redratsal 

You need to consider the local cost of living, your expending style and your buying power expressed locally. You can play with this cost of living index Cost of Living Index By Country, base is New York 100. You live in Australia and your purchasing power is similar to NY, in this case 1 million is not enough, in Thailand, just as an example, with the same value you'd live like a king.

Yup a good house in Australia is easily over a million.

Come to think of it, if you average $20k per month from trading, you would need 4-5 years to save a million. And that is provided you do not use the profit to pay for your expenses. Its a long time.

Grand Cayman...Privacy of banking laws, no personal income taxes. And no reciprical tax agreement with any foreign government...same with Bahamas.


As far as having to declare income as a US citizen...that I am not sure...however, if you create a corporation in the juresdiction where you reside, as in the case of the Bahamas, it is the corporation that is responsible for the taxes on investment income and as an employee, you only have to declare what you receive in salary from said corporation. Of course, there was no corporate taxes for personal service corporations either...at least, last time I checked which I admit, is a few years ago.

Internet connections are good...seen satallite feeds from there.

Worked for a company that used the Bahamas where wealthy Canadians could put money that was earned offshore and as such, didnt have a home. There is a large amouint of offshore money that lands where ever the bamking laws are most favourable.

Grand Cayman has many banks, many of the same rules as the Bahamas that the present Obama administration hopes to change. Banks in the hundreds. and a population of only 50000 or so. Have an aquaintance that moved there for that reason. Made multiple millions in the late nineties when a company he had an interest in sold for 50 odd million. He took portion, and moved to Grand Cayman so that he could live income tax free. He is no longer a Canadian resident, but he viisits his family here. And the weather, great.

Governments in both places pretty stable.

DavidHP 

I too am considering this area. My plan is to purchase a sailboat (Catamaran) and actually live on the boat for a bit while deciding on a permanent island based home (hopefully with a dock yet high enough to avoid a hurricane tidal surge. There are back issues of Caribbean Travel floating around the net and I would recommend them as a source. Belize may also be an option since the supplies don't need to be imported to an island paradise. Here is a link to a pdf about the area: https://www.belizefirst.com/documents/EASYBELIZEeBook.pdf Taxes seem to be the big issue unless you become a citizen of the country but one solution may be to form a corporation or LLC and funnel some of your income into the company. You could control the income in a trading LLC so that the profit would be 'reasonable' but mostly eaten up by expenses of the company. If setup correctly, you can 'write-off' expenses of the company. i.e. travel to and from the business and/or living expenses for travel to a company branch location. (perhaps on the island of your residence). As the CEO of the company your expenses to travel to 'training' locations (Caribbean Island) or other locations to 'research' investment opportunities would be deductible. At your age, I would setup a trading account to trade in a Roth IRA. The profit from trading would grow tax free. Your day to day living expenses could be mostly covered by the 'expenses' paid by your company for them having you in a satellite location as a trading specialist. Your income (and taxes) could be controlled by how well you trade your company account. (when the income is too much for the expenses, then your trading could go through a drawdown period) FWIW

Yes...the LLC. Cost is around 2500 to have the legals setup and corporate documents drawn up in the Bahamas. Added bonus of no corporate or personal income taxes. One does not have to reduce the income of the corporation so as to pay less in corporate tax...there isnt any.

Presto 

Isn't there a "exit tax"? I looked in to this, from what I can recall you have to pay an exit tax on all of your lifetime income to denounce ones citizenship?

There is no "exit tax" for us traders. We pay our tax every year. Thanks to the HEROES Act, they mark to market all your gain/loss if you denounce your citizenship. Previously was that you will pay tax for the next 10 years.

I am sure the person who lobbied this change must be a trader or fund manager.

I am consider getting the St Kitts and Nevis citizenship. The island is beautiful. The only problem I have now is getting the damn 1/2 millions to buy it.

DavidHP 

I too am considering this area. My plan is to purchase a sailboat (Catamaran) and actually live on the boat for a bit while deciding on a permanent island based home (hopefully with a dock yet high enough to avoid a hurricane tidal surge. There are back issues of Caribbean Travel floating around the net and I would recommend them as a source. Belize may also be an option since the supplies don't need to be imported to an island paradise. Here is a link to a pdf about the area: https://www.belizefirst.com/documents/EASYBELIZEeBook.pdf Taxes seem to be the big issue unless you become a citizen of the country but one solution may be to form a corporation or LLC and funnel some of your income into the company. You could control the income in a trading LLC so that the profit would be 'reasonable' but mostly eaten up by expenses of the company. If setup correctly, you can 'write-off' expenses of the company. i.e. travel to and from the business and/or living expenses for travel to a company branch location. (perhaps on the island of your residence). As the CEO of the company your expenses to travel to 'training' locations (Caribbean Island) or other locations to 'research' investment opportunities would be deductible. At your age, I would setup a trading account to trade in a Roth IRA. The profit from trading would grow tax free. Your day to day living expenses could be mostly covered by the 'expenses' paid by your company for them having you in a satellite location as a trading specialist. Your income (and taxes) could be controlled by how well you trade your company account. (when the income is too much for the expenses, then your trading could go through a drawdown period) FWIW

This is full of crap. I can tell you that it doesn't work that work. As a US citizen, you are required by laws to report them. The only way to escape it is to give up control and own less than 10% of of the entity.

cw30000 

This is full of crap. I can tell you that it doesn't work that work. As a US citizen, you are required by laws to report them. The only way to escape it is to give up control and own less than 10% of of the entity.

Dont know about US law. Only Canada. But the Bahamas does not have a reciprocal tax agreement with Canada. Same is true with Grand Cayman. However, Canadians are required to report all the income they receive. If the income remains in and is taxed in a foreign corporation, how can the IRS require that foreign corporation to submit to US tax law?

VinceVirgil 

Dont know about US law. Only Canada. But the Bahamas does not have a reciprocal tax agreement with Canada. Same is true with Grand Cayman. However, Canadians are required to report all the income they receive. If the income remains in and is taxed in a foreign corporation, how can the IRS require that foreign corporation to submit to US tax law?

Canadians don't have the same laws.

Only Americans are subjected to taxes while outside the USA. Maybe a few other countries, but we are one of the most reaching countries.

He is right in the sense that you are supposed to report an interest in the company. Now, that doesn't mean they can tax you on that value since you can only be taxed for distributions. However, I am sure they would try to prove that what you are doing is nothing more than avoiding USA taxes and if they decide that then it is your burden to prove otherwise.

I would think that unless you had assets in the USA, then it would do very little damage to you to 'owe' against a judgement until they decided to jail you which they did my Uncle. Something like 45 days! Fed Pen isn't so bad though.

bluemele 

but we are one of the most reaching countries.

America is also the most enabling country in the world!

There isn't another country, not Britain, not Canada, not France, not Singapore, not Hong Kong/China, not Taiwan, not ANY of the Caribbean countries, not any of the South American (desperate) countries, not Panama, not Costa Rica, not Belize, not Malta, not Africa and its dozens of countries

will allow you the unqualified opportunities like you have here in the US, and we wonder why they keep beating a path to our shores?

opportunities:
a) immigrate with a chance at qualified citizenship
b) work, without restrictions, from as simple as driving a taxi (in a city you don't even know yet) all the way up to running a corporation.....
c) property ownership, of both one's land, one's farm, one's residence, one's company, etc
d) (most importantly) access to education
d1) for your children, that are allowed to be born as citizens
d2) for your children, that come with you
d3) for your grownup members of your household, including self
d4) for your other family members
d5) for graduate and post graduate level degrees

e) unrestricted travel within the 50 states and territories
e1) I remember one manager taking his winning corporate team to Puerto Rico for a vacation, where none of all those foreign born employees would leave the US borders and have entrance problems
e2) the ability to purchase an airline, bus, train, taxi, or otherwise drive all across this amazing country and discover what other states, counties, neighborhoods and towns have to offer
e3) the freedom to go apple picking in the fall in another state
e4) the freedom to go fishing and riding amusement park rides in Florida during the summer
e5) the freedom to go skiiing in the north eastern states or mountain western states
e6) the freedom to......


someone stop me from waiving Ole Glory!

kronie 

America is also the most enabling country in the world! There isn't another country, not Britain, not Canada, not France, not Singapore, not Hong Kong/China, not Taiwan, not ANY of the Caribbean countries, not any of the South American (desperate) countries, not Panama, not Costa Rica, not Belize, not Malta, not Africa and its dozens of countries will allow you the unqualified opportunities like you have here in the US, and we wonder why they keep beating a path to our shores? opportunities: a) immigrate with a chance at qualified citizenship

Most, if not all countries you listed above has this privilege. The only problem is getting the PR.

kronie 

b) work, without restrictions, from as simple as driving a taxi (in a city you don't even know yet) all the way up to running a corporation.....

This is not trule, there are a lot of obstacle from the government (local, state and federal levels) that preventing you to start and grow a business. For example, try to apply a food vendor license in NYC.

kronie 

c) property ownership, of both one's land, one's farm, one's residence, one's company, etc

Yes, you are allow to rent it. You don't own the property if you have to get permission to modification to your property. For example, cut down a tree or move it to another area within your property.

Employers are facing tons of regulations. All passed without being read by our congress and representatives. No one know what is in it. They are all thousand of pages, and worst, they are open to interpret by the bureaucrats who does not think or know how to think.

kronie 

d) (most importantly) access to education

Quality education is what we need. Not more education.

How much is education worth in our public school? As a product of NYC public school, I said it is not much. Teachers don't care about you. I went through the system from elementary through college, all in NY, and I can count all the caring teachers I have had in 1 hand.

kronie 

d1) for your children, that are allowed to be born as citizens

This is a problem. We should only allow born citizenship if one or both parents are citizenship.

kronie 

d2) for your children, that come with you d3) for your grownup members of your household, including self d4) for your other family members d5) for graduate and post graduate level degrees

See reply from education.

kronie 

e) unrestricted travel within the 50 states and territories e1) I remember one manager taking his winning corporate team to Puerto Rico for a vacation, where none of all those foreign born employees would leave the US borders and have entrance problems e2) the ability to purchase an airline, bus, train, taxi, or otherwise drive all across this amazing country and discover what other states, counties, neighborhoods and towns have to offer e3) the freedom to go apple picking in the fall in another state e4) the freedom to go fishing and riding amusement park rides in Florida during the summer e5) the freedom to go skiiing in the north eastern states or mountain western states e6) the freedom to...... someone stop me from waiving Ole Glory!

This apply to any country. China has no restriction if you travel from providence to providence. Canada is the same. I am sure other countries are the same as well.


The biggest issue we have with the US government is privacy. This government is intrusive. The government want to know everything about you. Now, the executive branch even executed US citizenship without a trail. They just ignored the law. This is now a lawless country if you haven't aware of it.

They also central plan everything. Not just the economy. They want to do central plan for all of us. They said they know us better we know ourselves and what is best for us. What we can eat, drink, dress and think. This country is founded on freedom and liberty, which we no longer have.

And these are the reason why I want to leave. It is not about tax. I am happy to pay the tax.

CW,

let me know where you settle, perhaps I will look into it too, however, I might visit there, if its on a cruise stop,

after I make these profits, and pay the stated percentage profits as taxes (for the opportunity to have earned those profits),

perhaps I'll rent a beach chair there, when the cruise ship stops there, for a day, after I get up from breakfast in my butler waited suite, and I'll wave good bye from the promenade deck as we sail into the sunset...

without offending you, it would have been easier to have understood your response if your grammar and sentence structure and context were in tandem and proper context. I'm not insulting you, its just when you speak of a plurality (Bureaucrats) and then refer to them in the singular, its hard to keep focus on the thought instead of the grammar.

When I worked at Oracle as a middle level technology manager specializing in advanced database applications, implementations and consultancy, and had over 15 direct reports, all of foreign origin with H1B visas, and worked for an India-Indian emigrant boss, who had over 80 people reporting to him, we had the distinct problem of where to choose our corporate retreat, just to reward all of them. We choose San Juan, PR, USA because non of them would have to leave the country and not be able to get back in. Most of these had their PhD's that they received while in residence in the USA, taking jobs away from US residents and students of native origin. So, my facts come from my experiences, not from conjecture. Where do your facts come from and your conclusions, what are they based upon?, actual knowledge of these H1B Visa requirements or just conjecture.

I was informed by an accountant that a number of the Indian based emigrants from who knows where (Banglideshi, India, Pakastani, etc.) were allowed in with stipulations and direct monetary support if they took over any of the thousands of available motels throughout the country, and used these as both residence, work and businesses. He said, if an American wanted to own, manage or rent one of those hotels / motels / franchises, they would have to purchase it on their own right. He lamented how these persons were advantaged through some State Department hidden-hands policy arrangement and US based citizens were highly disadvantaged as a result of that. Now admittedly, that is forth hand, as what he told me was third hand, but I kinda believe he knew what he was talking about, as he produced their tax returns by the dozens.

You're right, most countries, with the proper tourist Visa(s) will allow almost unrestricted travel within their borders without prior notice to the authorities, but I wouldn't try that in China, even still, just look over your shoulder and notice the face of that persons that was on the train, airport and hotel where you were at. Its called internal security forces doing their job.

If you want to know which country does the most monitoring of their citizens, visitors and undocumented aliens, then look across the pond, as the expression goes. If there's a problem with the freedoms that America provides with the understanding that freedom isn't free and requires, from time to time, sacrifice and adjustments, then perhaps on country on this planet will meet those unrealistic ideals that are often couched in arguments such as what your response proffered. A

Again, I am not insulting you, but speaking from facts instead of conjecture, supposition or otherwise always shows up when it comes to details.

Hey,let's focus upon our next trade, and share some charts from our current set-ups so we can all do better, after all, isn't that why we're here on futures.io (formerly BMT)?