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The list of non CRS countries 2019 - 2023

I have compiled the below small list for all of you to get a quick overview of what countries don't participate in the CRS (The Common Reporting Standard) which is an information standard for the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) regarding bank accounts on global level, between the tax authorities, which the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed. It's purpose is to combat tax evasion.

Lots of information I know, but hope it helps people to understand what the list is about and how important it can be for one looking for total privacy.

here is the list in alphabetical order:
  • Armenia
  • Cambodia
  • Dominican Republic
  • Republic of Georgia
  • Guatemala
  • Kazakhstan
  • Macedonia
  • Montenegro
  • Paraguay
  • Philippines
  • Puerto Rico
  • Serbia
  • Ukraine
  • United States (Consider FATCA RULES) !!

You need to check each country as time goes since this is a ever changing world and the fact that some countries actually will be part of the CRS is a ever lasting threat.
 
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Nobody ever mentions Belarus for banking; definitely not a compliant country. Ignoring the present political situation, it's arguably more stable, safe, and developed than Ukraine, and better than Russia in some ways. Of course there's the Putin/Union factor to consider, but for some that might be a bonus (how much money and goods flows between these two countries! BY is a gateway economic zone for skirting Russian or Iranian embargoes). It's possible to open both personal and business accounts in BY, including remotely via PoA. Use case might vary, but there's some big banks there including RBI and Bank of Georgia. Idea (PL) has a presence there too, but since they sold RU and UA branches, BY might be next, so I wouldn't consider them. Belarus has some nice cities and nature, well developed IT economy, and it could be used to park some spare change out of arms reach fairly easily.

Ukraine might be worth considering using one of the foreign held banks (including RBI, as in BY), but I'm always skeptical about EDI between foreign branches. What's stopping Deutsche Bank Ukraine from phoning home to Berlin to report on your Kiev holdings? Also, when 2008 happened, hilarity ensued. Gov't offices were closed and business and banking basically froze. Maidan wasn't much better, so all we need is another Crimea to happen in Donbass, and anybody can guess what's next. haha. But I would feel reasonably safe in a foreign bank over there. Personally, I've used Citibank in Ukraine doing transactions between USA. It was smooth and easy, the fund transfers were instant. I haven't done this for over a year, so who knows what it's like now.

(Side note: if you want some laughs, look on YouTube for "ukraine duma fight" or similar. Comedy gold, every parliament should be like this. Shoes, umbrellas, and fists flying. Klitschko should have faced off more often in the centre ring, he would really have brought the fight to corruption.)
 
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Nobody ever mentions Belarus for banking; definitely not a compliant country. Ignoring the present political situation, it's arguably more stable, safe, and developed than Ukraine, and better than Russia in some ways. Of course there's the Putin/Union factor to consider, but for some that might be a bonus (how much money and goods flows between these two countries! BY is a gateway economic zone for skirting Russian or Iranian embargoes). It's possible to open both personal and business accounts in BY, including remotely via PoA. Use case might vary, but there's some big banks there including RBI and Bank of Georgia. Idea (PL) has a presence there too, but since they sold RU and UA branches, BY might be next, so I wouldn't consider them. Belarus has some nice cities and nature, well developed IT economy, and it could be used to park some spare change out of arms reach fairly easily.

Ukraine might be worth considering using one of the foreign held banks (including RBI, as in BY), but I'm always skeptical about EDI between foreign branches. What's stopping Deutsche Bank Ukraine from phoning home to Berlin to report on your Kiev holdings? Also, when 2008 happened, hilarity ensued. Gov't offices were closed and business and banking basically froze. Maidan wasn't much better, so all we need is another Crimea to happen in Donbass, and anybody can guess what's next. haha. But I would feel reasonably safe in a foreign bank over there. Personally, I've used Citibank in Ukraine doing transactions between USA. It was smooth and easy, the fund transfers were instant. I haven't done this for over a year, so who knows what it's like now.

(Side note: if you want some laughs, look on YouTube for "ukraine duma fight" or similar. Comedy gold, every parliament should be like this. Shoes, umbrellas, and fists flying. Klitschko should have faced off more often in the centre ring, he would really have brought the fight to corruption.)

I would rather open an account in Moldova rather than Ukraine or Belarus these days..
 
what kind of gov goes after somebody's kids for not paying taxes?
when you die, how the person inherit the money? how do the kids/family/friends get access to your accounts? If your children/family/friends know about the tax evasion, they are partly complicit and can be prosecuted (Depending on country). In some countries if you have untaxed money, you can report it to the government and pay the taxes from the last years without consequences (like Switzerland - but only once in a lifetime). In other countries you have to go direct to the jail!
 
when you die, how the person inherit the money? how do the kids/family/friends get access to your accounts? If your children/family/friends know about the tax evasion, they are partly complicit and can be prosecuted (Depending on country). In some countries if you have untaxed money, you can report it to the government and pay the taxes from the last years without consequences (like Switzerland - but only once in a lifetime). In other countries you have to go direct to the jail!

I see, that's a good point actually. Best way is probably some legal assets in another country I imagine.
 
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Yes, that is the most up to date OCED list, but also keep in mind that:

- If you add up all the countries in the list, there are dozens less than the 194 UN member countries, so there are more non-CRS countries out there than what is in the list

- the list of 45 countries in the last box are only developing countries that the OECD has not asked to commit to CRS (it's not a list of every non-CRS country out there)

- In fact, there are some jurisdictions that take the "wider-wider" approach to CRS reporting where they publish cumulative statistics about all the jurisdictions their bank's account holders are tax resident of. One of these lists 248 jurisdictions!
 
Guys what about Egypt. it's a NON CRS country and it's not in the AEOI list.

And Egypt do business with everybody. They do business with USA (they even receive foreign aid from them like Israel) and they do business with Russia, Iran and f*****g North Korea and they're still getting away with it because the US loves the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and the US has no interest in ruining that relationship plus there are some other factors but that's for another day.

Also Egypt receive weapons from every body like Americans, Germans, french, Russians...etc. So, Egypt is buddy buddy with every body (Except turkey on the surface) and they are still a NON CRS country and they are not black listed nor grey listed.

Egypt is literally the holy grail of banking/business opportunities. Plus it's a cash based society! Imagine the possibilities! So no digital trails and no one would be suspicious of you even if you buy a 3 million dollar property in cash.

Not only that, If you Want Reputable bank accounts ... you have it! and Egyptian banks are veeery lax.

I will give you a few names:

1- NBE (national bank of egypt)
2- HSBC
3- CIB
4- Abu Dhabi Islamic bank
5- Arab African international bank
6- banque du caire

Hell, you can even have a tax free company registered in Egypt with no import/export tariffs and lots of other benefits, see my reply here to martin for more info.

So, give it a try guys and you won't regret it. hell you might even throw away all these trash island companies
You guys keep talking about like Nevis, Seychelles, Vanuatu and all this s**t. No body respect these countries anymore, So, Look onshore guys not offshore.

just my 2 cents, and I really hope there are not stupid people who will abuse this system like the people who abused the system in Georgia and made it harder for the rest of us.

@Admin I don't know if you know this method yet. But please, if you see that this will get abused by stupid fanatics, you can remove it or share it with the people you trust only.

@Admin @Gediminas @CaptK @JustAnotherNomad @Martin Everson what do you guys think? Want to give it a try :)

cheers
 
Not only that, If you Want Reputable bank accounts ... you have it! and Egyptian banks are veeery lax.
Do you know anyone that is able to setup a company in Egypt, that would be helpful.

The banks you name here are more or less large banks, do you think they will just take a Spanish guy with a startup Egyptian firm and open an account and don't ask for any substance?
 
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Do you know anyone that is able to setup a company in Egypt, that would be helpful.

The banks you name here are more or less large banks, do you think they will just take a Spanish guy with a startup Egyptian firm and open an account and don't ask for any substance?
for the first question, yes! I know some reputable people who work at companies that work with international clients and have a vast networking and local knowledge within Egypt. for a start you can take a look at (Andersen Egypt - Maher Milad Iskander & Co.) or (Levari Law Firm | Cairo, Dubai, London).

Personal accounts are guaranteed. for corporate accounts, Yes, they will accept you. But you may have to have a local nominee director (but that's not always the case). So, it depends on what kind of business you're into!. but don't worry 99% you'll have both corporate and personal bank account!. your nationality won't matter, but I can say that you have an advantage not a disadvantage being European when dealing with Egyptian banks.

Please come here and update as if you go through with this setup!

cheers
 
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@Admin @Gediminas @CaptK @JustAnotherNomad @Martin Everson what do you guys think? Want to give it a try :)

Funny you should mention Egypt. I had been keeping that location on the down low for a while and planned on doing a thread on it early next year when contracts had been signed but covid struck. I was looking at Hurghada on the red sea back in Dec 2019. Had found a developer willing to sell me 50 new build studio apartments across 8 developments for just over 5000 euro each (plus finishing costs). I had a business idea in mind that has been shot to pieces now.

I started down that path as Egypt was projected to be worlds 7th biggest economy by 2030 believe it or not. Lot of amazing stuff going on in Egypt like they are building a new capital city etc.

CRS isn't a major point as they will join eventually. But for me Egypt has fair taxation, some interesting business possibilities and a low cost of living (for a foreigner).

@MiddleEuroAsia Maybe branch the Egypt discussion of into a new thread please.
 
Funny you should mention Egypt. I had been keeping that location on the down low for a while and planned on doing a thread on it early next year when contracts had been signed but covid struck. I was looking at Hurghada on the red sea back in Dec 2019. Had found a developer willing to sell me 50 new build studio apartments across 8 developments for just over 5000 euro each (plus finishing costs). I had a business idea in mind that has been shot to pieces now.

I started down that path as Egypt was projected to be worlds 7th biggest economy by 2030 believe it or not. Lot of amazing stuff going on in Egypt like they are building a new capital city etc.

CRS isn't a major point as they will join eventually. But for me Egypt has fair taxation, some interesting business possibilities and a low cost of living (for a foreigner).

@MiddleEuroAsia Maybe branch the Egypt discussion of into a new thread please.
@Martin Everson

We would be interested to know more about the development and block purchases breakdown when you are ready.
 
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Funny you should mention Egypt. I had been keeping that location on the down low for a while and planned on doing a thread on it early next year when contracts had been signed but covid struck.
@Martin Everson Yeah mate. it's beautiful there and banking/company formation is easy and Egyptians in general are warm and welcoming - at least that's how I felt when I went there to get some things done.

the thing is, It was so weird not seeing a single thread that talks about Egypt in this forum. I saw people talking about some banana republics, far away islands and frontier markets like Cambodia but not a single thread about Egypt. I thought that maybe some folks knew about it but don't want to share their experiences for whatever reason, but if I had to guess, I would say their reason might be that the Egyptian structure/system works extremely well and they don't want to ruin this system, Idk just a guess. or maybe Egypt is a hidden gem the way Georgia and Uruguay were hidden gems for a long time and nobody knows about it...yet.
I was looking at Hurghada on the red sea back in Dec 2019. Had found a developer willing to sell me 50 new build studio apartments across 8 developments for just over 5000 euro each (plus finishing costs). I had a business idea in mind that has been shot to pieces now.
Dude I know houses/apartments in Egypt are cheap but they are not this cheap- specially when you're talking about apartments that are located in coastal cities like Hurghada or Sharm El-Sheikh. The apartments in these locations are expensive, and yes there are some extremely good deals but not in the numbers you're talking about.

Also you should be extremely wary and careful when dealing with developers. First, you must go yourself to inspect the apartment and its area and see the entire property, meaning that it is better to buy an apartment that already exists and not under construction or just a random sketch/drawing on paper, after that it is also important to see the real estate licenses and review the number of licensed floors in order to avoid the property being exposed to the occurrence of removal problems or any other problems.

also you must ensure that the ownership documents are complete, as some developers when they sell their apartments, they do not complete the Title/registration completely, which leads to the occurrence of some legal problems for the buyers and the buyers may even fall into fraudulent operations for lack of experience and knowledge of the required documents or the lack of some important provisions in the contracts that were signed. Your future self will thank you.


You should also ask in the neighborhood to which the property belongs to about the services provided by the area and you should make sure that there are no problems with basic facilities within the neighborhood, including water, natural gas, and a land phone (for future internet). But all of that can be solved by having a local lawyer that will help you figure all of this out.

But 5000 Euro for an apartment in Hurghada is something that you should nope tf out of even If you were going to buy a 100 blocks not 50. Take look at apartments that are sold in this website and you'll see for yourself that the prices that that developer told you about are extremely un realistic/sketchy. So make sure you know what you're getting into. But based in your responses in other threads and seeing you discussing various topics. i know that you are already know what you're doing, so maybe update us if you gone through with this purchase! thu&¤#

I started down that path as Egypt was projected to be worlds 7th biggest economy by 2030 believe it or not. Lot of amazing stuff going on in Egypt like they are building a new capital city etc.
Yeah the new capital is really exciting because various ministries, the Egyptian Parliament, the Central Bank and the Administrative Control as well as a diplomatic neighborhood that includes embassies of foreign countries and most major banks will move there soon. So, lot's of investment opportunities there.

CRS isn't a major point as they will join eventually. But for me Egypt has fair taxation, some interesting business possibilities and a low cost of living (for a foreigner).
Heh, maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell, but you have to consider that Egypt has lots of cards that they can bring to the table when playing with USA.
Egypt is an ally to USA and also an ally to Israel and Egypt have a peace treaty with Israel and Israel has massive lobbyists in the US, so...
Also Egypt is buddy buddy with Saudi arabia and UAE and USA consider these countries as their Allie$$. So I'm pretty confident that the US won't bother Egypt anytime soon. And for EU, besides the arm deals between Egypt, Germany (the backbone for EU) and France and the gas deal between Egypt and Italy. Egypt still have the immigration card (kinda of shitty tho but all politics are shitty anyway). but as I said, only time will tell.
@MiddleEuroAsia Maybe branch the Egypt discussion of into a new thread please.
YES, i would love to, tell me what to right about. Do you want me to write about my experience doing business there or general info about investment/banking in Egypt or just all the above in a one long thread. thu&¤#

or @Admin can move this section from this thread to another thread (if this is possible) and maybe we will continue from there

cheers
 
YES, i would love to, tell me what to right about. Do you want me to write about my experience doing business there or general info about investment/banking in Egypt or just all the above in a one long thread. thu&¤#

Do write about your experience there and @ me in to the thread so I don't miss it thu&¤#.

Yes I do a LOT of research before investing anywhere. But I am no stranger to investing in Africa and in places most people would not set foot I have actually worked and lived there ;).
 
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Interesting thread.

Once you are ready please open a new thread about Egypt @MiddleEuroAsia it looks like we all can learn something from you and Mr. Everson ;)
 

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