Newbie that needs help

[Joeydiaz]

Hello everyone,

I am a newbie to this, so please forgive any stupid questions.

I am a resident of Denmark and have officially been so always, (as it is extremely hard to not be, when you own an apartment here) although I have lived abroad on and off for many years.

I have an online business where I get paid for digital and online services. A couple years ago I opened a bank account in Singapore (pretty sure it is a personal account) and have been receiving money there. In 2018 I also opened a bank account in germany (n26) as this seemed the easiest option to receive money from an online merchant (who wouldn't send to paypal or Singapore).

So the 3 places I have primarily received money has been Singapore, Paypal and in the last year my German bank account too.

Of course I was informed about the CRS through my Singapore account, and I must admit I have been quite nervous about it as they say that it can go all the way back to 1 January 2017. Needless to say I have not paid taxes on any payments received for my online business.

Today I got an automatic official letter from the Danish IRS letting me know that they are aware of my German account (which I expected anyways) and that I should double check my earnings for 2017 and make sure I have reported them. Since i didn't have any earnings in that account 2017 this is a non-issue.


Here is my question:

I have until 1 July 2019 to report earnings for 2018.

I did earn under 5000 Euro in the german account in 2018, which I am guessing I should declare since they will get the info quite easily.

My question is, what would you do in my situation? Would you declare the income from Singapore or not? I am hesitating as I am considering what option is best, to take the chance that because I am relatively speaking a "small fish" they won't bother with me even if they get the CRS info from Singapore, or to report it?

In Singapore I have made maybe under 15-20.000 USD since 2017 until now. Does anyone know about CRS regarding this question or have any ideas?

Thank you so much for your help, I appreciate it very much.

 

[JohnLocke]

Welcome aboard

I did earn under 5000 Euro in the german account in 2018, which I am guessing I should declare since they will get the info quite easily.

totally right, it is not worth to try to avoid taxes from such small amount.

 

[Joeydiaz]

Welcome aboard


totally right, it is not worth to try to avoid taxes from such small amount.

Thank you for the warm welcome Admin. And for the reply!

Yes, that is my thought to declare the germany bank account income.

Do you or any others on the forum have any sense of how strict governments typically are with the new CRS countries, such as Singapore. I am hoping a bit that they won't have the ressources to deal with small fish like me, and will go after bigger accounts. Although I don't know really...

 

[Martin Everson]

My question is, what would you do in my situation? Would you declare the income from Singapore or not? I am hesitating as I am considering what option is best, to take the chance that because I am relatively speaking a "small fish" they won't bother with me even if they get the CRS info from Singapore, or to report it?

100% declare everything. You are not just small fish but easy fish for the taxman. The amounts you are talking about is simply not worth avoiding.