Thank you for taking your time and energy Mike! Very much appreciated....
I am a US citizen who lived in Japan for 30 years before coming here.....
I have not filed a US tax return for about 35 years.... Once I got settled in Japan and was paying income tax in Japan, and I was under the threshold for also paying tax in the US... after filing two or three US tax returns showing I was very definitely under the US threshold, my US accountant suggested I just stop filing returns, and the IRS would never come after me, a red flag would not pop up. Turns out he was right!
As far as Japan goes... I stopped filing tax returns after I closed my company there about 15 years ago. (I am 76 years old).
IF I was investing in stocks, forex, etc. then I would do so after opening an offshore company, and the offshore company would be doing the investing.... Nothing in my name.... IF
Forming an offshore company is a very common tactic used worldwide, to shield individuals from the tax authorities.
I already own property in Thailand, so there isn't any reason for me to send a large sum of money here.... So, if I send 20k here (which would be the maximum), either one of my two non-Thai bank accounts will show that much money in the account, off and on for numerous years.... Off and on.... So not really anything for Thai officials to look at.
If I was wanting to bring over 50K or so to buy a car, if I felt the new tax laws here actually had any real teeth, then I would create a loan document showing I borrowed the money from the ABC corporation. If I had to then bring over another large sum, I would create a second loan. This is a very common workaround for a fair amount of people living here in Thailand. Problem solved!! The Thai government will have no way of checking on these loans, or checking on the ABC corporation....
Anyway.... if one stays creative, there are many ways to get around the new tax laws without needing to allow the Thai govt. to see exactly what is actually going on in your life.
It is very important to remember- "the Thai govt." actually winds up being some Thai govt. worker sitting in an office somewhere that doesn't have any windows, and this guy has zero ability to check on anything that is going on overseas. Zero! So, for instance, as I say, I have not filed a tax return anywhere for about 15 years. If I had a need to tell the Thai govt. that, they would not have any way of checking to see if I was telling the truth or not. I would never ever tell the Thai govt. anything that could be proven false. And I would never ever have the need to try and do so.
End of story....
Your thoughts Mike?...
Please.