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Best Residency for Wise outside of the EU

Update on this:
I just provided them with my Thai address (without any utility bills), and it was verified immediately. However, two days later, they requested additional documents, like tax returns (proof of income), and that was it.

They only requested these documents for a personal account, not corporate.
 
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Isnt it best to just keep the Wise account in the old EU/UK address? Not so difficult to keep a bank statement or bill in that address and have mail forwarding. Or if you own property (or can use friends/family address) then it's even easier. Anyway, Wise basically never asks to prove the address again if you opened the account in a high tax country.
 
Isnt it best to just keep the Wise account in the old EU/UK address? Not so difficult to keep a bank statement or bill in that address and have mail forwarding. Or if you own property (or can use friends/family address) then it's even easier. Anyway, Wise basically never asks to prove the address again if you opened the account in a high tax country.
I believe wise will report you to your home country if you keep the old address there.
 
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I believe wise will report you to your home country if you keep the old address there.
I think that's what many people do. If you open a bank account elsewhere, there are also good chances that the bank will ask for the tax id of your citizenship country and report there too.

Because of that, many do not really worry about these CRS reports being sent. Trust me, countries are discarding a lot of those reports on emigrants each year.
 
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I believe wise will report you to your home country if you keep the old address there.
Ok, so say you are a Belgian citizen and opened a UK Wise account while you were a resident in the UK.

You keep the Wise account in your old UK address, but you have lived in Thailand/UAE/Philippines/Congo/Mexico the last decade.

So the UK authorities could of course get data from Wise, if they wanted. And maybe Wise even does reporting to your passport country Belgium. But if Belgium receives such a report, they'll just go, this guy doesn't live here, not our problem, discard.
 
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Ok, so say you are a Belgian citizen and opened a UK Wise account while you were a resident in the UK.

You keep the Wise account in your old UK address, but you have lived in Thailand/UAE/Philippines/Congo/Mexico the last decade.

So the UK authorities could of course get data from Wise, if they wanted. And maybe Wise even does reporting to your passport country Belgium. But if Belgium receives such a report, they'll just go, this guy doesn't live here, not our problem, discard.
It just adds layers of hassle. The tax authority can contact you, request an explanation for the transactions, and require you to prove that you are not liable for taxes.

Why would you need it if you can avoid it?

Those EMIs do report you to the tax authorities, which is why they ask for your tax number.
 
Ok, so say you are a Belgian citizen and opened a UK Wise account while you were a resident in the UK.

You keep the Wise account in your old UK address, but you have lived in Thailand/UAE/Philippines/Congo/Mexico the last decade.

So the UK authorities could of course get data from Wise, if they wanted. And maybe Wise even does reporting to your passport country Belgium. But if Belgium receives such a report, they'll just go, this guy doesn't live here, not our problem, discard.
In case it is UK, we recently had a discussion with @Martin Everson. You may want to make sure HMRC has a foreign address of you on file where you can receive mail. They may send things as I've learned from Martin.
 
It just adds layers of hassle. The tax authority can contact you, request an explanation for the transactions, and require you to prove that you are not liable for taxes.

Which tax authority?

The UK one in the example above? Yes, you should have a mail forwarding service set up from the UK address you are using, but you are clearly not a UK tax resident in the example given, so I think it is quite unusual that UK tax authorities would contact you.
Would need to see the details of the Martin Everson case.

The Belgian one? They'll just discard it.

Why would you need it if you can avoid it?
Because you get great EMI/bank accounts while living in countries where you cant have good EMI/Bank accounts using a local address. I have been doing this for over a decade with accounts in multiple countries, while having West Africa as main home base. Has been zero hassle, zero enquiries from tax authorities.
And good luck trying to open a bank account with an address in West Africa! Basically all western expats/foreigners here keep bank accounts in western countries, and often using the old address.

Those EMIs do report you to the tax authorities, which is why they ask for your tax number.
Yeah, but they only report to places where you are not a resident, so it gets discarded.

And ideally where you actually reside, there is no such thing as a tax number.
 
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Which tax authority?

The UK one in the example above? Yes, you should have a mail forwarding service set up from the UK address you are using, but you are clearly not a UK tax resident in the example given, so I think it is quite unusual that UK tax authorities would contact you.
Would need to see the details of the Martin Everson case.

The Belgian one? They'll just discard it.


Because you get great EMI/bank accounts while living in countries where you cant have good EMI/Bank accounts using a local address. I have been doing this for over a decade with accounts in multiple countries, while having West Africa as main home base. Has been zero hassle, zero enquiries from tax authorities.
And good luck trying to open a bank account with an address in West Africa! Basically all western expats/foreigners here keep bank accounts in western countries, and often using the old address.


Yeah, but they only report to places where you are not a resident, so it gets discarded.

And ideally where you actually reside, there is no such thing as a tax number.

Additionally some traditional banks or niche banks allow you to keep your account even if you move to an odd country / tax haven country. So here you can use your actual address. Say it is in the UAE, so the UAE will get info of your western bank account, and not do anything with it. Or say you (like me) live in a more disorganised country in West Africa or somewhere, then reporting isnt set up, so they will not receive anything.
 
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Ya my Wise account was completely crippled when I had a residency in the UAE. Royalty owns banks and communication and are important pressure points for controlling a people.
Is it only for personal account?
What if a UAE resident opens a corporate Wise account for a US LLC (or any company in a allowed country)?
 
Is it only for personal account?
What if a UAE resident opens a corporate Wise account for a US LLC (or any company in a allowed country)?
I think Wise will care about where the owner of the US LLC is a resident, and not allow countries where Wise does not operate.
On the other hand, if you already have a personal Wise bank account, you can open an account for your US LLC with practically one click.
 
Wise has a banking license in Belgium. They report.
Wise report to the country of tax residency + to all countries where any kind of the ties is found by them. Their system detects ties by:
IP address used for log in is used more than onece in a longer time period.
Phone number
 
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Wise has a banking license in Belgium. They report.
Wise report to the country of tax residency + to all countries where any kind of the ties is found by them. Their system detects ties by:
IP address used for log in is used more than onece in a longer time period.
Phone number
good to know. Im gonna lowkey troll them like that ;)
 
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