Playing on some of the World’s Trillion Dollar Gaming Boards
Again and again in the course of my professional career, I find that whatever I
plan and whatever I expect, something else happens. Absolutely unplanned, and totally
ill-equipped for it, I find myself playing on a number of the world’s trillion-dollar
gaming boards.
Indeed, how I become the advisor to international organizations, royal families,
heads of state, and ministries of finance in different parts of the globe could
hardly have happened in a more unplanned way.
I kick off my career, for a very short period indeed, at the European Commission
of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The first file to hit my desk is a complaint against
the Belgian government from a dear little old lady, whose French name will forever
remain confidential, and who alleges that the Flemish postman threw a pot of urine
into her face. I need no more convincing that I am in the wrong place.
My little stint in Strasbourg is followed many years later by a very different bit
part when I return to Strasbourg to find myself momentarily chairing the European
Parliament. This time round I need no more convincing that I am in the right place.
More useful in leading me to my preferred path was a blessed meeting at the Peace
Palace in The Hague, with Lord McNair, President of The Hague International Court.
This gracious luminary becomes my mentor in a vast research project that takes about
ten years to complete, by which time I have an entrée into the world of international
organizations and foreign governments.
A consultancy to the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam opens
the wide portal and leads to me being considered the right man to set up new financial
and administrative centers that focus on the processing trillions of dollars of
investment money. My training briefs start with Malta, Malaysia, Jamaica and most
of the Southern African mini-states, before moving on to the major administrative
centers.
Other foreign government projects follow. There is advising the US Congress and
the IRS. Later there is the experience of working on the US shipping rights of six
Arab countries including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, thanks to the United Arab Shipping
Company.
But the best of everything is access to the Grand Slam center courts, thanks to
the International Tennis Federation following on a modest bit of work with their
legal advisor.
Tax Planning Tips thanks to typical British Ingenuity
Lady Godiva stark naked on her white horse always remains an intriguing figure (pardon
the double meaning). Please recall that Lady Godiva’s husband, Leofric Earl of Mercia,
promises to remit the oppressive taxes that he has imposed on the inhabitants of
Coventry if she will ride naked through the streets at noon. Lady Godiva duly directs
the people to keep within doors and shut their windows. Then, accompanied by two
stalwart soldiers, she undertakes the ride with only her hair covering her body.
On her return Leofric issues a charter freeing the city of Coventry “from servitude.”
Leofric’s payoff does not lie in indulging a penchant for vicarious exhibitionism.
On the contrary, he uses the incident to head off a dangerous tax revolt led by
his own good lady.
A few centuries later the inhabitants, not merely of Coventry, but of most of the
British Isles, proceed to brick up their windows altogether. The object of this
exercise is not to keep out the noonday sight of naked ladies roaming the streets
on white horses, but simply to avoid having to pay the window tax.
“Not only has Dr Spitz never lost an international tax case – no plan he has constructed
has ever been challenged” - Offshore Investment
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