The question is for legal purposes, so if trading your personal account and meeting with lawyers is legal on "vacation" don't worry there is no lie, you are telling them what they want to know. By the way how are taxes for traders there in France?
E2-treaty investor:http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1273.html#3 Have to create something like an LLC, put something like 150K$ in it, show that you can make more money than just for living and show that your investment in the company is not just speculative( the investment in the company not the object of the company ). I am in touch with a lawyer in Chicago for that,but I want to experiment living there before going further.
Bad. There are almost no independent traders in France. I have a non-professional status( BNC non-pro ) and I pay ordinary income taxes. For example, I have declared 110K EUR for 2009( trading profits - expenses ). I will have to pay something like 30K income taxes, 13K CSG-CRDS and 8 K social security, which makes 51K or 46%. These are not exact numbers, but you see what I am talking about...
yeah the E2 ,I was just about to mention that also actually. I actually know a british family who did that in Florida but apparently you have to renew it every 2 years? and it dosent lead to a green card. I think the 2nd time or 3rd time around, theirs didnt get renewed for some reason.
isnt there like a wealth tax in France? I read in time magazine that on the avg, 1 millionaire leaves france every day.
You are right on E2. I haven't studied it extensively as it's not for today.The fact that you have to renew it sucks big time( expensive ). There's a wealth tax( ISF ) in France for net worth over 800K, but Sarko created a thing that's callled "bouclier fiscal", which means that nobody must pay more than 50% of annual income in direct taxes. It will be suspended because of the deficit reduction.
a little update on this : When you come to the US on a business visa, dont ever mention you will trade. It was written on the letter of comfort my broker sent me and the custom officer didn't like it at all. I had to show him everything: a proof that I have a company in France, the W8 BEN, an email from the business visa center... He asked me questions for 20 minutes... He was laughing when I said I wasn't receiving money from US institutions, I really thought he would send me back to France.