Guatemala Banking

People who go offshore have a tendency to follow the crowds. Look where this practice got the people who followed each other to Switzerland. You have to deviate from the crowd to avoid being low hanging fruit today. Guatemala is thus a superior jurisdiction to form an anonymous corporation and bank in. There is a lack of Tax Information Exchange Agreements, Double Tax Treaties and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. Judgement reciprocity and fraudulent conveyance is not a concern. You do not have to come to Guatemala to get the bank account. This is the most secure private jurisdiction we know of with extremely large billion dollar banks. Banks are international and local to Guatemala. Guatemala has a $75,000,000,000 economy and almost 15 million people. It is not a tax haven island with 20,000 residents. The banks handle a large amount of commerce every day. The banks have online banking including the ability to send international wire transfers with SWIFT number. The banks will issue a variety of Visa, MasterCard and Debit cards.

16 Advantages of Guatemala Banking

1) We use large Billion Dollar Guatemala Banks. No USA or EU affiliates. Many of our banks are by themselves larger than all the banks in common tax havens added together. Think about it.

2) Bank in US Dollar, Euros or local currency, the Quetzal

3) No Tax Information Exchange Agreements with USA, Canada, Europe & Asia

4) No Double Taxation Agreements

5) No Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with USA, Canada, Europe, Asia etc

6) No Judgement Reciprocity Issues Common to Most offshore Jurisdictions

7) Full online banking including sending out international wire transfers online

8) Guatemala has Government Bank Insurance

9) Guatemala has serious bank secrecy so you can sign on your own account

10) Corporate Accounts use Anonymous Guatemala Bearer Share Corporations. This means your name does not appear in any public registry or database. The government does not know who owns the corporation. You get to keep the bearer share certificates.

11) Low Bank Fees. Incoming wires free (zero). Out going wires $30. No percentages.

12) Fast Account Opening, 7-10 working days

13) No need to come to Guatemala to open bank account

14) Minimal Due Diligence – just a passport copy sent as a scan

15) Banks will Issue Visa and MasterCards

16) You have attorney client privilege with us, and bank secrecy with the bank

More Details on Guatemala Banking - We use large billion dollar banks. Banks will have no affiliates in USA or EU if you prefer. If you wish to bank in a very large Bank we can use large banks (inquire for names) which is operating as a Guatemala Bank under a Guatemala Banking License covered by Guatemala Banking Laws including serious banking secrecy. We use anonymous bearer share corporations formed in Guatemala. Your name does not appear in any public registry associated with the corporation. The government does not even know who owns the corporation. You do not have to come to Guatemala. We are a Guatemala Law Firm and you have complete attorney client privilege in all your dealings and transactions with us. Any transactions and dealings with a Guatemala bank would be covered by strong Guatemala Bank Secrecy Laws. Your bank account will be in US dollars, Euros or the local Guatemala currency which is quite strong. You can have all three currencies. You will have online banking including the ability to send outgoing wires out online. The banks will issue Visa and/or MasterCards. Your bank account will be in the name of an anonymous Guatemala bearer share corporation. You will have the bearer shares in your possession. The only due diligence is a scan of a passport. This is sent to us by secure email. We provide the secure email account with military grade encryption. Sorry no personal accounts unless you have a Guatemala Residency.

Why Use Guatemala – Guatemala is the largest nation in Central America having over 14 million people. It has the largest economy in Central America coming in at 75 Billion dollars GDP. It is a democracy with free elections. Guatemala has a constitution. The country maintains a military force of 19,000 including Army, Navy and Air Force. The national police is another 12,000 strong. In addition there are municipal police in some municipalities. There is a large amount of foreign investment flowing into Guatemala.

No Tax Information Exchange Agreements – Guatemala has NO Tax Information Exchange Agreements. Guatemala has no double taxation agreements.

No Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with USA, Canada, EU Nations – There are NONE. Guatemala also has NO double taxation treaties. The nations indicated below in bold are popular banking jurisdictions that the USA has Mutual legal Assistance Treaties with. MLAT's can only be used in criminal cases filed by national governments through the treaty. The offense must be a crime in both countries (dual criminality). They are difficult to use and must go through diplomatic channels. They can take months or years to use. All that being said it is better to not have any such treaty in place at all than to know it is there but difficult to use. We get asked if it is possible for the MLAT to be used in a tax matter. The answer is yes if the tax matter is pursued as a crime. This is not something that has been seen much to date but it is entirely possible.

USA Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties - The USA has MLAT's (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) with the following nations. Those listed in BOLD are popular offshore banking jurisdictions: : Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominica, Egypt, Estonia, France, Grenada, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, the Netherlands with respect to its Caribbean overseas territories (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles), Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom with respect to its Caribbean overseas territories (Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands) and Uruguay. MLATs have been signed by the United States but not yet brought into force with the European Union and the following countries: Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Sweden and Venezuela.

Guatemala National Gold Reserves - Guatemala has over $6,000,000,000 of gold reserves (based on present market prices) contained inside of Guatemala held in government vaults. See link below to document this.

Country Comparison :: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

This amount of gold reserves places Guatemala ahead of the following countries commonly used for banking: Panama, Belize, Seychelles, Ecuador, Mauritius, Costa Rica.

Guatemala Gold and Foreign Currency Reserves - Guatemala has $4.5 billion in gold and foreign currency reserves based on the 2009 study, link below. This we estimate to be $7.5 billion today due to the sharp climb in gold prices. First let's document this:

Country Comparison :: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold

This places Guatemala ahead of the following countries when it comes to gold and foreign currency reserves and if we account for the rise in gold prices Guatemala would be even stronger but this study than this 2009 study:

Uruguay - $4.1 billion

Ecuador - $3.6 billion

Greece - $2.7 billion

Mauritius - $1.7 billion

Panama - $ 1.2 billion

Ireland - $831 million

Luxembourg – $265 million

Seychelles - $118 million

Belize - $92 million

As you can readily see Guatemala has more substantial gold and foreign currency reserves than many countries commonly used for offshore banking.

Now let's look at the indebtedness of the nation.

Country Comparison :: Debt - external

From this chart we can see that Guatemala is way down on the list of nations with foreign debt. What is meant is this: this entry gives the total public and private debt owed to nonresidents repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. These figures are calculated on an exchange rate basis, i.e., not in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. The USA, UK, Germany etc are on the top of the chart which is a bad place to be. Guatemala rates higher than banking jurisdictions like: Hong Kong, Switzerland, Uruguay, Luxembourg, and Austria.

Guatemala Bond Ratings – Moody has given Guatemala foreign currency bonds (USD) a Ba1 rating. This is the same rating it has for domestic currency bonds. Standard and Poor's gives a rating of BB, and Fitch gives it a BB Plus. Moody's said Guatemala has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 23 percent versus 45 percent for similarly rated countries.

Guatemala Taxes - The country of Guatemala does NOT tax any offshore derived income. So money coming into Guatemala from activities conducted outside of Guatemala are not taxed. Bank interest is not taxed the way we set up the corporate bank accounts. Bottom line for you is no taxes.

Guatemala Ease of Doing Business – Guatemala got a 101 out of a possible 183. The higher the number the easier it is to do business there. Guatemala outscored these offshore jurisdictions for ease of doing business: Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Antigua, Panama, Mauritius, Bahamas, Singapore, St Kitt's and Nevis, Seychelles, and Belize. See link below to document this:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings

Bank Secrecy in Guatemala – Guatemala has tight banking secrecy laws in place calling for criminal and civil penalties for any disclosure of banking information. When we say tight we mean tight. There have been no bank secrecy scandals in Guatemala.

Guatemala Bank Insurance – The Guatemala Government does insure the bank accounts. The amount of insurance is modest 20,000 quetzales which is about $2600. The important point is that the government is busy watching the banks carefully. Please bear in mind there are a lot of bank accounts they are insuring and they do not want to get hit with a big bill. This Government Deposit Insurance Fund for bank accounts, is called FOPA and stands for Fondo para la Proteccion del Ahorrante.

Guatemala Bank Interest Rates – With USD accounts the interest rate will be about 2.5% for a time locked deposit (CD). If you prefer to use the local currency the rate is 7%. This is assuming a deposit of $100,000 for one year. Interest rates can vary. You can also bank in Euros. The local currency the Quetzal, is a strong currency. Guatemala is not a dollarized country and the Quetzal is not tied or pegged to the USD.

Guatemala Corporations – These are anonymous bearer share corporations. There are no more anonymous corporations in other jurisdictions. You get to keep the bearer shares as well which many jurisdictions do not allow. For more information on Guatemala Corporations please go here:

Guatemala Corporation

Guatemala Bank Credit Cards – The Guatemala banks will issue cards Visa and MasterCards tied to corporate accounts. They have debit cards and secured cards. The bank will not extend credit to you.

Guatemala Bank Online Banking – The banks will have online banking. You will be able to check balances and history as well as send out online international wire transfers.

Bank Account Opening Requirements – We only require a scan of all the pages of the passport. This is all. This can be sent to us in email as a file attachment. Please try to send as a 300 dpi jpeg or jpg file. The email address is staff@panamalegal.org. There is no bank reference letter required. These bank reference letters leave telltale trails from the home country bank to the new bank. Some countries treat these bank reference letters as a suspicious transaction requiring a report to be made to the banking authorities. No bank reference letter required which is a good thing. We do not need any sort of reference letter. The minimum deposit is $500 USD for a dollar account and 1000 Euros for a Euro Account. If you want Euros and USD then you need to deposit both minimum deposits. There is no maximum deposit.

Special Circumstances for Due Diligence – If you have a national identity card from Guatemala you do not need to show a passport to open the bank account. This can readily be accomplished in as little as one week using the Guatemala Pensionado Program. You will be able to open a personal or corporate Guatemala bank account using only your national identity card for the ID. For more information on the Pensionado Program go here:

Guatemala Pensionado Permanent Residency Program

Online Banking – The bank will have online banking. You will be able to send international wires out using the online banking. You can check balance and history online.

Bank Account Minimums – For USD accounts the bank requires $1000. For EUROS the bank requires $1000 EUROS. If you want USD and EURO bank accounts you need to deposit both minimums. The minimums can be sent with the fees for opening the account. We cannot open the account with the opening deposit.

Price – The fee for the Guatemala anonymous bearer share corporation and the opening of the Guatemala bank account is $3995. There is an additional $75 fee for the courier (DHL, Fed Ex) to send your corporate and bank documents. Renewals are $700 per year starting in year two. There is a minimum deposit as well. Minimum deposits are needed to fully open the account and can be sent with the payment or at a later date.

Time Frame – From start to completion including a corporation and bank account can be accomplished in 10 to 14 working days, approximately. Bank forms need to be sent to you by courier and you need to return these forms by courier. Couriers can vary in the time they take for delivery depending on location.

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