No, Australia has capital gains tax, so although it sure is a good place to live, it is not a tax haven.
Capital gains are taxed at zero % in Belgium. But as a trader your gains are taxed as a professional income. That will be the case in most countries. Capital gains are normally gains on stocks that were kept a long time. So i think the gains that are made by most ET'ers are not capital gains but gains in trading. And trading is a professional activity. Thus taxed as income.
Thanks all Here you can have a basic overview at some countrys taxes. Countries like Australia, Spain, Danmark( 59% !!!) are the very top. If you earn little like 10.000 pa, then you pay 20% but if it goes over 100.000 then you are paying twice as much and more. It seems the governments want to keep you working your whole life. http://www.worldwide-tax.com/ The tax havens( sorry for the german ): Europa: Monaco Malta Gibraltar Andorra Luxemburg Schweiz Liechtenstein Zypern Dublin (Irland) Guernsey (Kanalinsel) Jersey (Kanalinsel) Isle of Man (Irland) Pazifik: Cook Inseln Marshall-Inseln Nauru Niue Samoa Tonga Vanatu Asien/Afrika: Bahrain Liberia Malediven Seychellen Karibik/Mittelamerika: Anguilla Antigua Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Dominica Grenada Jungferninseln (US und GB) Montserrat Niederl. Antillen Panama Cayman-Islands St. Kitts St. Lucia St. Vincent Turks Caicos New EU countries Flat Taxes( which will soon rise higher when everyone is installed there, hehe ): Romania 16% Serbia 14% Ukraine 13% Georgia 12 % Tschechia after 2007 15 % Poland after 2008 16% Croatia: Currently no trading taxes Runningbear: >If you really wanted to live on the yacht and avoid taxes, you would need to spread your time between a minimum of three countries per year, for less than 180 days each. This includes your country of citizenship. Yes, it looks like just being on water is not enough. But you only need one mobil houseboat to move to the other side of the river, where others need three renting-houses. What happends when you tell them that you were on the move last year? What proofs do they want? In EU, borders are not controlled anymore. And for those software solutions like open an IBC, receiving dividends or going offshore, i am not a pro at this and have to dig through this lot first. Two more restrictions for me: 1. I need to trade through IB. My dozen systems i builded, are running on WL who isnt anymore and now i rewrite them in Neoticker who are a "little" behind in autotrading. So when stuff is properly running again, in about 6 month i guess( lionsshare is behind me ), i dont want to switch brokers to do it all again. And i havent a clue about APIs too. 2. My account is still 5 figures and net worth isnt buying me a house in Karibik too. Thats why i looked at cheap houseboats/countries.
I see what you mean, what happens is that in portugal and as far as I know they make no such distiction. And I don't think they even know about any foreign accounts you might have, they are just not very competent and sofisticated. I'm not 100% sure but this is what every portuguese trader has been telling me. BTW, in Holland would you also pay taxes as a professional? And what if you have a small business in another area, are you still a professional ?
If we trade as a private person we pay between 50 and 60% if you have an decent income. If you trade in a company-structure you will probably cash in about 55% of your earnings, so 45% taxes. If yo want to spent what is left over you pay another 21% taxes (VAT). So in fact you get between 30 and 45% of what you earned. And if you lose money you can deduct it only under certain conditions.
Several problems: All income that comes from countries that are defined as fiscal paradises are taxed at the highest rates. Even if it concerns so-called dividends. Once they know you have income from a fiscal paradise they will try to find evidence of a fiscal construction. You have an offshore company but the trading is done by yourself. So there are traces from your trading through the internet. If they find these traces, and they will find them, you will get very high fines.
Wait a minute. In Sweden you can open a "capital insurance" account with your broker. You don't pay the regular 30% capital gains tax, but instead an annual "dividend tax" on your entire account. Down side is that you pay no matter if you have cap gains or not. Currently the "dividend tax" is 27% of the average 10 year interest. For 2003 this adds up to 1.19% (0.27 * 4.39% = 1,19%). I believe other European countries offer similar products. Is there nothing like this in the US?