Goal: live PT lifestyle, avoid unnecessary tax, as well as any unnecessary questions from my current or past residency countries or any information being sent because some governments including my previous EU country are anal about some of the rules.
Sums: between 300k USD per year and 1.5m USD per year., possibly spread between multiple banks/accounts if necessary.
Let's say we are talking about opening and operating a personal bank account. As I understand it, the basics of the CRS are simple: the banks ask/identify the tax residence of the account holder and send the data of the holder's account to that country at the end of each year.
When you come to register an account, what information do most banks ask specifically to demonstrate tax residence? I do know that they want to see a passport or an ID card, a residence contract (a rental agreement or a lease), they want to see some utility bills for electricity or water from that apartment. But is that it? Or do they want to see a tax certificate that I actually pay tax in that country?
For example an idea I have is to simply go to a country where I can live by law, from which I can get an ID card, get an apartment there and all the utility bills, but not live there. I do not wish to pay any tax there (other than some required VAT for the apartment maybe or something like that), nor do I think I will be required to do so, right? I will spend <10 days per year there, I will not have registered companies there, I will not have family, I will not have any activity there.
Will this go well with the banks? Can I realistically open account in most usual banks while telling them that my tax residence is in that country? Giving them rental contracts/apartment ownership slips and some utility bills? Will that be enough? Will the bank ever check whether I am actually spending time in that country and whether I am paying tax there? Or will it just happily route all the CRS reports to it and don't ask too much more?
I am already aware of the indica risk - that if I use this account in another country and if I talk to their support with a phone from some other country (of my real residence), then they might think that I live there too and start sending reports from both countries. I understand that risk, I am asking simply, besides that, there are no problems right? If I take of my indica (make some wires/payments in the supposed tax residency country and don't show too much financial activity on that specific account in my real country of residence), I am in the green? Is there a chance the bank will find out?
Would there be any problems in case the bank ever found out, besides that they would just send CRS reports to both countries?
Another obvious question is whether I will get any problems from this supposed tax residency country that will receive a strange CRS report about a person who is not living there. Will this be problematic? Am I correct in my assessment that the chance of them doing anything is very low, and even if this government would ever ask me "what's going on with this CRS report", I could just tell them that I am not spending time in their country, which I could easily prove using for example using passport stamps, to show me spending <10 days per year in it?
Note that with this setup I am technically NOT planning to register as a tax resident in ANY country. The country which I will tell the banks I am tax resident, I will not really be tax resident, and there seemingly is currently no reason for me to register as tax resident in any other country either (being PT and spending <182 days in each country, and also not being in a position where some government could realistically come to me and claim that I am tax resident in there because of ties and connections to that country). Is this setup realistic? Does this change anything in the total picture?
Does any of this change if we are talking about opening a company and bank accounts for that company (instead of just personal accounts) in some offshore jurisdiction with still being me as UBO of those accounts?
Sums: between 300k USD per year and 1.5m USD per year., possibly spread between multiple banks/accounts if necessary.
Let's say we are talking about opening and operating a personal bank account. As I understand it, the basics of the CRS are simple: the banks ask/identify the tax residence of the account holder and send the data of the holder's account to that country at the end of each year.
When you come to register an account, what information do most banks ask specifically to demonstrate tax residence? I do know that they want to see a passport or an ID card, a residence contract (a rental agreement or a lease), they want to see some utility bills for electricity or water from that apartment. But is that it? Or do they want to see a tax certificate that I actually pay tax in that country?
For example an idea I have is to simply go to a country where I can live by law, from which I can get an ID card, get an apartment there and all the utility bills, but not live there. I do not wish to pay any tax there (other than some required VAT for the apartment maybe or something like that), nor do I think I will be required to do so, right? I will spend <10 days per year there, I will not have registered companies there, I will not have family, I will not have any activity there.
Will this go well with the banks? Can I realistically open account in most usual banks while telling them that my tax residence is in that country? Giving them rental contracts/apartment ownership slips and some utility bills? Will that be enough? Will the bank ever check whether I am actually spending time in that country and whether I am paying tax there? Or will it just happily route all the CRS reports to it and don't ask too much more?
I am already aware of the indica risk - that if I use this account in another country and if I talk to their support with a phone from some other country (of my real residence), then they might think that I live there too and start sending reports from both countries. I understand that risk, I am asking simply, besides that, there are no problems right? If I take of my indica (make some wires/payments in the supposed tax residency country and don't show too much financial activity on that specific account in my real country of residence), I am in the green? Is there a chance the bank will find out?
Would there be any problems in case the bank ever found out, besides that they would just send CRS reports to both countries?
Another obvious question is whether I will get any problems from this supposed tax residency country that will receive a strange CRS report about a person who is not living there. Will this be problematic? Am I correct in my assessment that the chance of them doing anything is very low, and even if this government would ever ask me "what's going on with this CRS report", I could just tell them that I am not spending time in their country, which I could easily prove using for example using passport stamps, to show me spending <10 days per year in it?
Note that with this setup I am technically NOT planning to register as a tax resident in ANY country. The country which I will tell the banks I am tax resident, I will not really be tax resident, and there seemingly is currently no reason for me to register as tax resident in any other country either (being PT and spending <182 days in each country, and also not being in a position where some government could realistically come to me and claim that I am tax resident in there because of ties and connections to that country). Is this setup realistic? Does this change anything in the total picture?
Does any of this change if we are talking about opening a company and bank accounts for that company (instead of just personal accounts) in some offshore jurisdiction with still being me as UBO of those accounts?
