields could help bring offshore 50-megawatt (MW) wind turbines to the United States and the world.

Rising seas are making flooding more common in coastal areas around the country. Now, a new study finds that sea-level rise will boost the occurrence of moderate rather than severe flooding in some regions of the United States, ...

Using seismic data and supercomputers, Rice University geophysicists have conducted a massive seismic CT scan of the upper mantle beneath the Tibetan Plateau and concluded that the southern half of the "Roof of the World" ...

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found that independent estimates from geology and biology agree on the timing of the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent into today's continents.

Offshore wind turbines built according to current standards may not be able to withstand the powerful gusts of a Category 5 hurricane, creating potential risk for any such turbines built in hurricane-prone areas, new University ...

India is now two and a half times more likely to experience a deadly heat wave than a half century ago, and all it took was an increase in the average temperature of just 0.5 degrees Celsius (less than 1 degree Fahrenheit), ...

Scientists at The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) have found that a devastating combination of global warming and El Nio is responsible for causing extreme temperatures in April 2016 in Southeast Asia.

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I think Al Gore said storms will get bigger in the future so what do we do, build the most vulnerable power system to storms, brilliant !!

Is there any type of power plant that isn't vulnerable to category 5 eye wall winds?

I am not generally a proponent of building "better technology" on a never ending scale to deal with problems the existing technology has caused since the newer technology tends to create problems of it's own. In this case I fervently hope to be proven incorrect. Since we are not wise enough of a species to greatly reduce the number of our species we will simply have to make do with structures that can handle the situational stresses we have created or excacerbated.

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Offshore wind turbines vulnerable to Category 5 hurricane gusts - Phys.Org

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DONG Energy to Incorporate Batteries Into UK Offshore Wind Farm ... New York Times Danish state-controlled utility and wind power developer DONG Energy will install a battery system at its Burbo Bank Offshore wind farm off the coast of Britain to ... Dong Energy to launch battery solution at offshore windfarmOffshore Wind Journal Dong to add 2-MW battery at UK offshore wind farmRenewables Now (subscription) all 5 news articles »

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DONG Energy to Incorporate Batteries Into UK Offshore Wind Farm ... - New York Times

MOSCOW Some of Russia's super-rich have given up residency to escape a 2014 law requiring them to disclose offshore assets, wealthy businessmen told Reuters, a practice that could keep billions of dollars hidden from Moscow's tax authorities.

Interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the practice -- including prominent tycoons, wealth managers, lawyers and current and former officials -- suggest a swathe of Russia's national wealth is now in the hands of a new class of semi-exiled oligarchs, who keep bases in their homeland but escape its tax net by spending fewer than 183 days a year there.

"You can scold them, call them unpatriotic, but the fact remains: the budget has lost out," Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia's ten richest men, told Reuters about the practice.

Potanin, co-owner of Arctic mining giant Norilsk Nickel, said he has remained a tax resident of Russia but watched as many of his peers moved out in response to the 2014 law.

Two other people on Forbes Magazine's list of the 100 richest Russians told Reuters they had given up Russian residency to escape the law, speaking on condition that they not be identified to avoid hurting their Russian business dealings.

Two more declined to say whether they had done so, but, like Potanin, said they also knew many fellow oligarchs who had.

No official data has been made public on how many people have given up Russian residency to escape the law, or the overall size of the assets they have shielded from Russian tax jurisdiction through the practice.

But Russian law firm Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners said it had conducted a survey of around 300 wealthy Russians and found as many as 40 percent of those with offshore companies had given up residency in Russia. Another 9 percent transferred the assets to relatives who are not tax residents.

The law, popularly known in Russia as "de-offshorizatsia", requires all Russian taxpayers to declare their interest in offshore companies they control, on which they can then become liable to paying tax in Russia. It is similar to the standard practice in most western countries, but represented a change for Russia, where previously taxpayers could hold interests in companies abroad without declaring them.

The change was a high-profile initiative of President Vladimir Putin, widely interpreted as a way to force Russians to do their patriotic duty by investing in their homeland. While there is no suggestion that it is illegal to avoid the law's requirements by giving up Russian residency, those who have done so told Reuters they accepted they were thwarting the law's aim.

In response to Reuters questions, Russia's economy ministry said the de-offshorization law was in line with global practice.

It said improving the investment climate was a government priority, with positive results, as demonstrated by Russia's improved ranking in the World Bank's ease of Doing Business index. Russia is now ranked 40th, up from 92nd in 2014.

The Kremlin declined to comment. The finance ministry did not reply to a request for comment by the time of publication. In response to a list of questions, the tax service said the number of tax cases it was pursuing against Russians with foreign tax exposure was rising, but it did not directly address the questions.

The impact of tax exiles giving up Russian residency is heightened because so much of the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of relatively few people. According to Forbes, the 200 richest Russians have $460 billion in wealth, equivalent to nearly a third of Russia's nominal GDP.

"People are forced to decide: do they keep their business in Russia or become citizens of the world and take their assets offshore," said Konstantin Korishchenko, a former deputy head of the Russian central bank.

A former official who has kept close ties to the Kremlin and talks often to Russian oligarchs said that by his estimate a third of Russia's top 500 businesspeople had left the country over the past three years, in part because of the new law.

"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE NOW"

Some familiar with the practice said wealthy Russians were giving up their residency because they feared that disclosing their offshore companies would open them to the risk of the information being leaked to business rivals, or even abused by corrupt officials for spurious prosecutions or blackmail.

"The first thing that entrepreneurs say is that there is a big sense of mistrust: mistrust toward each other, mistrust towards the state," said Andrei Sharonov, dean of the Moscow School of Management, Skolkovo, which offers an MBA program.

Sitting on the leather sofa in his office in one of Moscow's most prestigious commercial addresses, one of the tycoons who gave up his residency told Reuters he made the move reluctantly.

Leaving his homeland for most of the year was a wrench. But because of the investment climate in Russia, he and his partners were looking for buyers for their Russian businesses and focusing instead on international holdings, he said.

"I would stay here and would continue paying taxes here if it was not for this law," the businessman told Reuters. "It's impossible now."

He now spends his time mostly in a European Union country where his family has settled some time ago, or traveling to meetings around the world. Such a lifestyle, he said, has become common among his peers since the law was passed: "Lots of people lived here and paid tax. Now they don't."

Another Russian businessman, a billionaire who also gave up his Russian residency over the de-offshorization law, told Reuters he and fellow tycoons were worried that it could be followed by further measures, tougher on businesspeople.

After three years of deep recession, Russia's economy is stabilizing but has not yet returned to the steady growth needed to begin making up lost ground.

The de-offshorization law is one of several factors discouraging investment in Russia, said Chris Weafer a senior partner at Russia-focussed consultancy Macro-Advisory Ltd.

"Its completely unrealistic to talk about raising growth rates to 4 percent, as Russian officials hope, without a sharp increase in inward investment," he said.

Businesspeople who spoke to Reuters said complying with the new rules meant they incurred hefty fees to lawyers and accountants to audit their offshore assets and prepare tax returns, they had to deal with a mountain of paperwork, and at the end risked having to paying more tax.

Several said privacy was also an issue, in a country where vendors at flea markets sell CDs purported to contain leaked information from the tax authorities' databases.

In the law firm's survey, almost two third of respondents said that they or their clients had encountered problems with leaks of confidential information from state services.

Ultimately, people do not trust the authorities to keep their information safe, said the businessman on the Forbes list of 100 richest Russians who did not reveal whether he had given up his residency.

"No one wants to show the money."

(Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, Oksana Kobzeva, Svetlana Reiter, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Alexander Winning, Andrey Ostroukh, Kira Zavyalova and Olga Sichkar; editing by Peter Graff)

The U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday said it was rescinding the Obama administration's standard for determining when companies are "joint employers" of contract and franchise workers, in the agency's first major shift in labor policy under President Donald Trump.

Shares of gunshot-detection company ShotSpotter Inc , which is backed by walkie-talkie maker Motorola Solutions , rose as much as 21 percent in their market debut on Wednesday.

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Declare offshore wealth? Russia tycoons would rather ship themselves off shore - Reuters