We are able to offer tax advice for Guatemala, not for other countries. In the other countries where we offer banking in (Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico) we have lawyers located there who can offer legal advice regarding laws in their country.
All the jurisdictions we deal with do not tax offshore-derived income. They are not part of the European Tax Withholding Treaty. The countries we deal in do not report any corporate or banking information to any other countries. Information -may- be shared in some circumstances involving a TIEA (Tax Information Exchange Agreement) request but then the only names being given up would be the member of our law firm signing on the bank account. The banks have no idea who you are and have no identity documents on you. The banks in the countries we use have bank secrecy laws. The attorney client privilege laws are very strong in Guatemala. Ultimately any information requests would need to be brought into the Guatemala courts. The country requesting would need to hire local Guatemala counsel to represent them and appear with them in court. Expensive. Evidence would need to be provided of involvement in a major crime, taxes are not enough. A law firm is not a bank and can conceal client's identities for reasons pertaining to attorney client privilege. Attorney client privilege is much stronger in Guatemala than it is in Europe or North America.
You may find yourself in a very tough spot when trying to find a lawyer in your own country knowledgeable about the offshore world as it applies to the laws in your own country. This is not training they would most likely ever had in law school. Check out a law school curriculum in your country online for further convincing. They cannot appear to represent you in a matter in another country. They need to hire local counsel and can appear with the local counsel. Additionally there is a very likely chance of you having a conflict of interest with your attorney or accountant. In some countries it is incumbent on the accountant or attorney to report to the government any client who attempts to defeat the tax laws of the country the lawyer or accountant is in. The lawyer or accountant may be unsure of your motives, intentions and methods and to avoid any loss of license they may report you to the government.
Another problem in some countries is civil liability. If the lawyer feels you are going to move assets offshore they may get scared and redirect you to a domestic structure that is inherently much weaker. This is to keep your money onshore so any creditors or government agencies can grab your money. It is also easier for them to sell you an onshore structure that they can setup without any third party involvement in other countries. In an offshore structure the likelihood of any creditor being successful is greatly diminished and the amount of money required to launch a financial attack is going to be greatly increased, in many cases way too much money is going to be required to justify the effort considering the very poor chance of success. If the lawyer or accountant is later found to have helped you remove funds from the reach of a creditor they can be sued for fraudulent conveyance, conspiracy to defraud a creditor, facilitating a fraudulent conveyance, obstructing justice and other things. They could have professional charges filed against their license. They could face criminal charges. Their malpractice carrier could drop their coverage. They are a target because their malpractice insurance makes them a target with deep pockets and your creditors lawyers will love going after them in court so they can recover excessive legal bills.
The bottom line is you are facing conflict of interest issues using a home country lawyer or accountant. You are facing other problems relying on information an offshore agent, accountant or lawyer provides since they are not licensed or qualified to provide such advice in your jurisdiction and cannot represent you in the event representation is needed. We are not the ones that created the dilemma; we are just the ones making you aware of the problem. Please do not shoot the messenger.
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