Also if one can point me to a CPA/Law office with a good understanding of Gibraltar tax and residence matters, preferably with an office in hong kong, please let me know.
I've been told that Sweden does not distinguish between active trading and passive investing - i.e. you are taxed at the capital gains tax of 30% irrespective of the volume and frequency of trading. I will investigate whether that is true.
Have you thought of an offshore fund , then I think you just pay tax on what you remunerate. Very popular with ex British Prime ministers and comedians.( one and the same).
Henry, i've used offshore corporate accounts for over a decade and have seen banks getting much harder on them. Closed most of them and still facing major hassle with the remaining ones. Even personal offshore accounts create compliance problems. So i'm not keen on going the offshore route, although if it s the way to go in a place like Gibraltar and gib banks rather than offshore banks can arrange offshore structures to local residents, than why not? It seems in UK non dom status offered some good set ups used by UK traders, not so sure how it is now, but if offshore corporate bank accounts are needed, i'd be very reluctant . Also not sure how migration to UK is in those Brexit times. Maverick, a few years back in Sweden one could trade under a specific structure (investmentkonto ?) and end up paying each year a fixed percentage( less than 1%) of the capital invested. Really not keen on moving to Sweden now, and overseas markets might not be working for that set up, but from memory while Sweden taxes work heavily, it has good opportunities for capitalists.
Actually it seems the letter of reference doesn t need to come from the institution where the funds are held, so that should be fine. Still looking for extra information on the necessity for equity traders to go the cat 2 way, I will send an email to a law firm in Gib this week but suspect that they will advise cat 2 as they can sell attached services, so would appreciate input from Gib located traders, so I don't miss them ost convenient set up.
Unfortunately, pursuing the "investmentkonto" you are forced to use Swedish banks which does not suit an active trader (too expensive, lack of order types, etc.) and you can't short stocks. But schools and healthcare are free (or cheap if you want private schools). 30% tax in that context is not necessarily too bad. But yes the weather is awful.
For an active trader trading high volumes short term, offshore setups are of no use in the UK and similar tax jurisdictions, because the activity is taking place in the UK, where it will be taxed in contrast to passive investing where taxes can be avoided.
Income from active trading beyond a certain threshold is not "foreign-source income." Is is locally generated income.
I was just about to respond in similar vein to Henry's question (but scrolled to the end of the thread first, and found that you'd beaten me to it). I believe, however, that there hasn't yet been either a "declaration" or a "test case" on this point, and many people are/were certainly awaiting developments on this subject with some interest, because if there were a water-tight way of making this income "foreign-sourced" rather than "locally generated" (which may perhaps not be beyond the wit of accountants to devise?), it would certainly be an interesting prospect (at least to people like myself who really like Lisbon and wouldn't mind living there for a substantial part of each year ... and that's without mentioning Madeira and the Azores at all). Equally, you may have more up-to-date information on this subject than I have (in which case I'd certainly be pleased to know about it?).
In 2011 I asked and paid a law firm to answer this question: "Should income from trading US equities be perceived as: 1) capital gains obtained abroad (tax-exempt), 2) income from self-employment obtained abroad (tax-exempt) or 3) income from self-employment obtained in Portugal (not tax-exempt)?" In conclusion the answer was: "As you may read, in our opinion this type of income should qualify as business profit and as such should be subject to taxation in Portugal under the general rules. However, do note that this is not a clear cut issue and the tax authorities may perceive the situation differently, in this case, more favorably. The qualification of the income by the tax authorities will depend greatly on the information they have and notably in the proportion of this type of income in your global income."