Hi, What if I trade from UAE to avoid taxes... upto what extent the taxes can be avoided? I will be trading primarily NASDAQ stocks. Could you please tell me a consultant to talk to? PMs are welcome as well. thanks
Just pay your damn taxes. It's less hassles and headaches and less jail time. "tax consultants" Majority of the tax consultants and idiots, trying to make a quick buck on one or two fragmentary tax saving information that they have, and you will be the one spending time in jail.
Well, if OP is not american, he will avoid all trading taxes. As it's been mentionned before, things are more complicated for slaves of the land of the free
If you are a US citizen you must report your income no matter where you made it, unless you live abroad and qualify for an exemption (I believe the income has to be less than $86,000 and you can only set foot in the USA for no more than 10 days). That's after you've paid the local taxes. It's called double taxation and frankly, it is unfair and sucks. The US is one of the few countries that engages in this. If a brokerage you are using has business in the USA or it is domiciled in a country that has tax treaties with the US, it will most likely report your tax info to the IRS. If you go to some tax haven, you are taking chances because lately there's been a lot of crackdowns on tax havens both by the US and the EU countries that are tax revenue starved these days. Once there's an information sharing agreement, you are screwed.
What country are you in? Better contact your local tax adviser. If you trade offshore and have an offshore account you can be on the safe side. But better pay and sleep calm.
from what I understand. Offshore "funds" do not pay taxes even if they are owned by americans. so, set up a offshore "hedge fund"....do all of your trading out of the hedge fund. Now at the beginning of the year use your american entity to buy shares of your offshore Fund, at the end of the year...cash out your shares of the fund, and pay long term Capital gains on your shares of the fund. could also leave some of your money/shares off shore and never bring those back into the country....similar to what Apple does and I don't think you are liable for taxes on money earned out of the country until you bring it back into the US. Downside to that, is that you would have to plan on living out of the US in the future, and maybe even plan on renouncing the US passport to get those funds tax free.
obviously dont take my word for the above comments. I am not CPA, or tax lawyer. would like to hear what others say about this as well...but I doubt people will say anything about this, most people will keep their strategy on the down low in these times of IRS oversight.