Quote from nononsense:
A lot of pipe dreams about trading gains qualifying for low capital gain rates. All major EU countries have rules that capital gains are either tax-free or are taxed at low rates.
If you dig a bit deeper in the tax codes, you can find out what transactions qualify for this. You have to hold the stuff for something like 6-12 months and you can't do more transactions than 10 or so a year. If you don't meet these criteria, your trading gains are considered as professional income. For a private person this means being added to earned income. If you are a beggar-trader you may fit in the categories tradernut is talking about. If you are a successful trader you will quickly be taxed at premium rates hovering towards marginal 60% of earned income. (Don't fool around by saying that in all fairness you should deduct social security - perhaps true for a beggar, not for a person in the upper tax bracket).
I read the post of some time ago about the Italian bonanza of 12.5%. I don't know, but I think this is unlikely. What often happens is people trading and not declaring their gains, especially in 0% dream countries like France, Belgium, ... This is very nice till the tax people jostle you into court. Ever heard or read about these kind of adventures?
Switzerland has some interesting tax arrangements for resident foreigners as long as they don't engage in gainful activities. Unfortunately, if you delve in their tax code, "capital gains" from trading as described above is taxed as professional income.
The story about Germany moving to a low rate has been posted a couple of times over the last year. Good ole socialist Schroeder going in that direction? Perhaps, but at a very slow pace. When this becomes law, the whole world will move over to Schroeder's trading casino. Tell us about the situation in Germany right now tradernut, not about social-case trading. German tax people can be very vicious. You remember Steffy Graffs' dad?
nononsese