<prompt> Human: I am a nurse. I work a full time job. I am not rich by any means. I am middle aged. I have money in a 401k, a rainy day fund, a home and a car. Would it be possible for me to set up an off shore account and direct my paychecks through it in such a way as to decrease my tax liability? I want it to be 100 legal. If so, how would I go about doing it? Assistant: No, not if your goal is lower taxes. What this statement means is that you can legally have a secret offshore account if you properly disclose it to the IRS and pay tax on it. It would not decrease your tax liability. It may offer some legal protection by making you less likely to be suedharder to get damages from.EDIT: This is for the U.S. In some other countries, there may be tax advantages, and structuring in it via Panama, etc... may or may not be legal. But, bottom line, there are legitimatish uses of offshore hidden accounts. Imagine you live in, say, Cuba, and are worried that the government will just seize your money one day. I would argue this would be a moral, and perhaps legal, time to use a secret account.Human: I figured as much. Thank you for your reply. It just seems unfair that there is a standard for one segment of people and a different set of rules for everyone else. Assistant: No problem - if wealthy people had accounts there and werent disclosing thempaying tax on them in accordance with the law, it is illegal and the IRS can go after them for big penalties and I hope they will.I hear what you are saying though; Im sure there were rich people who paid money to have illegal structures set up to dodge taxes and gamble that they wouldnt be caught. It is totally possible to evade taxes this way if nobody tells the IRS you made money and you dont report it, how can they find out?, just extremely illegal.Human: To me there is no legitimate reason why an individual would set up an account like that. Doing so means they are hiding that money from someone. Hiding it from a spouse, from a company, from a constituency or from a government.  <response>: As uMrme pointed out in his first post edit above there are some legitimate reasons. Fear of government seizure of assets is a big one, especially if you are in an unstable country. Another, more legitimate reason, would be that if you are afraid of the stability of your home countrys currency it might be wise to open an off shore account and keep your savings in a more stable currency. Also, you may travel to a foreign place often and having a second bank account there could provide useful, especially if you have business interests there too.All in all, there are legitimate reasons for doing it, and as long as the income is reported under the laws of both countries there is no problem with it. 