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At a recent town hall meeting in Maine, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was forced to defend the millions he holds in offshore bank accounts.

"Do you think it's patriotic of you to stash away your money in the Cayman Islands?"one woman asked.

Romney assured the audience he doesn't receive any tax benefits on his at least $8 million, but possibly up to $32 million, stowed away in the Caribbean.

But Romney is still getting other benefits --like lower management fees and foreign interest.

But these benefits might not last forever. The federal government is rolling out legislation meant to keep Americans from stashing their cash overseas.

In 2010, theIRSand theTreasury Departmentpassed legislation called theForeign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and those regulations will force many foreign banks to divulge the identities and account information of U.S. customers with sizeable offshore accounts that until now may have remained hidden for decades.

Some parts of the legislation won't take effect for a few years, but this year, many American expatriates must divulge personal information about their overseas accounts to the IRS.

But let's back up a minute and lift the veil off those often scandalously portrayed offshore accounts, whether you have one, are considering opening one or just want to know more about them.

Offshore overview

An offshore account is essentially an account that you open in a foreign country, like a bank account or a brokerage account.

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Here's How The IRS Plans To Track Secret Offshore Accounts

US stocks fell Monday as worries about the slowing global economy after China lowered its growth estimate eclipsed positive numbers on the US services sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 14.76 points (0.11 percent) to finish at 12,962.81.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 5.30 points (0.39 percent) to 1,364.33, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 25.71 points (0.86 percent) to 2,950.48.

Stocks pared losses in drifting trade, analysts said.

The markets were "shrugging off an upbeat read on US services sector activity, amid a flare-up in global economic concerns courtesy of China cutting its growth forecast to the lowest level since 2004 and a disappointing eurozone business activity report," Charles Schwab analysts said.

Markets were under pressure after China's premier, Wen Jiabao, announced the world's second-biggest economy was targeting growth of 7.5 percent in 2012, below the 8.0 percent-plus rate in recent years and the lowest target in eight years.

Dow member Alcoa was the blue-chip index's worst decliner, tumbling 3.6 percent to $9.87. Caterpillar skidded 2.1 percent to $110.09.

American International Group rose 2.0 percent. The bailed-out insurer plans to sell a chunk of its stake in Hong-Kong listed AIA to help repay its debt to the US government.

Citigroup fell 1.2 percent. After the market closed Friday, the bank said that board chairman Richard Parsons, who guided Citi through the 2008 financial crisis, would not seek reelection in April.

Apple shed 2.2 percent to $533.16 ahead of Apple's expected unveiling on Wednesday of the next generation of its iPad tablet computer.

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US stocks end in red on global growth worries

By Bobby Fisher - March 5, 2012 | Tickers: DANG, GOOG, GRPN, YHOO, YOKU | 0 Comments

Bobby is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

If weve learned one thing from the dot-com bubble, it is that weve really learned very little. Sentiment, rumor, and in general, hype still tends to carry greater influence than cold hard facts, financial results, or even profits. When companies create their revenue through the internet or promise to start creating revenues somewhere in the future, the market sometimes regards this as a mystical process that does not follow the same laws the market normally adheres to. Currently we have a number of stocks that are overinflated by hype, but a correction is sure to follow just as a bubble will always burst.

Not that long ago,Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)was the leader in two markets, but it has slipped into third spot behind Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Facebook in the display ads market, and as a search engine, it barely commands 6% of the market. Its market share in display and search advertising is set to slip further in coming years as Googles dominance grows.

As though that isnt bad enough, its investment in Alibaba.com, contributing more than 40% in value to the Yahoo! share price, is not being handled well by chief financial officer Tim Morse. Morse has been overcome by vagueness when speaking about issues surrounding its holdings in the Asian company. I expect more bad news from Yahoo! as it struggles to sell its Asian assets and its stock is sure to bear the brunt, causing longsuffering shareholders to wonder whether Scott Thompson will be another name in a succession of short lived CEOs.

The Chinese internet television company Youku, Inc. (NYSE: YOKU) is the closest equivalent to a Chinese Youtube, but it also includes professional productions like serial television shows, movies, variety shows, sporting events, and music videos. The other common denominator between the companies is their lack of profits. This has not deterred Youku in any way from trading with a market capitalization of $2.26 billion. Despite the share price falling from the heady highs of $69.95 in April of last year, the share price is still overvalued at around $22.

Looking at Youkus figures, there is hardly a number that isnt in the red. It starts out with a gross margin of 24.8% in the black, but this quickly runs into trouble with a net profit margin of -0.22% and earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation margin is -18%. Clearly it is only a matter of time before this overvalued stock will get its just deserved correction from the market.

Another copycat of a U.S. model, E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc.(NYSE: DANG) tries to replicate in China exactly what Amazon.comhas done so successfully in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. From a business model standpoint you must say that this has been proven to work.

Dangdangs results arent backing this up though. Its latest set of results has shown growth in sales, but theres an ever-increasing loss per share as its margins continue heading in the wrong direction. In the last quarter its operating margin has increased to -12.1%.

Dangdangs problems originate from being the third biggest player in the online retail market in China behind Yahoo!s Alibaba.com which owns 49% of the market and 360buy.com with 18% market share. Dangdangs margins will only be squeezed further by price pressure and increasing marketing costs to compete against the two bigger players. This battle is an exercise in futility.

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Are These Internet Stocks Overhyped?

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Commercial real estate investment and management firm Harvest Properties is the new property manager for 715-721 Market Street, an eight story, 81,416 square-foot office building with street level retail.

The property, located on Market at 3rd Street in downtown San Francisco, is just over 84 percent leased. It was recently acquired from Ellis Partners by Digital Garage (www.garage.co.jp/en/), an internet technology firm headquartered in Japan. Harvest Properties assumes management duties effective immediately. The CAC Group managed the property under the previous ownership.

Comprised of two interconnected structures, the initial eight-story building was constructed in 1908, and the two-story adjunct was built in 1967. Within the last five years, the property received an $8.2 million total renovation, including a new granite facade on the first two floors, a lobby makeover, new building systems, and floor-by-floor repositioning.

Retail tenants include Zain's Fine Wine and Spirits and Super Duper Burgers, created by Adriano Paganini, the founder of Italian eatery chain Pasta Pomodoro. Super Duper Burgers has four locations; three in San Francisco locations and one in Mill Valley.

The propertys office tenants include Mashery, Inc. (mashery.com), Interface Engineering, Inc. (interfaceengineering.com), Responsys, Inc. (responsys.com), and W2 Group (w2groupinc.com).

About Harvest Properties

Founded in 2002, Harvest Properties is a leading full service commercial real estate investment firm specializing in acquiring, developing, managing and financing commercial property, primarily through joint-venture investments in northern California. Harvest Properties strives to generate attractive returns for its financial partners and provide creative real estate solutions and outstanding service.

Harvest Properties portfolio comprises approximately eight million square feet of office, industrial, R&D and retail properties in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please visit http://www.harvestproperties.net.

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Harvest Properties Awarded Property Management Duties for 81,000 Sq. Ft. Mixed Use Office/Retail Building in Downtown ...

LA JOLLA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

ClosingCorp, a leading provider of residential real estate closing cost data and technologies for mortgage lenders, real estate professionals and consumers, announced today a partnership with RamQuest to enable automated ordering capabilities for title and settlement services through the SmartGFE Calculator and RamQuests Closing Market. RamQuest, based in Plano, Texas, provides business solutions for title and settlement agents.

Through the relationship, customers of ClosingCorps SmartGFE Calculator and RamQuests Closing Market will be able to provide online title and settlement rate quotes to their lender clients and give them the ability to instantly place orders online.

Today, efficient residential real estate transactions require timely delivery of up-to-date closing cost information, said Bob Hart, vice president of sales for ClosingCorp. By partnering with RamQuest, we can provide SmartGFE Calculator and Closing Market customers with the most accurate closing cost data available, as well as the ability to seamlessly and immediately receive title and settlement service orders online.

The SmartGFE Calculator is a pricing and compliance tool that is posted on a title companys website and used by mortgage lenders to instantly generate title and settlement rates, as well as accurate recording fee and transfer tax costs. Closing Market simplifies order entry, facilitating communication and visibility among multiple parties throughout the closing process.

Closing Market allows our clients to operate in a purely digital environment for unmatched efficiency, said Brooks Yeager, director of Internet Services for RamQuest. Our goals perfectly align with ClosingCorps commitment to improving the residential real estate transaction process, and our services and technology in collaboration will prove invaluable to the productivity and business objectives of our collective client base.

About ClosingCorp

ClosingCorp is a leading provider of residential real estate closing cost data and technologies for mortgage lenders, real estate professionals and consumers to save them time and money on residential real estate transactions. Through its network of nearly 10,000 real estate service providers, the company maintains the most comprehensive database of up-to-date closing costs, including recording fees and transfer taxes, for all residential properties in America. This valuable data is delivered quickly and efficiently to clients via ClosingCorps innovative technologies, such as SmartGFE, SmartGFE Calculator, SmartClosing Mortgage Calculator, DART and Closing.com. To learn more visit http://www.closing.com.

About RamQuest Software, Inc.

RamQuest Software, Inc., a Texas-based corporation founded in 1991, is the premier provider of software tools for the Land Title Industry. The companys software products are currently in use for title closings in all 50 states. RamQuests state-of-the-art software provides a complete set of tools to facilitate and automate much of the work performed by title companies. For more information about RamQuest, visit http://www.ramquest.com.

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ClosingCorp Partners with RamQuest to Deliver Automated Ordering Capabilities for Title and Settlement Services