I was about to open an account with them and on their site they now have this. "Please note that we do not accept US or Canada addresses. Setup Offshore Corporation." Then they give this link http://www.allianceinvestment.net/offshorecenter.htm You basically start an offshore corporation for $850, fund your account, and then after 100 trades, Alliance will reimburse you the $850. I know a couple people said that they used them, did everyone have to go through this?
I just talked to support on their website and now you don't have to do it any more. They said it's optional now but you can do it for tax reasons. What tax reasons would this be? Anyway this was the conversation: Support: Hello. How may I be of assistance? you: Can you give me a little more information about starting an oofshore corporation to start an account? Support: Are you a US resident? you: The site that the corporation is through doesn't have much information you: yes Support: We add attorneys look into other options Support: and we found that it is perfectly legal for us to take US persons Support: We have not had a problem such far but in the attempt to make sure we would never have a issue later. The offshore option was conjured Support: after searching all our options and hiring a legal team to make sure it definately no reason Support: we cannot accept US clients.. Support: I can safely say ..now we can accept US clients directly Support: If you still wish to set up a Offshore company for personal tax reasons in your country Support: you may do so Support: but you are no longer required to do so to establish an account with us