Many places that don't trade capital gains will in fact tax trading "capital gains". The 0% capital gains law is usually intended to avoid taxing things like profit on real estate, sale of businesses etc, not to give speculators a tax break. Depending on your frequency of trading, you could easily find your trading profits assessed as income, and then you have a nice court case to fight with the tax authorities, with threat of jail unless you hand over 40%+ income tax plus social security payments, interest, fines etc. Unless you have very solid legal advice from a big firm to the contrary, then I would forget about using 0% capital gains laws unless you are a very long-term trader/investor.
A better option is go to a genuine tax haven (Bahamas, Monaco, Gibraltar etc), or go to a place where they don't tax foreign source income (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands and so on). Alternatively, leave your home country and then simply don't reside anywhere for more than 6 months, and you aren't legally subject to tax there (the "perpetual traveller" option).
Finally, I don't know anybody trying to minimise tax whose trades under their own name. You use a limited company/corporation, registered in a jurisdiction that does not tax non-citizens and provides anonymity.
P.S. thetraderprofit:
"If you change your citizenship, and depart the U.S. with more than $500k in assets OR you have paid an average of more than $100k in taxes during the immediately preceeding 5 year period, the United States will continue to tax you AS IF you were a citizen for an additional ten years."
Again I refer you to my point about using companies for your dealings. Just do all your trading through a foreign corporate entity for the next 10 years, and you have zero tax liability in the US. When you need cash, just take out capital from your company. E.g. if you start with $500k, then loan this to your offshore company, trade with it, make profits etc. Once you have enough surplus profit, just take back your $500k out of the company, which you have zero tax liability on (since you already paid tax on it in the US), and live off that for the next 10 years. If you need extra cash, get a loan from your company, or get a bank to make you a personal low-interest loan secured on the company assets. If you want fast cars, boats, planes etc, just buy or lease them using the corporation's money. You can always pay yourself $30-40k a year to satisfy the IRS - the tax on that amount is pretty small.
Besides, like all extra-territorial rulings, this only affects you if you do business in or return to the US, *and* the IRS knows your income. The IRS may say it can tax a Dutch citizen, but unless Dutch law agrees that the IRS has jurisdiction over Dutch citizens living in Holland, then who cares what the IRS thinks? Just use an anonymous offshore company with nominee directors & shareholders and then how is the IRS even going to know what you are doing? You are a foreigner, residing abroad - end of story. If you must, get an arranged marriage and a prenup agreement, then divorce as soon as you are judged non-liable by the IRS.
This is one repeated problem with the whole offshore taxation issue. You have to think outside the box and be creative (and have good advice) to avoid tax whilst remaining legal. If you think it is a matter of simply looking at lists of countries with zero capital gains, or listening to IRS/government propaganda, then you aren't approaching it the right way IMO. You should utilise *every* legal means possible to eliminate tax, otherwise you might as well stay at home and save the hassle.
A better option is go to a genuine tax haven (Bahamas, Monaco, Gibraltar etc), or go to a place where they don't tax foreign source income (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands and so on). Alternatively, leave your home country and then simply don't reside anywhere for more than 6 months, and you aren't legally subject to tax there (the "perpetual traveller" option).
Finally, I don't know anybody trying to minimise tax whose trades under their own name. You use a limited company/corporation, registered in a jurisdiction that does not tax non-citizens and provides anonymity.
P.S. thetraderprofit:
"If you change your citizenship, and depart the U.S. with more than $500k in assets OR you have paid an average of more than $100k in taxes during the immediately preceeding 5 year period, the United States will continue to tax you AS IF you were a citizen for an additional ten years."
Again I refer you to my point about using companies for your dealings. Just do all your trading through a foreign corporate entity for the next 10 years, and you have zero tax liability in the US. When you need cash, just take out capital from your company. E.g. if you start with $500k, then loan this to your offshore company, trade with it, make profits etc. Once you have enough surplus profit, just take back your $500k out of the company, which you have zero tax liability on (since you already paid tax on it in the US), and live off that for the next 10 years. If you need extra cash, get a loan from your company, or get a bank to make you a personal low-interest loan secured on the company assets. If you want fast cars, boats, planes etc, just buy or lease them using the corporation's money. You can always pay yourself $30-40k a year to satisfy the IRS - the tax on that amount is pretty small.
Besides, like all extra-territorial rulings, this only affects you if you do business in or return to the US, *and* the IRS knows your income. The IRS may say it can tax a Dutch citizen, but unless Dutch law agrees that the IRS has jurisdiction over Dutch citizens living in Holland, then who cares what the IRS thinks? Just use an anonymous offshore company with nominee directors & shareholders and then how is the IRS even going to know what you are doing? You are a foreigner, residing abroad - end of story. If you must, get an arranged marriage and a prenup agreement, then divorce as soon as you are judged non-liable by the IRS.
This is one repeated problem with the whole offshore taxation issue. You have to think outside the box and be creative (and have good advice) to avoid tax whilst remaining legal. If you think it is a matter of simply looking at lists of countries with zero capital gains, or listening to IRS/government propaganda, then you aren't approaching it the right way IMO. You should utilise *every* legal means possible to eliminate tax, otherwise you might as well stay at home and save the hassle.
