as another example, the use of a shell company in a tax haven makes it possible to move profits to that shell company, in a strategy called tax evasion. suppose a united states company wants to buy products from overseas. if it brings the products directly to the united states, it will have to pay us tax on the profits. to avoid this, it may buy the products through a non-resident shell company based in a tax haven, where it is described as an offshore company. the shell company would purchase the products in its name, mark up the products and sell them on to the us company, thereby transferring the profit to the tax haven. (the products may never actually physically pass through that tax haven, and be shipped directly to the us company.) as the shell company is not based in the united states, its profit is not subject to us income tax, and as it is an offshore company in the tax haven jurisdiction, it is not taxed there either. under the tax haven law, the profits are deemed not to have been made in the jurisdiction, with the sale deemed to have taken place in the united states. as us personal income tax is significantly less important than corporate income tax, us company executives would claim a salary (or fees, consulting fees, etc.) from the company's profits.