In the beginning, when the internet broke out from its traditional role as a communications device for academics, college nerds, and the US military, offshore was predicted to be the center of the e-commerce universe. By locating websites offshore and in low-tax jurisdictions to carry out functions previously based in high-tax jurisdictions, businesses would be able to take advantage of low rates of taxation for increasingly substantial parts of their operation, or so the theory went. Indeed, in many cases, there’d be no need to have a presence “onshore” at all. Obviously, most internet-based businesses have taken full advantage of their almost ethereal presence to pay less tax in places like the US and Europe, and the world’s governments are only now starting to catch up. However, while many offshore jurisdictions talked the talk during the early phases of the … Read More »