Structure for family wealth protection (Taiwan and Australia)

[anomaly]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to get advice on forming a trust/company structure that would work for both Taiwan and Australia. Taiwan is constantly being harassed by China so I would like to move a portion of family wealth to some other jurisdiction that is outside of Taiwan in case there is war or some other bad stuff happens. I don't want to move assets to Australia at this time as it would be taxed too heavily on any passive income made.

Summary of my situation:
- No existing structure, clean slate
- liquid assets around 1M USD to start.
- Have dual citizenship, Taiwan and Australia
- Tax resident in Taiwan, employed in Taiwan, owning property, have family, etc.
- Passive income includes global stocks, mutual funds, forex trading, making north of 100K USD/year.
- If I eventually invest in crypto, it will be with brokers like Interactive Brokers who are not considered crypto exchanges.
- Software engineer by profession, may be useful if substance is needed somewhere
- Have family in Australia, will move back to Australia in 10-15 years time
- could set up tax residency in a low-tax/no-tax jurisdiction in 25 years time when I retire

Primary Goals:
- Protect/hold family wealth in some place outside of Taiwan without a huge tax load
- Be able to remotely manage these liquid assets to generate passive income from stocks, mutual funds, forex trading while doing it tax efficiently and able to remit back to Taiwan legally.
- Be able to set up decent banking with minimal risk of accounts being frozen and having to fly over to solve issues.
- Be able to bring these assets back to Australia legally when the time comes (willing to pay tax when I eventually make it back to Australia)

Secondary Goals:
- ability to tax defer passive income until distributed to myself or my family, willing to pay tax in the jurisdiction I am residing in at that time.
- ability to extend structure to buy property in other jurisdictions (say, Japan, Dubai or Europe)
- Privacy would be good, but not essential.
- When I leave Australia again in retirement, minimize the hit on my exit tax.

I understand the above is a long list of wants, and Taiwan seems to be a jurisdiction that is off the beaten path.
I am glad to provide more information if it helps

Thanks everyone, looking forward to all your advices.

 

[Martin Everson]

anomaly said:
I wanted to get advice on forming a trust/company structure that would work for both Taiwan and Australia.
Click to expand...

I don't think there is one. As your based in Taiwan then Singapore would be the ideal safe haven location to hold assets. I don't think a trust would help especially with Australia if you ever plan to live there. I am also not sure how a trust or company in general would help.

anomaly said:
Primary Goals:
- Protect/hold family wealth in some place outside of Taiwan without a huge tax load
- Be able to remotely manage these liquid assets to generate passive income from stocks, mutual funds, forex trading while doing it tax efficiently and able to remit back to Taiwan legally.
- Be able to set up decent banking with minimal risk of accounts being frozen and having to fly over to solve issues.
- Be able to bring these assets back to Australia legally when the time comes (willing to pay tax when I eventually make it back to Australia)
Click to expand...

If you have some connection to Sinagpore i.e own a property then an ideal solution would be to use IFast Financial for trust services and their FSMOne platform for the trading. You can also use FSMOne cash parking but it you need transactional banking and third party wires then best to use DBS etc.

anomaly said:
Secondary Goals:
- ability to tax defer passive income until distributed to myself or my family, willing to pay tax in the jurisdiction I am residing in at that time.
- ability to extend structure to buy property in other jurisdictions (say, Japan, Dubai or Europe)
- Privacy would be good, but not essential.
- When I leave Australia again in retirement, minimize the hit on my exit tax.
Click to expand...

You may want to look at a life insurance policy which wraps assets in a tax friendly manor. There are some good trusted providers in Singapore. Problem is you need to understand the Taiwan treatment of such assets. Taiwan has AMT for offshore assets you own I believe. Basically I do not know enough about Taiwan to suggest anything that will meet these goals you mention so seek professional advice.

P.S Gone are the days of just setting up some structure offshore that can be considered unrelated to yourself that has no tax implications with where you live now or in future. You either need to change residency or really setup something with solid substance which is expensive and complicated for just 1m of assets.

Toggle signature
Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.