Outside of the immediate reach requires you to open an offshore brokerage account; however thanks to FATCA reporting requirements, most banks don’t want to deal with you unless you have significant assets under management.
Back when FATCA was first introduced I was working in private wealth management for a bank in Luxembourg, and we decided to terminate all but 3 accounts held by US citizens, all of whom had assets above 700k USD. I believe 500k was the internally communicated cutoff.
Banks in Switzerland now typically require 1M CHF to open new accounts for anyone who isn’t onshore (Swiss citizen or resident), Hong Kong, Singapore and Panama also require minimum amounts between 500k to 1M USD. I think Bahamas, Bermudas, Virgin Islands, Caymans and all the other money islands ask for even higher deposits now.
One thing you could consider are the British channel islands (Jersey and Guernsey in particular), since Brexit they’ve had a bit of an offshore renaissance. HSBC Jersey for example only requires 100k GBP to open offshore accounts (though I didn’t check about FATCA requirements since I’m not a US citizen myself).
If all you want is keep smaller amounts outside of the US, you could look into wise.com, revolut and other money transfer services, they allow you to hold different currencies in physical accounts domiciled in other jurisdictions. Read: If you deposit USD and convert it to GBP, AUD or EUR, those funds will be physically stored in UK, Australia and Belgium respectively. Since wise is a British company (revolut as well btw), the US government at least won’t have immediate access.
If there are any online brokers that accept US customers with casual portfolio sizes, no idea.
Crypto of course is also an option, but I don’t trust it enough as long term asset storage solution.
Thank you 🙏
This is a very helpful jumping off point for further research
Anytime! You could also check some blogs like nomad capitalist and others, they offer solutions like incorporating a ltd. company in Georgia (the country) or Belize and stuff, but that also comes with a host of other requirements, reporting and otherwise.
Depending on your assets, there are also some countries like Grenada for example that come with a citizenship by investment program, where you get a passport if you invest either into government bonds or buy a property that you must hold for a certain number of years. If you’d be a citizen from there and casually forget to tick the box for US citizenship when opening your Hong Kong account, you might just get away with it. (Strictly not legal, though).
Be a billionaire.
Risky, but cryptocurrency. Never a bad idea to diversify a bit but maybe don’t put your whole savings there.
As the current us government is very pro crypto, I’d say this is not only very risky, but you would also be buying into their narrative and possibly be an even greater part of it as it crashes and burns.
That said, you’re not wrong.
The government is in it for the pump and dump scam (I can’t believe those words fit together now and everyone will know what I mean). I suspect they are indifferent or ignorant about other cryptocurrencies.
I would be worried that when the scammers in charge dump their holdings, the resulting turmoil will affect other currencies as well. Demand-based markets don’t respond well nor rationally to panic.
That said, I also think the whole thing is a ponzi, and my understanding is of course affected by that. But I believe the logic above would apply in either case.
you can avoid paying earned income taxes altogether by living outside of the US for more than 330 days out of the fiscal year.
this is called foreign earned income exclusion.
investment income is different; investment income is not excluded by the FEIE, only earned income, so you wouldn’t be able to avoid paying investment income tax to the US unless you immigrated to to another country.
Yeah - I’ve claimed it before. This isn’t really a tax avoidance question though.
It is, in a way. You want a strong 4th amendment, I think.
But there’s not much left of it (1), to “make sure everyone pays it’s fair share” and later to “keep you safe from terrorists”
Yup. I think you’re right.
I was very confused at the responses I was getting here at first, but after reading them and thinking about things a bit more it does basically come down to taxes even if it isn’t explicitly taxes I was trying to avoid.
TIL
All the perceived privacy, constitution weirdos and early crypto enthousiast advocating for privacy laws start to make more sense when you don’t consider your government as a perpetual force of good :)
Whoa whoa whoa - let’s not get tooooo crazy here…
😜
Just experience what you’re feeling. The angst, despair, uncertainty. Imagine it accumulating for decades. All whilst the majority of people at best dismiss your experience, telling you to chill out, proclaiming your feelings aren’t valid. Or worse, call you evil and anti-social :)
That’s the emotional context in which the US was born, and why some people are attracted to it’s constitution. It’s an exceptionally intelligent response to those feelings.
But to people who can’t empathize with those feelings: the colonies ceded from England due to taxes, they just didn’t want to contribute their fair share into the commonwealth. They’re evil and anti-social.
oh, so what did you mean by “outside the reach of the federal government” rather than tax avoidance, just foreign investment opportunities?
Seizing/freezing.
then all you have to do is file the FBAR and pay your taxes every year and you can invest anywhere you want, however much you want.
How so? You think reporting accounts to the IRS keeps the US from seizing/ freezing accounts?
Not following your train of thought
I assume you are afraid of a political act causing this and not because of a debt or criminal act? I don’t think the other poster gets that
⭐️
Yes, reporting foreign income and paying taxes is exactly what keeps the US from seizing and freezing accounts.
you said you don’t want to avoid paying taxes.
If you report your accounts and investment income and pay taxes, then you’re in no danger of the US government seizing or freezing your accounts.
I don’t know if you’ve been following the news but I’d say that’s wishful thinking at this point.
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If your main concern is the US currency or just wanting your money to be out of US-based assets, I believe Interactive Brokers provides a lot of flexibility to move your money between assets and currencies. You’re still going to pay taxes and be subject to all US laws.
If your concern is US involvement in your personal financial affairs…good luck. The US has tremendous influence over the global financial system and no legitimate foreign organization is going to work with you unless you have substantial assets. The few countries that do not respect US influence are not particularly trustworthy and trying to do business with them will put you at significant legal risk.
You could also try converting to physical gold, but the US has confiscated gold before, so that’s not a sure bet.
Just in case: avoid ‘forex trading’ and CFDs, especially with MetaTrader and cTrader terminals.
Depends on how out of reach. Stocks exchanged in other, possibly hostile countries? (Edit: Right, needs that account to hold them that others are talking about, duh.) Property in other countries that allow it (eg. most of EU does afaik)?
What sort of things qualify as within the reach of the government to you? I would consider the stock market outside of their reach. Bonds are, of course, very much in their reach. You can buy ETF funds that consist of non-US companies. VXUS comes to mind.
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As opposed to… what?
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