"Langer on Practical International Tax Planning" - anybody owns one?

[tarous]

I stumbled upon "Langer on Practical International Tax Planning". It can be found on amazon for a whopping $416 USD (for Kindle) but it is a fresh Oct. 2012 edition and it promises a review of over 50 tax havens, laws, regulations and so on. Unfortunately the book preview ends at the Table of Contents, so I'm just wondering if it's a worthy purchase. It does have 1640 pages and it's already been regularly published for 12 years.


Anyone got experience with this? I'm looking for someone to give me a hint whether it's worth spending money on.

 

[JohnLocke]

This book is from 2004! Langer on Practical International Tax Planning Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,: Amazon.co.uk: Denis A. Kleinfeld: Books things have change many times since then. You may look for a more up to date book from at least 2011 and better 2012. I haven't found one yet.

 

[tarous]

No no, it's regularly updated - the latest edition is October 2012, you can find it on Amazon That's why it sounds valuable - as it's been updated ever since they started publishing it.


Look for a Kindle version, will be easier to find. And it's also available on pli.edu.

 

[JohnLocke]

oh okay, thank you for making me aware of this.. will have a look

 

[tarous]

OK, I actually bought the Kindle version since they have 7 day return policy. My advice: AVOID - DON'T BUY. The information in this book has not been properly updated. I was reviewing the chapter about Singapore and the information there is out-dated by 12 years. They mention 26% corporate tax rate which was enforced until 2000. Today it's 17%. Knowing that I have no idea how many more mistakes have been made in this book - therefore it's not a worthy investment and in fact it's downright dangerous to buy it, as you might find advice that will lead you into trouble.


There are more omissions - e.g. there's no description of Seychelles or Guatemala, as used in offshore transactions, many jurisdictions are listed as not having signed any TIEAs etc. Most of the book is written in quite a plain language - good for early beginners but not for somebody who at least Googled things on the internet for a bit. After reading that chapter about Singapore I'm returning it immediately.

 

[Zqq]

That's bad. Thanks for the heads up!