Hiding Money From The European Taxman

[susah_sih]

Those rates are for USD based currencies. I was amazed at the rates for their local currency. 9% is pretty amazing. Too bad it is a losing proposition.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not always a losing proposition.

I bought ISAT http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=isat.jk, last week when 1USD =IDR12,800 and now I am already exit at 1USD=IDR10,400. Made a quick currency gain of 23% and stock gain of 5% in 1 week.

All done online and totally tax free.

Edited September 8, 2005 by susah_sih

[craigt3365]

Congrats! That will help to pay for a few beers at the local pub!!!!!!

[susah_sih]

Use a bank in Luxembourg... They won't let any info out..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Luxembourg & Switzerland are now under pressure.

More and more they succumb to European tax authorities.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess we'll see..

I just had a talk with "my bank" the other day and they assured me that nothing would happen in the near future. But if something would happen I'm pretty sure they have a solution for it already (maybe branch in another part of the world where they will just move the money to...)

I'm not worried.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Forgot to include this:

http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l31050.htm

European Savings Tax Directive

Under the Savings Tax Directive banks in offshore tax havens will be required either to tell tax authorities about interest they pay to individual EU residents, or to withhold an agreed amount of tax from interest paid. Whilst in principle a tax payer could choose to opt for communication rather than withholding, in practice it seems that institutions or countries are making the decision.

The Directive is now due to come into force on 1 July 2005.

Most EU members, including new joiners, have agreed to exchange information but Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg will instead apply a withholding tax starting at 15%, increasing to 20% on 1 July 2008 and 35% from 1 July 2011.

As well as EU members, the regime will apparently also apply to savings held in Switzerland, Monaco, Liechenstein, San Marino, Monaco and Andorra as well as dependant territories such as the Channel Islands (including Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney), Isle of Man, and those in the Caribbean, but not other tax havens in Asia etc until bilateral arrangements are made.

[Diablo Bob]

Thailand is no good. You will need to convert it into Baht and more over Thai banks will not open account if you are a foreigner who have no work permit or residency permit. Even though those documents have been satisfied,some Thai banks discriminate between foreigners and local residents. Foreigners money is no good and therefore gets no interest vs local money which is good and therefore deserves interest. Such are mentality of the banks in Thailand.

Singapore and Hong Kong dont treat you well, unless you bring lots of money. I like my bank to treat me well. So in this case, I dont even bother banking in Singapore and Hong Kong cause they dont even bother to call you back or response to your email.

Perhaps you want to try to put it in Indonesia. A small deposits like USD50,000 will get you first class treatment. Under IMF pressure, they passed the law that guarantees free capital flow in and out of the country. By law banks cannot reaveal any information to anyone including Indonesian Tax authority. Your interest is automatically deducted for tax purposes.

You may want to put it in USD rather than local currency, and put your USD with the country's largest banks that have internet banking facility that allows you to monitor and transfer money out. The following banks use double protection for its internet banking: a pin and a device that you carry to access the system so it is double protection:

Bank Mandiri

http://www.bankmandiri.co.id/english/index.aspx

Bank BCA

http://www.klikbca.com/index_eng.html

BCA and Mandiri are two largest banks in Indonesia. BCA is owned by Newbridge Capital and Mandiri belongs to the government of Indonesia 70%. They are both listed on the stock exchange and you can details of their financial information through Bloomberg, Reuters and Yahoo. Moreover all deposits are now insured by the government of Indonesia.

Bank Mandiri

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/overview.aspx?ticker=BMRI.JK

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=bmri.jk

Bank BCA

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/overview.aspx?ticker=BBCA.JK

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=bbca.jk

I have some money in Europe on an off shore bank account that will soon have to be declared to the tax departement because of some new regulations in the EU. In order to avoid this, I wanted take this money outside of the EU and put it on an Asian Bank account (Thailand) where it can hopefully stay in peace... I presume there are some people in this forum who have experience with this kind of stuff and am calling for your advice.

Question: how much money can one bring into the country without it being flagged, marked as suspicious (I don't know how this works). The amount is not fenomenal, but I could use it to buy a house or so. Will money sitting on a Thai bank acc. be out of view of the European taxman?

what do I need to do for all this? I have been here a couple of years on tourist visa's, next year I'll have a non immigrant education visa for one year and after that I plan to get WP or start business etc (get legal status for working).

I tend to think it's just a question of opening a bank account here, transferring the money and ready, but I just want to check if it is that simple. When getting the money in from abroad, I will need to get one of those TT..? forms if I want to take this money back out of the country one day right?

cheers guys

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have a question...... Please explain how I have 4 different accounts in Thailand, of which two are dollar accounts?....... and ALL I needed was my passport! I don't have a work permit....... I work in Afghanistan. The last Dollar account was opened up in January of this year in Chiangmai at BoB.

[The_Other_Mac]

Sorry to mention it, but I suspect the colour of Susan Sih's skin may have something to do with the level of service she received in Citibank Thailand.

Foreigners can legally open a Thai bank account on any valid visa/stamp. Some banks and branches may choose not to accept you as a customer though. Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn (TFB) have a reputation for generally being welcoming, Silom branches in particular. I've never heard of people having trouble transferring money into Thailand (but choose the bureaucracy and get a cert, if you ever want to buy a property with it). Sending money OUT is. But if you have proof you brought it in originally, I believe that's allowed.

HK proved itself financially stable even during one of the most bizarre transitions in history, and when it comes to implementing bilateral agreements, they can probably choose to say "talk to Beijing." As for being tied to the USD, you could just have a Euro account, no?

[Oswulf]

As far as Indonesia is concerned, it's worth remembering the situation before the Asian financial crisis:

Banks offered USD deposit accounts to their customers. The IDR crashed. The banks revealed that they didn't actually hold their customers' money in USD and simply gave customers back the same amount they would have got if they'd had an IDR account. In other words, a lot of people lost a lot of money through the banks' dishonesty/incompetence/whatever.

[susah_sih]

As far as Indonesia is concerned, it's worth remembering the situation before the Asian financial crisis: 

Banks offered USD deposit accounts to their customers.  The IDR crashed.  The banks revealed that they didn't actually hold their customers' money in USD and simply gave customers back the same amount they would have got if they'd had an IDR account.  In other words, a lot of people lost a lot of money through the banks' dishonesty/incompetence/whatever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's hard for me to believe what you writing here. I have kept dollars account with Bank Exim (now becomes Bank Mandiri), Bank Niaga (stays as it is) and BDNI (merged and become Bank Permata now). In all of the accounts, my USD stays USD. I am not an Indonesian national btw. I didnt lose any single cent. In 1997, I worked for a US investment bank in Hong Kong covering Indonesia and Thailand, and I became comfortable in putting USD in these Indonesian banks since I knew many of them being my firm's clients then. When IDR and THB devalued, only those deposits in the local currency that lost values (in terms of USD). My USD accounts stay as USD. At one point my USD account earned interest 9% per annum in 1999, now only 4% gross (nett 3.2%). On bigger amount you can get/negotiate on higher interest rates.

IMF ordered closures some of the banks in 1998, but even then every single depositors get back their money from the government of Indonesia. So I dont know where you get your information from. But I know not one case, the banks cheats on the customer say by cutting their deposits or using unfavorable exchange rates.

Please get the facts right.

Edited October 3, 2005 by susah_sih

[Bizz]

Read this thread before you bring your money into Thailand

It is quite possible that the thai Bart will be revalued in the not to distant future.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46445

[cclub75]

Read this thread before you bring your money into Thailand

It is quite possible that the thai Bart will be revalued in the not to distant future.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=46445

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well not exactly. In this thread, some people believe that speculators prepare an attack against the THB, which would cause a devaluation.

And if you are right and that a re evaluation is going to happen, then we should put our money now in Thailand !