What if you form a foreign corporation, and bank out of another country? Aren't the tax laws more lax under those conditions/ Can't you make a fairly sizable amount of money, and not be required to pay taxes on it under those conditions? I think you can make as much as $80,00.00 of untaxable gains, if I am not mistaken.
The Controlled Foreign Corporation rules come into play. I think it is now higher than $80,000 but the exemption (if that's the right word) you are speaking of applied to Americans who live and work overseas not those who angle it from here!
Spain or Portugal will let us wake up at noon, have breakfast and a swim and then trade the open. We won't even need a siesta!!
Corporate tax is actually more than 10% in HK (up to 17.5% ?) but becomes nihil for income derived outside of HK ( expect to be this claim challenged by the HK tax department though ). This includes capital gains in financial markets as well, individuals don't need to pay tax on cap gains but HK companies need to declare them as income - if they are derived from HK stock markets -I guess it also works like this for futures. No witholding tax on dividends If all one needs is a corporate bank account in HK, it's much less trouble to use an offshore company from an even more business friendly juridiction and than open a HK based bank account for that offshore company - it should avoid them quite a bit of aggravation linked to HK companies and it's easy to set up. IB in HK will open accounts to corporations based abt anywhere in the world, but the company beneficiaries still need to identify themselves and fill w8ben. One of the plus of the HK company is that HK is not considered a tax haven and has signed a bunch of tax treaties with develloped countries, in Europe those include at least Belgium, UK, France and luxembourg . One definetely needs to take legal advice but there are tax saving oppurtinities using an HK set up.
One note about HK, and especially HSBC - if not transferring money from another HSBC account, wire transfers are hit with insane intermediary bank fees - up to 72 euros and 50 gbp - things have gotten much worse over the last 18 months IME and investigating the matter has proven quite frustrating. IB is using various Citibank accounts worldwide, so it's probably better to open a citibank account if one plan to wire money in and out an IB account. A of Switzerland, I wouldn't trust the country much in matters of bank secrecy any more - but it's still a great place to visit/live in.
I highly recommend this book about offshore businesses/accounts and what all the laws are: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Witho...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323372162&sr=1-1 The coming liberal/socialism tsunami here in the States is making me look real hard at places to go at some point in time....and how to protect my assets from "guberments gone wild"!
1. all these foreign offshore companies are NOT allowed for US citzens. You'd probably be rejected opening up a simple bank account while presenting your "US PASSPORT" aka TAX EVASION indicator. 2. non-US citzens, don't need offshore companies. ========= In other words, enjoy your gold handcuffs US citzens! <i>Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light.....</i>
So the Germans and other EU citizens shift their swiss account to SG and HKG just because they love the local food?