Glad to read that, seriously. I'm talking about small sums as well but from 2 French banks, over the years it is not the first time I witness silly restrictions from that country. It was B2b though, not someone sending money to himself, but I wouldn't be surprised if financial freedom was better in the UK than France across the board.
An extra note about UAE, which might be useful to those who plan to invest there while living elsewhere, while I found things working quite well while there, over the years I've encountered quite some hassle dealing with UAE institutions from overseas. Also, Abu Dhabi banks were supposed to be more Laissez Faire than Dubai's when it comes to compliance, any idea if that's still the case ?
No direct experience of any UAE bank's other than First Abu Dhabi (to be honest it's the only one I'd consider touching in the entire region) and have not had a problem with them. The customer service is pretty hit and miss but they (eventually) seem to get the job done. With regards to compliance, FAD seem fairly pragmatic. Obviously for non-nationals they require a lot of paperwork initially but I've not experienced major issues shifting money.
Well , I just talked to a friend who is the manager/owner of the company which tried to wire a small sum to UAE, one of his banks didn't just deny the wire transfer but also kicked him out for having asked for it !?! It is not benign to be on the blacklist although some countries/banks might be less strict about it (it might be easier for their multinational corporate clients for instance)
How is living in Madrid, Spain useful at all for minimizing taxes on trading profit? Spain's taxman is almost as bad as France's and the Beckham Law doesn't cover cap gains.
On a side note I met with a couple of tax lawyers from an international firm yesterday in Madrid. That wasn't the topic of the conversation as I don't intend to trade actively there, but rather to live off passive income but I asked upon leaving whether if I started again trading actively I would be taxed on cap gains or on income tax and the lawyer who answered reckoned it would be cap gains, basically no matter the trading volume and the income besides trading. But imo that is exactly the kind of legal advice to be taken with a pinch of salt. I didn't dwelve on it though as trading actively seems unlikely in the near future