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Best country for a trader

Some key points (some general, some specific to financial traders):

- understand the difference between tax residency and domicile status.
- live somewhere with remittance based taxation and where you are NOT domiciled.
- remittance based taxation can mean that even if you wait some years, bringing that untaxed money into that country is potentially taxable even some years later. (Get advice from a good accountant)
- be aware of CFC rules (Controlled Foreign Company)
- where you do the work is usually where you will be taxed no matter the residence of your company. (as above, know how the CFC rules apply).
- trading income may not be considered capital gains if you trade regularly to generate the primary source of income.
- you will need a bank account and a brokerage account in the name of your company. (the names will need to match, Transferwise is ok for this in my experience).
- the compliance process/documentation requirements and non-trivial and its harder to get the brokerage account than the bank account
- broking compliance departments aren't very smart. Anything beyond a single company that you own outright will be hard work and no guarantee of success.
- companies based in some countries make this process harder. For major US brokerage firms, this list can even include Malta, Cyprus, UK crown depenencies. (unless its a single company structure).
- email 4-5 coporate service providers/accountancy firms then with the same set of questions, the replies will give you a feel of who you are willing to work with. Be specific about knowing ALL costs. (audit, accountancy, banking, corporate structure, etc. etc.)

Czech Republic and Malaysia have next to no CFC rules so that may be an option. Live there with a single offshore company structure.
Cyprus may well be a better solution than Malta for traders but depends on how they view the trading income. (cap gain vs income).

Malta can work but note that the corporate tax refund system (6/7ths) is based on the owership of that company being offshore but you will need local directors for companies in most countries.

None of the issues are entirely insurmountable but the general advice I see on this forum is for company setups where the customers of the company don't care where the company is legally located. If you are buying widgets, you don't care about the company ownership. For trading, the brokerage firm is your counter-party and they very much do care!

Brokerage firms have stringent KYC (Know Your Client) & AML (Anti-Money Laundering) rules and its very possible your account application will be declined unless it is completely transparent (no nominees) and even then, anything but the simplest of structures can be a challenge.

All of this assumes you want to live in the EU (or Malaysia!). I have no comment to make on other locations.

On top of all this, think about what it will be like to actually live in your chosen location.
Is language an issue? Culture? Weather? Know what is important to you! There is more to life than minimising tax.

Typically $80-100k USD p.a. is the bare minimum at which an offshore co. will make sense. Less than that and the costs will outweigh the tax saving.
If you want to take an approach of hiding or not being entirely ligit, there may be other solutions but financial work is heavily scrutinised.
Do yourself a favour, have an entirely legal structure that would stand up to an audit.

Hope it helps.
 
Isnt it true that without a job or letter we cant open bank accounts in Thailand easily anymore.Has anyone opened a bank account without an employer letter in Thailand recently.
I don't believe so unless something changed in the past few months.
bangkok bank is usually friendly to foreigner, you might get denied at certain offices that are not used to deal with foreigner, just go to an agency in an area where there is a lot of farang. you will need a residence certificate from the nearest immigration, just a formality despite what it looks like.
 
Czech Republic and Malaysia have next to no CFC rules so that may be an option. Live there with a single offshore company structure.
Malaysia are you sure ? from my research Malaysia have a tax treaty with most of everyone and defines the PE of the company based on where the management or activity is performed.
Do you have an example of a setup that would work while living full time in Malaysia ?
 
My understanding from the major accounting firms is that Malaysia has no CFC rules at all and overseas income is not taxable as long as its not remitted.
However, Nomad999 has a point, the question is whether the trading income would be considered overseas income if the work is being done IN Malaysia. Certainly in much of Europe, the location of your derrière is the determining factor in where you're earning the income! Contrary to my prior comments about CZ, it is worth checking the situation there too before going to far as well.

My suggestion would be to email a few accountants/corp advisory firms in Malaysia to ask the question. Its simple enough that if phrased correctly will get you the answer without having to sever a limb to pay for.
If the answers correlate and you like what you see then pay some money and be sure.
 
Sooooo, further to Nomad999's post, here's this from PWC. I'm not an accountant so I don't see how they can claim there aren't any CFC rules yet if the company is controlled from Malaysia then it is tax resident there. Perhaps the rules have changed.


So Nomad999 is essentially right, that you would need to establish offshore substance and even then you would need clarity on whether the income would be considered taxable in Malaysia if that's where the actual trading part takes place.
My apologies, I didn't realise that was the case as it wasn't a route we persued in the end.
You should check this for CZ as well if you are considering that.
 
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The good thing about Malaysia is there is no default CFC rules if I am not mistaken, they only have rules inside tax treaties so potentially different rules with each DTA.
So technically, if you have an offshore company in a country where there is no DTA then ... Not sure but I see some potential loopholes there.

For instance Malaysia has no DTA with the US and Panama If I am not mistaken.

in any cases Malaysia doesn't tax dividend so there is a lot of possibilities, and also no capital gains tax.
I think Malaysia is underrated overall, will try to dig deeper next year when I have time.
 
Sooooo, further to Nomad999's post, here's this from PWC. I'm not an accountant so I don't see how they can claim there aren't any CFC rules yet if the company is controlled from Malaysia then it is tax resident there. Perhaps the rules have changed.


So Nomad999 is essentially right, that you would need to establish offshore substance and even then you would need clarity on whether the income would be considered taxable in Malaysia if that's where the actual trading part takes place.
My apologies, I didn't realise that was the case as it wasn't a route we persued in the end.
You should check this for CZ as well if you are considering that.
Why move to Malaysia ? UAE is best for online traders. You can transfer or remit all your income in UAE with zero taxes on it. Plus UAE has better hours than Malaysia for forex trading particularly. For Malaysia you have to be up late at nights for US session to close. It's the location plus the zero taxes that have made online Forex traders particularly flocking to UAE from all over the world as I know many from Africa too along with other nations who have moved here for the past few years due to OECD cracking down on jurisdictions.
 
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For anyone worried about speed .. if yiur using an algo .. then a VPS can be rented for 20 to 50 USD a month or there abouts that means your algo has no latency issues.
My question is more related to which banks are accepting money from brokerages. That seems to be the limiting factor.
 
Hello!

As the title suggests, I'm searching for the best country for someone that has his income primarily from trading.
I'm trading US equities (recently I've made the change to a US broker), Forex (broker regulated in Seychelles), and very few earnings from crypto (whenever there is clear momentum).

I'm based in the EU, I have a company in the UK selling software and consulting services. I would like to have trading as my primary income in 2021, without banks closing me (recently revolut closed me for having transactions with brokers).

Which country would you suggest tax-wisely, and where your income can be safe in the banks, for US equities trading and forex? (Mostly in EU)

Cheers
Did you check about that trading US equities?
 
UAE freezone does not required partner. Do research .I think UAE is most underrated in this area.

Belgium isn’t exactly a low-tax country, even as far as Europe goes, but it’s zero capital gains rate in most cases is one of the best in Europe. The Netherlands also does not tax investment returns, but it does impose a sort of wealth tax on investments.

Capital gains tax (CGT) is charged at the rate of 20% on gains arising from the sale of immovable property in Cyprus or the sale of shares of companies which own immovable property in Cyprus. Gains from the sale of shares listed on any recognisable stock exchange are excluded.
if your main source of income Is from trading , then you have to pay income taxes in Belgium
 

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