ANTIGUA & BARBUDA: Citizenship by Investment passed by House of Representatives!

UPDATE: "The Senate has delayed the debate of the Citizenship by Investment Act until the next Parliamentary sitting at the end of January, 2013. No specific reason has been given by the government although it is speculated that the government may want to restructure the EC program as it is currently designed."

This serves to advise that the Citizenship by Investment Bill has been passed by the House of Representatives and will now be debated in the Senate commencing November 29.

Once the Bill is passed by the Senate, it will be Gazetted whereupon it will become law.

Therafter, the government will set up the Unit that will run the program, the application forms and process, etc.

For more information on the proposed program click here.

NTL Immigration is busily preparing for this exciting new program. Please contact your NTL agent for more information.

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA: one step closer to Citizenship by Investment - NTL Immigration Ready

NTL Immigration is carefully following the information coming out of the Antigua and Barbuda parliament this week...

The Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Act, 2012 is currently being debated by the parliament of Antigua and Barbuda. NTL has obtained the working draft of the Act, which hopefully will be accepted into law after the governemnet debates, which began November 15th, 2012, and are still "going through the legislative process" as of November 19th, 2012.

Although the Act is still a work in process and has yet to been made into law, Robert Martin of NTL Immigration states "We are very optimistic that this new economic citizenship program will come to fruitation shortly. NTL is making the necesarry arrangements to have agents on the islands and offer the our clients the complete service they are expecting as soon as the program launches."

Currently, there are four means one can obtain an Antiguan & Barbudan passport; by birth, descent, marriage, naturalisation – and after the second and third readings are had at Parliament, the fifth would be by economic citizenship.

The latter would grant Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship to foreign investors that either acquire US $400,000 in property, contribute US $250,000 to the National Development Fund, donate US $250,000 to an approved charitable organisation or invest in a business starting at US $1.5 million.*

The new program looks to be very simular to the economic citizneship program offered in the neighboring islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, offering both Real Estate investment and Charitable Donation options. The main change in that all Proffesional Agent fees would be paid directly to the government, in order to maintain price equality. 

Additionally for Antigua, unlike St Kitts and Nevis, there is a physical presence requirement, albeit not a particularly onerous one: new citizens must spend at least 70 days in total physically in the country, during the five years following the grant of citizenship – otherwise the passport won’t be renewed!

The citizenship program has great support among the Antigua and Barbuda Government with final details being worked out currently before final approval. “A citizen is a citizen is a citizen, no matter how you acquire the citizenship," states Ambassador Colin Murdoch the OECS Commissioner.

The following fees are payable to the Unit on application for Citizenship by Investment*:

Fees	US$
Processing fee – Principal applicant	$50,000.00
Processing fee – Spouse	$50,000.00
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 0 - 11	$25,000.00
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 12 - 17	$25,000.00
Processing fee – Dependent child aged 18 – 25	$50,000.00
Processing fee – Dependent parent aged over 65	$50,000.00
Due Diligence fee – Principal applicant	$7,500.00
Due Diligence fee – Spouse	$7,500.00
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 0 - 11	$0
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 12 - 17	$2,000.00
Due Diligence fee - Dependent child aged 18 – 25	$4,000.00
Due Diligence fee - Dependent parent aged over 65	$4,000.00

* All Finacial details are subject to change.

For more information on the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship program please contact you NTL Agent!

Kittitian Hill offers new "Village Suites" condos

The Kittitian Hill development, located on the north side of St. Kitts is pleased to announce the release of new real estate properties that qualify for the Citizenship by Investment progam.

The beautiful Village Suites, (52 single title condominium apartments) are situated in the Village, the heart of Kittitian Hill. The Village will house the Town Hall, Conference Centre, Amphitheatre, Cinema, Resort Pool, Golf Club, Tennis, Bars, Restaurants and Shops. This vibrant arts and entertainment hub will feature the very best of craft, music, literary and culinary arts. The Village Suites have all been carefully positioned to benefit from a range of delightful sea, golf and mountain views, most taking the upper floors of the charming village buildings.

There are three designs from which to choose:

• The Mansion - Detached building – Single two-bedroom apartment situated on the upper floor – enclosed area 1,200 sq ft, covered area 1,915 sq ft. 
• The Fig Tree - Detached building – Single one-bedroom apartment on the upper floor – enclosed area 810 sq ft, total covered area 1,296 sq ft.  
• The Lodge - Detached building – 2 x one-bedroom apartments side by side on the upper floor (and in some cases the upper and lower floors) – enclosed area of each apartment 810 sq ft, total covered area 1,108 sq ft. The Suites have been individually priced accordingly to their type, location, floor level and view. 

These properties are being offered with the Investment Option (GRO) and the Lifestyle Option under the exact same terms that were offered for the Cottages. So under the Investment Option there is a guaranteed return of 2% p.a. up until handover and 4% after handover until the end of the 5 year must hold period – during this time there no costs to pay for 5 years. Handover date will be end of November 2014.

The Suites have been designed as lockouts, thereby maximising the income potential for our owners. For example, the Mansion Suites are two bedroom units, providing three separate hotel rooms.

They are being released in four phases. Phase 1 comprises 13 Suites ranging in price from $468,000 to $636,000.

For more info and pictures click here, or contact you NTL agent!

"Buy your holiday apartment and get a passport thrown in for free..." - QWealth Report

RANT AGAINST A BLOGGER - As published by QWealthReport.com Written by Peter Macfarlane

“So, buy your holiday apartment and get a passport thrown in for free with no worldwide taxation. Now why would that appeal to anyone?” asks one Richard Murphy. While this sounds like a darned good deal to me, of course, taxation is unfortunately generally based on where you actually live, rather than your citizenship (The USA being the only exception, as regular readers well know.). 

Mr Murphy, who describes himself as the “#1 Economics Blogger in the UK,” wrote a piece yesterday about this very program. 

It grabbed my attention because he makes some interesting points. “... [I]t shows just how tax haven activity is designed to undermine the very notion of the state whilst exploiting the power of the states that tax haven abuse captures to do so. The paradox and hypocrisy is all too apparent.”

That's a rather complicated sentence to get my head around before I've even finished my morning cup of Duran Cafe de Altura, but I think what he is trying to say, is that it's ironic how one state (SKN) is using one of the key tools of state control (the power to grant and withdraw citizenship and passports) to sell freedom to citizens of other states. In other words, they are playing the system.

“Reducing the state and its processes to a commodity is part of the process of destroying it,” he continues.

Totally agreed. Where I'm sure I differ from Mr Murphy is on whether that's a good thing or not. Personally I'm all in favour of seeing most of today's overbearing states having their wings clipped. No matter whether we are talking about China or Russia, the US, the UK, or even St Kitts. Less centralized government and more power to the people would make the world a much better place.

Really, however, what Mr Murphy and I believe counts for nothing. The nation state system that he so vehemently supports and that I tolerate because I don't have any other choice is founded on respect for the sovereignty of other nations. Or, appropriately for today being Mexico's independence day, in the words of Benito Juarez, "Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace."

If Mr Murphy would have more powerful nations tell the good people of St Kitts and Nevis and their government how they should run their tax systems, is that respect for democracy? Surely he's not going to try to argue that one. By the same token, China is much bigger so perhaps it should dictate the rules in the UK? Then there would be no more of those pesky complaints about human rights abuses that are whittling away the authority of the Chinese state.

If we are going to respect democracy, we can't get away from having to respect the right of nations and peoples to self-determination. Therefore there will always be tax havens and commoditisation of the state and its processes. We will undoubtedly see more and more business being done offshore, not less. That is the fundamental reason why people who claim tax havens, offshore bank accounts and the like have had their day are totally wrong. The 'tax justice' people have never come up with any plan for forcing other countries to do or not to do things without trampling on their sovereign or democratic rights – because it's just not possible.

So what can Mr Murphy hope for?

He can certainly lobby his government to introduce domestic laws to stop its citizens doing business in tax havens. Fortunately, the British government may be stupid, but they're not that stupid. 

Would they introduce American-style worldwide taxation on British citizens? That's not beyond them. But every time they chop away at the freedom of British entrepreneurs to do business overseas, they know there will be a planeload of Britain's best and the brightest on the way to St Kitts, and other places like it, with their money. They will be closely followed by another plane full of Russian expats leaving London – another few billion pounds lost from the British economy at a stroke. The climate's better in St Kitts and I'm not just talking about the temperature! People and capital are highly mobile and will not stand for infringements on their freedom.

The other option is to introduce a tiered system of first and second class nation states. The privileged states like the UK will dictate how the others like SKN run their tax systems, citizenship laws and everything else. The only way to achieve this would be by the use of military force, or perhaps trying to scam the second-class nations with massive-scale bribery with billions of newly-minted fiat currency would work. The logical conclusion of this is that we would all live in one world dictatorship. But by then commercial space travel will be viable and the Tax Justice crowd will have off-planet tax havens to contend with.

Kittitian Hill Cottages Phase 1 - Sold Out

Kittitian Hill announced today that the 84 Cottages of Phase 1 are now Sold Out!  Congradulations to Kittitian Hill development team for this milestone achievement. 

The Cottage hotel is scheudled for a soft opening December 2012 - there are currently fifty-fourth Cottages now being built, and within 11 weeks all 30 remaining cottages will be under construction.

Althought the Cottages are sold out, there is more in store for the development inthe near future. "This month we will introduce our freehold condominiums at the Village, a mix of 37 beautiful apartments" states Sales and Marketing Manager, Simon Galt.

The resort still is offering Fractional Shares of the larger Villas, starting at US$410.

NTL is proud to have contributed to the sales of the Cottages, with many of our clients excited to see there creams becoming reality. We look forward to the continuing sales efforts within the Kittitian Hill project.