Best Country for Trading (Tax efficiency)

If you are looking for tax efficiency (or tax deferral) then consider a "New Zealand Foreign Trust" - that is a New Zealand trust with a non-NZ resident settlor. The trust will only pay NZ tax on income earned in NZ, so if all income is earned in other countries (e.g. trading US stocks, etc) then there is no tax payable in NZ.
A lawyer can set up the trust for a few thousand dollars, there is a NZ$270 fee to the tax department to register the NZFT and there are annual disclosure requirements to be filed (i.e. any money paid in or taken out). You will need a NZ resident trustee (at worst a lawyer will to this for about NZ$5000 per year, or make a NZ friend and pay nothing or a lot less).
If you distribute money from the trust to yourself, that will be taxed in your country of tax residency - but you can accumulate and re-invest income/capital gains in the trust and defer tax forever (or a long time). Or live in a country with a territorial tax system who will not tax you on foreign earned income.
Also get local tax advice as your country of tax residency may seek to tax you locally on the trust's income as the settlor. Different countries have different rules over who they tax on trust income.
The advantage of the NZFT is that it is from an OECD, high tax country (although the trust will pay no tax), which is subject to less scrutiny and compliance than a "tax haven" corporate entity!
Interesting. Though I read that resident foreign trustees (your recommended local lawyer) cannot be in the business of providing trustee services. Who can we use as a local resident foreign trustee then? It also says that the foreign income of that resident foreign trustee might be tax exempt in NZ. If I would send trading income from abroad back to that trust in NZ. Will it be tax exempt there? And obviously we would need to check first whether the country we are actually residing in and trading from will subject us and our foreign trust to local income taxes.
 
The NZ resident trustee can be a NZ company (with a NZ resident individual director) or a NZ resident individual. They can be in the business of providing trustee services OR not in that business. You can also have non-resident (non-NZ) trustees but you must have at least one NZ resident trustee. Any one of the 5 million people in NZ (over the age of 18) would meet the requirements. A lawyer may be an easy option although not the cheapest.
(I'm not a lawyer and I am not resident in NZ. Just an investor sharing some knowledge on this forum.)
Income earned outside NZ will not be taxed in the NZ trust (which the NZ Inland Revenue Department calls a "NZ Foreign Trust" as the trustee is a NZ resident and settlor is a foreign resident).
You do not need to ever send the income to NZ. The trust could hold a US brokerage account with US assets. In fact, the trust would probably never own any assets in NZ.
The country where you trade would deduct foreign withholding tax on dividends, but usually not any tax on trading profits/capital gains (e.g. the US does not tax these for non-US investors).
Trust tax laws vary by country. So get advice in your country of tax residency.
In general, UK and Commonwealth countries tend to tax the trustee, while the US tends to tax the settlor.
I'm not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice, just general information for your entertainment.
 
re Spain :

Things have turned much worse recently, not only has the Central Government increased capital gains and interests/dividends tax this year for higher income, this will go even higher next year.
And most importantly for those holding more than a few bucks, the government has just added , on the last day allowed, an amendment to a legislation expecting to address taxes in other sectors, to impose a wealth tax in provinces where it received a bonification ( it was 100% in Madrid). The rate goes up to 3.5 or 3.7% over 10 million euro, with some limitation depending on one´s total income, and will be applicable from 2022, leaving people no time to organize themselves for 2022.
It´s not really expected to pass the consitutional court where Madrid and Andalucia plan to contest it, but that´s a multi year process.
Madrid has a lot to lose, and there are some plans to nullify that tax via fiscal juggling from Madrid, but there´s no guarantee that works.
Even if it does, I´m fed up with the constant attacks from leftist Central government towards right wing Madrid that were also very strong during the covid mess ( Madrid opting to keep all businesses open after the initial couple of months of lockdown), and we´re already planning our move to Portugal.
 
re Spain :

Things have turned much worse recently, not only has the Central Government increased capital gains and interests/dividends tax this year for higher income, this will go even higher next year.
And most importantly for those holding more than a few bucks, the government has just added , on the last day allowed, an amendment to a legislation expecting to address taxes in other sectors, to impose a wealth tax in provinces where it received a bonification ( it was 100% in Madrid). The rate goes up to 3.5 or 3.7% over 10 million euro, with some limitation depending on one´s total income, and will be applicable from 2022, leaving people no time to organize themselves for 2022.
It´s not really expected to pass the consitutional court where Madrid and Andalucia plan to contest it, but that´s a multi year process.
Madrid has a lot to lose, and there are some plans to nullify that tax via fiscal juggling from Madrid, but there´s no guarantee that works.
Even if it does, I´m fed up with the constant attacks from leftist Central government towards right wing Madrid that were also very strong during the covid mess ( Madrid opting to keep all businesses open after the initial couple of months of lockdown), and we´re already planning our move to Portugal.



I heard about the new wealth tax, which is fine for me since I’m not in that wealth bracket yet.

However, are you saying there will be an increase in capital gains much higher than the current 23%?

https://samuraifinanciero.com/fiscalidad-del-trading/#Fiscalidad_del_Trading

A
ccording to this article, taxation for daytrading was just recently reduced from regular income tax to 23% capital gains tax.

Are you saying it’s gonna be significantly higher now?


Btw: Portugal just recently passed a new bill to tax short term capital gains (like daytrading) to regular income tax:

https://www.lvpadvogados.com/portugals-state-budget-for-2022-impact-on-expats
 
@p4trick88

"However, are you saying there will be an increase in capital gains much higher than the current 23%?

https://samuraifinanciero.com/fiscalidad-del-trading/#Fiscalidad_del_Trading

A
ccording to this article, taxation for daytrading was just recently reduced from regular income tax to 23% capital gains tax."

For 2022 tax returns, it´s going to be 26% over 200k, and read recently it´s going to be higher for the 2023 fiscal year, I think 28% over 200k and 29% over 300k, I don´t get cap gains but dividends and interests income in that range. They are taxed at the same rate as cap gains at the moment i Spain afaik.

Interesting tidbit is one can offset as much as 25% of their dividends and interests income with capital losses


"Btw: Portugal just recently passed a new bill to tax short term capital gains (like daytrading) to regular income tax:

https://www.lvpadvogados.com/portugals-state-budget-for-2022-impact-on-expats"

Thanks for this update, on the run now but will read it later. I checked a few years back the Portugal tax regime for new arrivals and from memory active trading gains were already excluded from the tax perks, which made the country unsuitable when I was trading actively. But nowadays it wouldn´t influence my decision, although seeing an instable fiscal situation in Portugal might just keep us away.
 
re Spain :

Things have turned much worse recently, not only has the Central Government increased capital gains and interests/dividends tax this year for higher income, this will go even higher next year.
And most importantly for those holding more than a few bucks, the government has just added , on the last day allowed, an amendment to a legislation expecting to address taxes in other sectors, to impose a wealth tax in provinces where it received a bonification ( it was 100% in Madrid). The rate goes up to 3.5 or 3.7% over 10 million euro, with some limitation depending on one´s total income, and will be applicable from 2022, leaving people no time to organize themselves for 2022.

That wealth tax will kick in at a 3 700 000euro capital, but the old wealth tax regime remains in place which kicks in at a significantly lower value in the provinces that charge it.
 
@p4trick88

"However, are you saying there will be an increase in capital gains much higher than the current 23%?

https://samuraifinanciero.com/fiscalidad-del-trading/#Fiscalidad_del_Trading

A
ccording to this article, taxation for daytrading was just recently reduced from regular income tax to 23% capital gains tax."

For 2022 tax returns, it´s going to be 26% over 200k, and read recently it´s going to be higher for the 2023 fiscal year, I think 28% over 200k and 29% over 300k, I don´t get cap gains but dividends and interests income in that range. They are taxed at the same rate as cap gains at the moment i Spain afaik.

Interesting tidbit is one can offset as much as 25% of their dividends and interests income with capital losses


"Btw: Portugal just recently passed a new bill to tax short term capital gains (like daytrading) to regular income tax:

https://www.lvpadvogados.com/portugals-state-budget-for-2022-impact-on-expats"

Thanks for this update, on the run now but will read it later. I checked a few years back the Portugal tax regime for new arrivals and from memory active trading gains were already excluded from the tax perks, which made the country unsuitable when I was trading actively. But nowadays it wouldn´t influence my decision, although seeing an instable fiscal situation in Portugal might just keep us away.
I hired a law firm for an evaluation of whether the tax regime for new arrivals as you call it would apply to my trading. As expected I got no clear answer but they tilted towards the answer that I would not enjoy the benefits of that tax regime.
 
I hired a law firm for an evaluation of whether the tax regime for new arrivals as you call it would apply to my trading. As expected I got no clear answer but they tilted towards the answer that I would not enjoy the benefits of that tax regime.

HNR(?) regime never included tax breaks on trading profits afaik, which is alluded in the link above, indicating recent changes.
Did the law firm mention dividends and interest income, as I understood one could avoid withholding tax from Portugal on those.
Fwiw I moved to Spain willing to pay Spanish tax on dividends and interests, as I'd wanted to live in Madrid for a long time, but things got quite ugly here.
 
HNR(?) regime never included tax breaks on trading profits afaik, which is alluded in the link above, indicating recent changes.
Did the law firm mention dividends and interest income, as I understood one could avoid withholding tax from Portugal on those.
Fwiw I moved to Spain willing to pay Spanish tax on dividends and interests, as I'd wanted to live in Madrid for a long time, but things got quite ugly here.
The question I paid them address was whether the trading activity = a business, which then originated in Portugal because my brain and my fingers were located in Portugal and hence the income did not originate outside of Portugal and hence it would not enjoy the tax benefit.
 
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