From their homepage, at the bottom: "Licensed by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas to carry on the business of a Broker Dealer and Investment Advisor." Also from their "About Us" tab on the Suretrader.com site: "SureTrader is a division of Swiss America Securities, Ltd., founded in 2008. We are a Bahamas-based broker/dealer regulated by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas. SureTrader is an Online Broker that allows you to Day Trade freely with 6:1 Leverage and No Pattern Day Trading Rules for your account." Some offshore firms make it clear that they cannot open accounts from U.S. citizens, such as the homepage from NevisTrading.com: "Nevis Trading Group LLC is only open to non-US citizens." There is always a "workaround" if you really want to trade offshore. If you're a U.S. citizen, then it's probably best to go with a U.S. based registered broker-dealer that requires the Series 56 license for prop traders.
Glad I didn't open an account there....mainly because I wasn't impressed with DAS. I was emailed this today by a newsletter I get: Offshore investment funds organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands will need to register on the IRS FATCA Registration System no later than December 31, 2014 to comply with various international tax compliance obligations. Background The provisions of the Internal Revenue Code known as FATCA are designed to reduce evasion of US tax by US citizens and residents who hold offshore assets. To accomplish this objective, FATCA requires "foreign financial institutions" ("FFIs") (which term includes most offshore private investment funds) to register with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and undertake the responsibility to perform due diligence to identify their US accounts and report the income earned by them to the IRS. A foreign financial institution that does not comply is subject to 30% US withholding from any payments of most types of US-source investment income and, commencing in 2017, the gross proceeds of sales of US stock and debt instruments. Offshore funds generally cannot recover FATCA tax withheld unless a tax treaty provides, thus funds in non-treaty jurisdictions (such as Cayman and BVI) will have no ability to obtain a refund. The FATCA withholding requirements and other compliance requirements were phased in beginning in July of 2014. Registration with the US Internal Revenue Service The Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands have each entered into a "Model 1 Intergovernmental Agreement" ("IGA") with the United States which modifies the applicable FATCA compliance rules for investment funds organized in such jurisdictions. The general FATCA requirement that foreign financial institutions register with the IRS and obtain a Global Intermediary Identification Number ("GIIN") by July 1, 2014 was delayed until December 31, 2014 for the funds based in Cayman and BVI (and funds in certain other jurisdictions). Thus, under FATCA as modified by the IGAs, offshore funds based in Cayman or BVI would become subject to US 30 percent withholding on January 1, 2015 if they have not registered with the IRS and obtained a GIIN. Certain collective investment vehicles that are classified as "Non-Reporting Financial Institutions" under the terms of such IGAs are exempt from these IRS registration requirements, but the typical offshore fund generally would not be covered by such exemptions. end quote What this means is that suretrade HAS to send all of your account information to the IRS. A previous poster implied that they had to at the IRS request. This isn't good if you 1) have or had an account at suretrade and didn't notify the IRS and 2) actually made a profit from trading and didn't report capital gains. Has anyone here asked suretrade about this? Has anyone here closed their suretrade account? I am curious about how people who have accounts there interpret this.
If any US Citizen has or had an offshore bank or brokerage account (combined over $10,000) and didn't file the appropriate forms please call Plotnik and Associates ASAP. He can tell you about the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure that the IRS just started for people that were supposed to file FBARs. Contact info is: 844-647-7700 http://ovdptaxlaw.com/ Jeff