I completely agree with you. The IRS is not stupid. The HKstory is theoretically maybe correct but what most people forget is that they don't live in HK but somewhere else. And it's the legislation at "somewhereelse" that is important. They will decide what is acceptable and what isn't. Many people have read books about offshores but only very few have real experience with it. And believe me, reality is totally different from the fairy tales in the books. My knowledge comes from reality, not from reading. I had BVI companies years ago. At this moment the only undisputable solution is to move to a low tax area and live there effectively. All the rest is risky business.
spike, obviously I would make myself a director of the BVI company or subsidiary, Im just concerned about whether I could simply have a po box or forwarding address here to receive correspondence. Basically I'd try to incorporate online. But I guess based on what youve said this is more difficult than that. I was assuming once I incorporated and was a listed director of the BVI company, that it follows that openning a corporate account via IB would be relatively simple. I had a philosophical discussion with myself today and my conclusion is that taxing trading is a huge problem and somewhat of an injustice in that, capital is the sole resource, aside from a system and market data, I have to generate more capital. So basically taxation interferes with the inherent process of a trader expanding his trading enterprise, especially when he does this as a self employed trader. Seperately, it seems all traders on subcontract if making above 50k or so should consider to incorporate offshore and pay a wage to a locally set up corp for their trading. How many people would go through this work, I dont know what If I were in such a position I definitely would engineer something. Swifttrade probably doesnt pay any taxes because they run their trades through Cyprus, via Penson or an unknown firm that escapes memory. All the branch offices are basically marketing firms / franchises with little or no assets. All that money is offshore, so when they go bust, youll miss at least 2 mths pay is my guess.
foreigners can come to the US and bring millions tax-free using trusts, they call it the trust-fund baby loophole. the only problem is lots of paperwork you still have to report everything to the IRS, they have to know how many times a day you wipe your ....nose, even when you pay nothing. suppose you marry an american you become permanent resident you still pay zero taxes because the trusts were pre-existing to your becoming an american taxpayer. you might also move to London and use the non-domiciled for tax purposes UK loophole other than that, zero/low tax jurisdictions for non-US are bahamas, andorra, montecarlo, campione d'italia, malta check malta they don't have minimum yearly stay and they give you a document you can show your country's tax authorities. with that document it's the tax man burden to prove that you spent more than 6 months in your own country (wink wink) andorra montecarlo and campione require a minimum stay of 6 months a year. you can also do the perpetual traveler thing 3 months in sweden, 3 motnhs in amsterdam, 3 months in london 3 months in south spain...
More good, legal trader tax-saving ideas: http://www.greencompany.com/EducationCenter/InTheMediaActiveTrader.shtml http://www.greencompany.com/International/index.shtml
If you're a US taxpayer, you're breaking the law simply by failing to declare ownership of 10 percent or more of any foreign company. The tax havens do tend to have very strong privacy laws, but is it really worth the risk?