“The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything.”
-Nelson Rockefeller

“I wrote down your license plate number, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”
-Average Crybaby

If you are concerned about privacy, and you should be, it should be of interest to you learn how to own your house and car anonymously.

The rich hide their wealth, their ownership, their business and anything else they can hide and they hide it all for good reason. You should make it very hard for anyone to find out what you own.

There are a million ways for you to lose everything you have. You can be sued for anything. Junkyard attorneys are looking for anyone and everyone they can get a little piece from. Any scumbag can sue you at any time and for any reason. Maybe they won’t win, but they often do. Even if they do not win a settlement, you have already paid thousands to an attorney to defend yourself.

You are a walking target if you have means. You are a walking target if you own a house or a car outright. You are a walking target if you have plenty of equity in your home. You are a target if anyone can see what you own. The more successful you are, the bigger the bullseye on your back is.

However, if you don’t have means or, even better, if you appear to not have means then your would-be benefactors will go after an easier target. If a junkyard attorney does a little digging on you and it appears that you own nothing of value then he isn’t going to waste his time with you.

Who do you think is more likely to get sued:

• A) A man who owns a home worth 350k and has equity or
• B) A man who leases a home valued at 350k and clearly has no equity?

Clearly the gentleman in section A is the appropriate target for a frivolous lawsuit because he clearly (and publicly) has means which he can access by selling his home or taking a home equity loan. The gentleman in section B does not make a rich target for a Shark attorney. An attorney isn’t going after someone who rents or leases a home, there is no money to be made there.

You may be thinking to yourself that surely no one is ever going to sue you over trivial matters. That’s a mistake on your part. This line of faulty thinking is based on the assumption that other people think just like you do, and since you would never file a frivolous lawsuit then certainly no one else will file one against you, right?

Dead wrong. If everyone thought that way then the phrase “Frivolous Lawsuit” wouldn’t exist. Not everyone thinks like you and not everyone has integrity. That is a fact you must get used to.

But surely common sense will prevail and I won’t get sued for something that isn’t my fault, right?

Look around you, common sense ain’t so common. Common sense is a gift bestowed only upon the intelligent (and intelligence doesn’t cancel out greed or desperation). Scumbags sue the better off every single day of the year. They sue because they don’t care about you, they don’t care about what’s right or wrong, and they don’t care who they ruin. They want, want, want and they aren’t willing to work for that want and they want you to give and give and give.

There is, obviously, one thing in common with frivolous lawsuits:

MONEY

Specifically, poor or desperate scumbag losers sue rich companies or rich people in hopes of getting a nice, big fat payday.

Well, friends, maybe you aren’t rich but are you richer than a ghetto piece of welfare trash? I’m guessing that you are.

Maybe you aren’t cash rich, but do you have equity in your home? Do you have assets (car, boat, motorcycle etc..) that you can sell? Do you have something to lose? The junkyard dogs will salivate at the thought.

And that’s why you need to protect yourself and your assets from the prying eyes of the frivolous.

And the #1 way you protect what is yours is you HIDE IT.

The two things that are of the greatest value, that most people have, are a car and a house.

There are a million reasons you can be sued or otherwise targeted and, if you own everything under your own name, there are a million ways to find out what you own and how much can be taken from you. Something as simple as your license plate number can give incredible personal details about you. That is if, of course, you have your car registered under your own name.

What happens if someone is intent on getting something from you and all they have is your license plate number but, wait a second, they cannot get any information about you personally? Nothing. That’s exactly what happens. They’ll move on to the next target who has naively put everything he owns under his own name.

What to do if you own a house:

Well, to start if you buy a house you should buy with cash. You should not get a mortgage. It isn’t home “ownership” if you have a mortgage. You simply rent from the bank instead of renting from a landlord and, oh yeah, you get to be responsible for all repairs. When you rent your landlord is responsible for all repairs.

You’ve heard of the “Rent-to-Own” programs for people with bad credit. They can “buy” a house on a rent-to-own plan and one day they can, maybe, own the house. You have probably laughed at these types of commercials and the people that do this and then, after you get done laughing, you write out your very own rent-to-own mortgage check to the bank for the house you don’t own. Those rent-to-own people just weren’t smart enough to actually “buy” the house and get a mortgage, unlike you.

What to do if you own a car:

The same goes for car ownership. When you go to purchase a car you should actually purchase the car and not rent to own from the bank. If you can’t pay cash you should not buy the car. You could get a 20k loan and “buy” a brand new car or you could save up 10k and purchase a model that’s a few years old and now you own it outright.

What if I need a brand new car to look successful but I can’t pay cash?

Well then, if you want to look successful you should probably actually become successful enough to buy a car. Nothing looks more successful than success.

How to hide ownership of your house and car:

Ok, now that you have purchased your home and your vehicle with cash and you own them outright you are an attractive target to unscrupulous attorneys and lesser’s. How do you own your house and car anonymously so that you aren’t a target and no one knows what you own?

I’m glad you asked. Here is the answer…

You assign ownership of your house and your car to an LLC.

Specifically….

You open a New Mexico LLC and you assign the ownership of the house and the car to the New Mexico LLC.

Now the New Mexico LLC (limited liability company) owns the house and the car. In the eyes of the average lawyer or private investigator looking into your assets you don’t own anything. But wait a second, obviously you own the LLC so they could just easily trace the ownership back to you and prove that you own it, right?

Wrong.

New Mexico State LLC’s offer the greatest privacy for any American company.

An LLC is a very common business structure. LLC stands for Limited Liability Company and anyone can open an LLC. The owner of an LLC is public record in nearly every state and anyone who wants to find the owner of an LLC can easily do so.

But….

The great state of New Mexico DOES NOT PUBLISH THE OWNER(S) OF THEIR STATE LLC’s. In fact, New Mexico doesn’t even know who the owner(s) of a specific LLC is!

The New Mexico LLC is often called the Invisible New Mexico LLC or the Anonymous LLC and it is one of the ultimate strategies of privacy and wealth management.

There are only 3 things required for a New Mexico LLC articles of incorporation:

1. The name of the company and the address of the principal office (an address of your choice)
2. The name and address of the Registered Agent (which must be in New Mexico, details below), and
3. The duration of the LLC, which can be limited or perpetual (often 100 years)

The state of New Mexico does not require the names of the owner(s). The only place where your name goes is on the PRIVATE operating agreement, which is a document that ONLY YOU control. Literally only you will ever know who the owner of your New Mexico LLC is. The only way for anyone else to know is if you tell them.

The mailing address for the principle office can be anywhere in the world and you do not need to reside in or do business in New Mexico. There are no annual fees or reports for a New Mexico LLC, and even changes of ownership are completely private and confidential. Not only is the New Mexico LLC the best in privacy protection, it is the cheapest privacy strategy and holding company in existence (New Mexico only charges $50 for filing an Articles of Organization) .

Now, you do have to have a registered agent, whom New Mexico can contact, and they must be addressed in New Mexico. There are plenty of companies you can hire to be your registered agent and they will charge around $100-$150 per year. The registered agent will receive official communications from the state and forward them to you accordingly and they will keep your name private.

The only way that New Mexico or your registered agent can demand the name of the owner(s) of an LLC is by court order.

New Mexico LLC’s are most commonly used as a holding tool, rather than an active business, for houses, vehicles, boats etc… You do not want to do business from any New Mexico LLC in which you own and hold property and you do not want to get an EIN (employer identification number) for your New Mexico LLC. Your New Mexico LLC will simply be a holding company to keep your property ownership anonymous and out of the view of prying eyes.

What about taxes?

If you don’t derive an income from your New Mexico LLC you don’t need to pay any taxes.

What about non-American foreigners, can we open a New Mexico LLC?

Yes, foreigners can open a New Mexico LLC.

——————————————————————————————

HOW TO OPEN A NEW MEXICO LLC

You have two ways to open a New Mexico LLC.

1. You can go through the state of New Mexico and open an LLC yourself or
2. You can hire a company to take care of all that stuff for you.

LLC’s are formed by filing an Articles of Organization with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Corporations Bureau.

You can file the Articles of Organization for a mere $50 (for foreigners, the price is $100).

• New Mexico Articles of Organization
• New Mexico Articles of Organization for Foreigners

If you open the New Mexico LLC yourself you will still need to use a New Mexico Registered Agent service, so you will come out of pocket around $200 or less. There are no yearly fees to the state of New Mexico, but you will have to pay for registered agent service yearly (or several years in advance).

If you wish to use a company to set up your LLC for you, you have a couple of options. You can either choose a name for your company or you can purchase a “shelf company”. A shelf company in an already-formed LLC that has never been used and is ready to go.

The cost to open a New Mexico LLC with a company (that includes registered agent service) is typically $325-$425. If you look around, sometimes you can get a good deal that includes 2 or 3 years of registered agent service included in that price.

——————————————————————————————

When you put your property into a New Mexico LLC the junkyard dogs can sniff around all they want, but they will never be able to find what property you own or who the owner of an LLC is without a court order.

If you happen to get into a fender bender with a crazy person who jots down your license plate number in hopes of getting your address all they will find is a dead end.

If you wish to keep the equity in your house hidden you have a very easy solution, you assign the title of the house to your LLC and then you file a “friendly” mortgage with the LLC and you rent your own house from the LLC. If you own a 300k house, you file a 275k, or so, mortgage with the LLC. If the junkyard dogs miraculously DO happen to get a court order exposing the ownership of the LLC, they will see that you have no equity in the home and it will be a waste of their time to proceed. Note: You do not have to make monthly payments to your LLC if you assign a mortgage to your house. You set the terms of the agreement (you don’t ever actually have to pay anything, to yourself).

Okey doke, friends. I hope you have seen the need and the value in protecting yourself and your assets. What’s mine is mine and I do what I can to keep it that way, and you should too.

If you’re a man of means you need to protect those means.

And if you aren’t a man of means, what are you waiting for?

-Victor Pride

PS - There are a million more reasons you need to keeps your assets private, reasons that I did not discuss in this article; frivolous lawsuits are just one of many reasons. Even if you aren’t worried about frivolous lawsuits, it should not be anyone’s business but yours what you own. Why make it so that anyone can find out what you own?

[O]pening and utilizing an offshore business entity has been done by the rich for decades, and for good reason. Opening an offshore business can reduce (or eliminate) burdensome tax structures, can provide privacy protection, reduce reporting requirements and can reduce audit risk.

For those that do business internationally, or on the internet, using an offshore business entity is a smart move.

————————————————————————

ENTER HONG KONG

————————————————————————

Hong Kong is a great choice for opening an offshore business for one very big reason: Any business done outside of Hong Kong is taxed at 0%. Business done inside Hong Kong is taxed at a flat 16.5%. Businesses that incorporate in Hong Kong but operate internationally can eliminate much (or sometimes all) of their tax burden.

Don’t let the above picture fool you, even though Hong Kong mostly is a 3rd world slum it is also a world business center and a great place to incorporate. Here are some of the main benefits of opening a Hong Kong company:

• Setting up a Hong Kong company is inexpensive
• Hong Kong is the world’s freest economy and has held that record consecutively for 17 years in a row
• Opening a business in Hong Kong is easy.
• Hong Kong is one of the least corrupt countries in the world, it ranks ahead of the USA, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
• Hong Kong has a world class business infrastructure
• In Hong Kong you can easily recruit skilled staff
• English is spoken as one of the two main languages of Hong Kong (Cantonese is the other)
• Hong Kong is strategically located for business in Asia and is the best gateway for doing business in mainland China
• Hong Kong is owned by the People’s Republic of China but was developed under and is still ruled by British law. Hong Kong’s legal system is separate from Mainland China’s, and English common law prevails.
• Foreigners can own 100% of a Hong Kong company and are free to be the sole directors and shareholders of a Hong Kong company. There are no local resident requirements and there are no restrictions on nationality .
• A Hong Kong company offers global recognition and is very stable. Hong Kong is one of the world’s major trading, finance and service centers
• To open a Hong Kong company, you don’t need a physical address in Hong Kong and your physical presence is Hong Kong is not required (you may even be able to open your bank account from abroad)
• A Hong Kong company allows you to open up a multi currency Hong Kong bank account and gives you access to Hong Kong banking
• Hong Kong adopts a territorial source principle of taxation meaning that all profits generated outside of Hong Kong are tax free and profits generated inside Hong Kong are taxed at 16.5%

Who should consider opening a Hong Kong based company?

• Entrepreneurs and businessmen who do a lot of international business.
• Anyone who makes their living via e-commerce or other internet methods (i.e. internet marketers, domainers, internet entrepreneurs etc.)
• Anyone who works directly with Asia.
• Anyone who spends a significant amount of time abroad.

Note: US citizens who spend 330 days or more per year outside of the US, and make their money outside of the US, qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. The foreign earned income exclusion will allow you to pay zero income tax on all income earned outside of the USA, up to $92,900 per year. This exclusion, coupled with a zero income tax Hong Kong company, can save you a significant amount of money.

————————————————————————

SETTING UP A HONG KONG COMPANY

————————————————————————

Setting up a Hong Kong company is easy. In a nutshell, you will pick the name, provide your passport copy, provide your name and address, pay your fees, and then do a yearly audit.

You have two choices to create your company:

1) Do it yourself

• Not recommended unless you have done the required research and know which forms to file, where to go, and when to file your yearly audits. Doing it yourself is the cheaper upfront option but could cost you much more in the long run if you fail to keep up with the required details and paperwork.

2) Use a company that specializes in opening Hong Kong companies for foreigners.

• Using a company is the easiest choice. It will cost you more upfront but you will get some piece of mind knowing that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.

TYPES OF HONG KONG BUSINESS STRUCTURES

You will need to determine which type of business entity you want to use. There are four basic business structures available in Hong Kong:

1. Sole Proprietorship
2. Partnership or Joint Venture
3. Limited Liability Company (also known as a ‘Private Limited Company’)
4. Branch Office of an Overseas Company

A limited liability company is the recommended entity because it limits your personal liability to the capital subscribed.

You will need to determine the name you would like to use for your company. You must use a name that is not already in use by another Hong Kong Company. You can do a free name search here.

A minimum of one shareholder and one director is required, however the shareholder and the director can be the same person. You will have to have a company secretary and they must be a Hong Kong company or individual. If you use a company to set up your Hong Kong business they will most certainly provide you with secretarial services.

The incorporation of a brand new company takes around eight to ten days but one can buy a “shelf company” and start business almost immediately. This kind of “shelf company” has never traded since incorporation and so has no liabilities.

Shelf companies are ready-made companies which can be used the moment they are purchased. They normally have an authorised capital of HK$10,000 with standard Memorandum and Articles of Association. One can change the name, amend the Articles or increase the authorised capital at any time. Shelf companies are setup in Hong Kong with one subscriber share of HK$1.00 which is the statutory minimum. There is no obligation to subscribe and pay up further capital.

The three typical structures of Hong Kong limited liability companies are:

• Your overseas company holds the shares of the Hong Kong company as a parent company
• You hold the shares of the Hong Kong company as an individual
• A nominee shareholder holds the shares of the Hong Kong company on your behalf as the beneficial owner

[E]verywhere you look someone is trying to get your information. Your name, your date of birth, your social security number, your drivers license number, your mother’s maiden name, your favorite pet, your address, your phone number, your company name, your vehicle license and registration, and even your eye color (Green like July).

They collect this information so they can sell to you better. How do they do this? They watch you. Paranoid? Yes. With good reason? Yes. Keeping private is of utmost importance!

Why should you stay private?

A better question would be why shouldn’t you stay private? Everyone in the world does not need access to your intimate details and information. Those details can be used against you whether you do any wrong or not. You can be SUED FOR ANYTHING in our world. If you’re as handsome as me you will have trouble with stalkers. Any crazy person can try and track you down and sue you for any bit of nonsense. Not to mention all the Government agencies are watching you and spying on you, YES YOU!

Below we will discuss some very basic, but rock solid, strategies to stay private in an ever increasingly non-private world. [Read more...]