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Offshore Solutions For US Residents

vinman508

Recruit
Messages
3
Hey everyone,

So I am in the US looking to go offshore simply to broaden my choices of brokers and not be so tied down in a sense. I spoke with someone helping me setup an offshore company, which is the easy part, but he said nowadays it's hard to find a bank willing to take Forex traders and companies.. Can any elaborate on this? True or false? He basically said he can get the whole process done for me if I find a bank willing to work with Forex traders. What offshore banks do so, or what banks are any of you guys banking with if you too are offshore?

Any help or personal insight would be awesome, thanks!


-Vinny
 
An offshore company can be one work around to the rules about offshore brokers. The problems is that the US gov't is forcing foreign banks to report accounts belonging to US citizens. Some foreign banks are refusing to service US clients. :p

If you've got over $10k total in all foreign accounts you control (even through your company), you have to fill out some special paperwork for the US Treasury every year.

A good company formation company can help you get set up and save you a lot of time and effort, but if they don't do it right, you might find your company in trouble with the local government for not filing all the paperwork on time or paying all the correct fees. Prices and quality between these companies can vary considerably.

The other option is to select an offshore broker which still accepts US residents. I don't have accounts with any of these, but I think Tallinex, FxChoice, and Tradersway are all in this category. There are others, but those are the 3 I can remember at the moment.
 
An offshore company can be one work around to the rules about offshore brokers. The problems is that the US gov't is forcing foreign banks to report accounts belonging to US citizens. Some foreign banks are refusing to service US clients. :p

If you've got over $10k total in all foreign accounts you control (even through your company), you have to fill out some special paperwork for the US Treasury every year.

A good company formation company can help you get set up and save you a lot of time and effort, but if they don't do it right, you might find your company in trouble with the local government for not filing all the paperwork on time or paying all the correct fees. Prices and quality between these companies can vary considerably.

The other option is to select an offshore broker which still accepts US residents. I don't have accounts with any of these, but I think Tallinex, FxChoice, and Tradersway are all in this category. There are others, but those are the 3 I can remember at the moment.

Appreciate the response, and yeah I have considered those brokers you mentioned that still take in US clients.

The whole reason why I want to do this though is to open my options up to more highly rated and reputable brokers, like a couple out of Australia and such. I have my eyes on Global Prime and have been demoing their setup for awhile now. I would like to go live based on my experience thus far and off others positive reviews.

I am more than willing to disclose all accounts of mine and be fully legal and transparent. That's not my concern, just gaining access to brokers of my choice and not being so limited is my goal. Again, setting up an offshore LLC seems easy, but this particular formation company made it seem like it was a huge challenge finding a bank willing to work with not only US clients (or those with offshore companies) but with Forex traders in general. And honestly, finding a bank willing to work with US clients seems to be relatively easy. But would these banks really turn me or others away if they knew the source of the income was through Forex? That's what I'm wondering.
 
I think as long as the source of your income is legit, most banks won't care if it's from forex, trading stocks, or stocking shelves. Of course, there's at least one crazy bank out there ready to make me look bad by not allowing forex traders to have accounts.

The next thing is to make certain that the broker will be happy to work with an offshore corporation which has US ownership. It's much better to ask up front than to open the account, fund it, trade, and then somehow the broker figures out that there's an American behind the curtains. Some are so paranoid about the US regulation, they might kick you out and only send back your initial deposit.
 
REPEAL FATCA!!
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act has virtually destroyed the economic freedom for U.S. citizens to participate in the global marketplace. In my research, well over 95% of the hundreds of reputable, highly competitive FX brokers will not deal with U.S. citizens due to the U.S. government's megalomania. It is ironic, citizens of the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet are deprived of the opportunity to trade with the most reputable and competitive offshore brokers. Here are the facts:
1. The U.S government spends far more that it receives in revenue. In its quest to keep spending more and more, our government continues to squeeze every dollar it can out of U.S. taxpayers.
2. U.S. FX traders are compelled to trade with U.S. brokers which are mostly market makers with a maximum of 50:1 margin (thanks to our overbearing government)
3. U.S. traders who want or need more leverage are driven to the few offshore brokers who are skirting around FATCA. These brokers may be ECN type or market makers disguised as ECN, with spreads and rollover fees that are in the high to mid range of the global scale. Some are regulated and others are not. FPA does a great job in identifying the true criminal brokers who are seizing the opportunity to rip off hapless U.S. traders who are forced into this situation due to FATCA.

So, in the U.S. government's mission to find every tax dollar it can by "forcing" institutions and foreign governments to comply with its reporting demands, institutions around the world have banned U.S. citizens from opening accounts. I was struck recently by a list of countries from a reputable broker that it would not accept account applications from. These countries included; North Korea, Iran and the United States.

The bottom line is, unless a U.S. trader renounces his/her citizenship and buys an economic citizenship from a Caribbean Island nation or FATCA is repealed, U.S. traders will continue to be deprived of economic freedom and forced to accept less than advantageous broker relationships.
 
REPEAL FATCA!!
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act has virtually destroyed the economic freedom for U.S. citizens to participate in the global marketplace. In my research, well over 95% of the hundreds of reputable, highly competitive FX brokers will not deal with U.S. citizens due to the U.S. government's megalomania. It is ironic, citizens of the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet are deprived of the opportunity to trade with the most reputable and competitive offshore brokers. Here are the facts:
1. The U.S government spends far more that it receives in revenue. In its quest to keep spending more and more, our government continues to squeeze every dollar it can out of U.S. taxpayers.
2. U.S. FX traders are compelled to trade with U.S. brokers which are mostly market makers with a maximum of 50:1 margin (thanks to our overbearing government)
3. U.S. traders who want or need more leverage are driven to the few offshore brokers who are skirting around FATCA. These brokers may be ECN type or market makers disguised as ECN, with spreads and rollover fees that are in the high to mid range of the global scale. Some are regulated and others are not. FPA does a great job in identifying the true criminal brokers who are seizing the opportunity to rip off hapless U.S. traders who are forced into this situation due to FATCA.

So, in the U.S. government's mission to find every tax dollar it can by "forcing" institutions and foreign governments to comply with its reporting demands, institutions around the world have banned U.S. citizens from opening accounts. I was struck recently by a list of countries from a reputable broker that it would not accept account applications from. These countries included; North Korea, Iran and the United States.

The bottom line is, unless a U.S. trader renounces his/her citizenship and buys an economic citizenship from a Caribbean Island nation or FATCA is repealed, U.S. traders will continue to be deprived of economic freedom and forced to accept less than advantageous broker relationships.

This response is literally spot on lol. Unfortunately, this country isn't as free as people think, or they just choose to believe it is. I've spoken with lawyers, accountants and a few offshore formation companies about my goals for going offshore and the last company actually went through with contacting their partner banks and brokerage firms. Only news that came back to me was that NONE are looking to take on US clients anymore due to all the regulations chaining us down.

I just laugh at it. If I knew everything I know now about the world investment opportunities, US regulations and the true concept of being free 6 years ago fresh out of high school, I probably would have did what I had to do to get second citizenship and renounce this one lol. Holding this passport holds us back from so many great opportunities it's unreal.

Anyways, I'm still going to trade but it just looks like I have to pick the lesser of all evil I try to find the most decent US broker. Thanks for the responses anyways!

-Vinny
 
I have worked Forex for 3 1/2 years now, full time. I finally became consistently profitable with grid EAs and selecting the highest volatility major pairs. As I systematically increase position size, my focus is on finding brokers who will not blatantly steal my money or manipulate the MT4 platform to their advantage. There are perhaps ten or so brokers that will accept US citizens. (there goes the "land of the Free") The very few US brokers are restricted to FIFO and 1:50 leverage. The offshore brokers that accept US citizens tend to be crooks. The only devise, I have come up with to protect my accounts from broker malfeasance, is to run identical setups (EAs, pairs, TF, leverage setting) with multiple brokers and compare weekly results. It quickly becomes apparent which broker(s) is manipulating MT4 or has some other issue that reduces or destroys profit. (I am currently real trading using LQDFX and Tradersway- good so far) (FXChoice appears to possibly manipulate ask/bid-abnormal DD-nullifies profit-still testing, LMAX may work-still testing.) Brokers that require manual assistance for withdrawals have the opportunity to steal your money-"bad bank wire"-"pending for days/weeks" etc. I look for brokers that accept credit cards. That seems to eliminate or reduce the ploy of "withdrawal problems". I keep broker accounts as low as possible to minimize risk exposure to broker theft or trading disaster-account stop out. In regards to the hundreds of regulated, honest brokers (who do not accept US citizens) I found only two possible workarounds. 1. Set up offshore IBC. The problem is, the "imprisoned" US citizen cannot be on the company record at all. So, a nominee director must be the front person, surreptitiously under the control of the secret US citizen. The offshore facilitators who form the IBC, provide the nominee director, That's the catch. Nominee directors might be minimum wage employees or the drunk that lives behind the building. So, if you need to open multiple broker accounts with all the intricacies, can you effectively communicate and manage a nominee director to deal with broker application intricacies? (Identity verification, type of account, trading platform etc.) One of the largest offshore facilitators
would take no responsibility for the nominee director and would not even provide the Nominee Service Agreement in advance of paying the formation fee. NOTE: My objective is to open multiple broker accounts, not to evade US taxes. I have no problem filing the FBAR report and reporting all forex income on my tax return. 2. Citizenship By Investment (CBI) - I have spent a couple of years researching the option of paying $100k + to a Caribbean country to acquire their passport and citizenship. I would then renounce my US citizenship and travel the world monitoring my VPS with algorithmic trading. To avoid the various tax regimes of the countries I would visit for the period of the visa, the IBC solution is viable. If you are not a US citizen, you can be the director of the IBC and control everything. If your CBI country does not tax worldwide income (most do not) and your IBC is domiciled in a tax free jurisdiction, you are home free. You just have to work through the emotional issues (if any) of giving up the US citizenship. Only about 45% of the world's countries are considered to be free, so there is risk of giving up what freedom we do have as a US citizen.
The bottom line, if you love Forex trading and don't want to do anything else, the CBI route appears to be the best option. All information is based on my research and my opinion and not to be considered as legal or professional advice.
 
Hey everyone,

So I am in the US looking to go offshore simply to broaden my choices of brokers and not be so tied down in a sense. I spoke with someone helping me setup an offshore company, which is the easy part, but he said nowadays it's hard to find a bank willing to take Forex traders and companies.. Can any elaborate on this? True or false? He basically said he can get the whole process done for me if I find a bank willing to work with Forex traders. What offshore banks do so, or what banks are any of you guys banking with if you too are offshore?

Any help or personal insight would be awesome, thanks!


-Vinny
Offshore brokers are a bit of a grey area. but personally I've never had any problems. Do some research online before you signup and test out with a small amount of $, if everything seems ok then deposit more.
 
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