I agree, US citizens need to do their homework because the IRS seems to be one of the worst revenues services in terms of intrusion. but I'm sure there are a ton of people here on the forum that never look for this kind of thing simply because they are scared by the IRS propaganda. meanwhile westley snipes did atrocious things and got 3 years, if soros lost a case I doubt he would stay a single day in jail. criminal prosecutions are long and hard to be won by the IRS, they go after the rich and famous just to spread more fear
yes but u are executing ur trades from SPAIN. so even if you never remit the money into SPAIN or your trading vehicle/broker whatever is outside Spain, as long as you are physically executing from home, the tax authorities will consider that as spanish-source income, that is if they ever find out.....
legally u will have to pay something to someone. u can try and OPEN a foreign account with a US broker and NOT disclose your US status, that is however illegal, and if somehow they audit ur broker, they are gonna want u to pay up. furthermore, legally, you ahve to pay taxes to whatever jurisdiction you are trading from EVEN if your trading vehicle is a foreign entity. you will however be able to claim a tax refund pending whatever the dual-taxation treaty is of your two nationalities.
Thank you for your contribution. I agree with what you wrote. I think the key would be to take advantage of my wife's status as a European resident who is not American and therefore free of the IRS. As for her having to pay taxes in the US.. I think if she is employee of a company in BVI or any other country, she wouldn't have to pay French taxes on the trading income. Let's say she's writing software.. she wouldn't pay taxes on all the sales of the software. She would have to pay French income tax on the salary she would have. As an "international couple" it would make sense for us to form a company some place other than europe or the US for "neutrality" reasons. With this idea the money would compound tax free and the taxes would be paid when taken as salary. It's like an IRA in this regard. I'm not a math whiz but I think the compounding with an extra 35% would yield more long term than compounding without the 35%. I hope that I have accurately summed up the situation, based on all the feedback I've read. PS: With my scenario I will have to be extremely extra nice to my wife.
This isn't the first time I've heard this and I'm starting to think it could be better in Asia, notably Singapore.