@luisHK : And what's your idea? I live in Europe. How would you repatriate offshore money to purchase real estate(s), car(s) or stakes in local companies? Or simply, how would you repatriate offshore money for personal use? Alternatively where would you live where you can somehow repatriate your offshore money without getting caught?
I hope you realize that such 'standard' will STILL require the countries to pass laws through their congress that will make such information transfer legal. There is no such thing as 'automatic', if it violates local banking laws it will require a new law passed by the legislative. EVEN if the president has committed to a certain standard, that doesn't make it legal. Also, a lot of that is show. See: Kyoto Protocol
I live in Asia, again most/all countries in Asia which tax only locally sourced income would work but I suspect in South and Central America as well. Some tax the money you remit, some don't. I wouldn't repatriate all the money though, just what you need to live there, including for real estate cars etc... but local authorities wouldn't bother you with your offshore holdings. if you have significant assets controlling sevral companies sound smart, just use one of them to apply for your visa as locals (authorities but not only) don't need to know how much you own. Not sure about the ways of investing in Europe, especially that different countries have different rules there. But if you live in Europe you still can keep money in some of the less cooperative countries (Hittfeld repeatedly mentionned USA as one of them btw ) than invest outside Europe But investing in european stocks and maybe REITs for real estate doesn't sound too difficult, btw some offshore banks offer omnibus accounts where you can invest anonimously in European stocks AFAIK.
@luisHK Sorry but it's not clear for me. If I'd live in HK then sadly I would have to pay tax on my currency trading. Suppose that I hide my income somewhere offshore. Then how would you repatriate the funds? Furthermore how would you repatriate money from an offshore account / structure to the European country where you live (if you'd live here)?
I'm not sure why you worry so much about repatriating your future income. With so many accounts overseas, you sure have enough to tell authorities if they ask (and if it's a problem) that you are repatriating savings. But afaik HK actually doesn't tax individuals for their stock/futures/forex trades despite what's written in the tax code and you can also trade under an offshore company, the ird is keen on challenging the tax free offshore status of income from HK registered companies, but not so much of offshore companies. You can then repatriate the profits of your offshore companies tax free in HK although it's not clear why if you are wealthy you need to repatriate all your money where you live. If as you claim you are paying due taxes at the moment, after you move to Asia you can then invest in European real estate legally using your offshore profits rather than repatriate them to your new country of residence. You still have a residence permit issue though, as the investor visa in HK was discontinued a few months ago. It isn't (wasn't at least) too difficult to set up a company in HK and get a work permit as the director of the company, but than you would have to,pay some tax on this company - you definetely don't need to put all your activities under this company though, and if you have a track record outside currency trading you can skip to mention it altogether. You may want to contact a local lawyer for that matter, rather than one of the big international accounting firms. "Furthermore how would you repatriate money from an offshore account / structure to the European country where you live (if you'd live here)?" Again i do not know -for large amounts at least-, i've witnessed some family getting butchered following the loss of swiss bank secrecy so I guess it's not very easy. Pretty sad, the parents managed to leave their kids a bunch of money in swiss accounts and those couldn't exploit it better than letting it sleep there than give a bunch of it years later to their home country tax authorities. But again get used to invest internationally and teach your kids to do so as well and more oportunities will be available.
BTW regarding a link you posted above, I definetely haven't mentionned HK as one of the good locations where to park money away from western authority eyes. IMO things don't evolve for the better in HK, quality of life, business and bankingwise.
I meant the Capital Entrant scheme was discontinued a few months ago, there still might be an investor visa available, it used to not be a favoured option but it might have changed with regulations evolving
I would agree with your regarding Hong Kong. But at the some extend that is a part of China and one day everything could change. So I assume you need to keep that in mind when apply for HK.
Latest news afaik is that they are working on a split of the current arrangement in one for interest on saving accounts and another one for capital gains from real estate, stocks, etc.