Offshore bank accounts

Roadghost

Roadghost

Well-known member
Forum Sponsor
Which is best? Never really looked into this, but with the current government squandering the public purse you know the Cdn $ is headed way south, intentionally or unintentionally.

Any recommendations?
 
You want to hold foreign currency or you want your money away from prying eyes? People I know that are stashing money have it in the Caymans or Turks & Caicos. If you just want to hold foreign currency, many brokerages let you do that or alternatively, just buy equities in a variety of currencies to hedge that way.

I had an account setup before with a company in NZ that could hold whatever currency you wanted. I just used them to transfer, never to hold though. They were purchased by XE (or they purchased XE?) and now the system is a bit different. The scary part of minimally regulated offshore havens is what happens if they disappear with your money?
 
Wouldn't it be better, if you could find out where Trudeau has his money invested, in a timely manner, and get yours there too.

Although, there'd be some risk with that, as well.
 
Baggsy said:
Wouldn't it be better, if you could find out where Trudeau has his money invested, in a timely manner, and get yours there too.

Although, there'd be some risk with that, as well.
Click to expand...
Trudeau probably just trumped it up and has things in a "blind" trust where he knows all the holdings and makes sure the administrator is in tune with government policy if ya know what I mean. ;)

Politicians should be forced to liquidate and if the trust decides to reinvest, it should be illegal for them to know anything about the investment.
 
lucky2 said:
cra are going after stashed cash
Click to expand...
Well that's the whole point of a haven. Assuming they dont blab or steal your money, it never existed.

When I had the foreign exchange account setup, I could hold and trade forex. Some people could turn a nominal initial investment into a huge pool of money. Then you can either bring it back in slowly or even better use it as vacation money and only draw when you are outside of the country. If it never returns to canada and you picked your spot wisely, you have little chance of getting caught.
 
If you're worried about Cdn$ and want to forex to another currency, you can do that with all the banks in Canada for USD and major currencies with few of them. If you want to do shady offshoring, no point. If you want to bring the cash outside of Canada cause you no longer trust our institutions, then Singapore is your next best option...however, if you're hedging against that situation, buy ammo and cans of beans instead.
 
Just make sure its US dollars, they work all over the planet. The Hudson Bay peso is pretty useless once your south of Fort Erie.
 
Baggsy said:
Wouldn't it be better, if you could find out where Trudeau has his money invested, in a timely manner, and get yours there too.

Although, there'd be some risk with that, as well.
Click to expand...

The Trudeau family have their money in Cayman Island bank accounts according to one news source. So did Jean Chretien. The CRA is a joke when it comes to wealthy people. They only go after easy targets to meet their quotas.
 
GreyGhost said:
You want to hold foreign currency or you want your money away from prying eyes? People I know that are stashing money have it in the Caymans or Turks & Caicos. If you just want to hold foreign currency, many brokerages let you do that or alternatively, just buy equities in a variety of currencies to hedge that way.

I had an account setup before with a company in NZ that could hold whatever currency you wanted. I just used them to transfer, never to hold though. They were purchased by XE (or they purchased XE?) and now the system is a bit different. The scary part of minimally regulated offshore havens is what happens if they disappear with your money?
Click to expand...

I'm interested in getting my money out of Canada into offshore bank accounts or similar holdings. There's going to be a wave of taxation coming from the Liberals to pay for this mess they made. You can be damn sure Trudeau and his cronies will be immune. What's worse, I'm confident Canadian voters are going to put them back in office next time, so I'm looking to bail out.
 
Roadghost said:
The Trudeau family have their money in Cayman Island bank accounts according to one news source. So did Jean Chretien. The CRA is a joke when it comes to wealthy people. They only go after easy targets to meet their quotas.
Click to expand...

The set up fees for those sorts of things are probably more than an average person's total wealth...
Those are rich folk games. If you're at level... You have people looking after it for you.
 
Isle of Man
I have an account there with Standard Bank ( 2 actually, USD and GBP)
can open an account as a non-resident
takes a bit of legwork - apply online then courier the required docs
wire transfer fees are pretty steep
but it keeps CRA out of your business

Comprehensive international banking

Explore our comprehensive international banking solutions, including offshore banking options tailored to meet your global needs.
international.standardbank.com international.standardbank.com
 
J_F said:
wire transfer fees are pretty steep
but it keeps CRA out of your business

Comprehensive international banking

Explore our comprehensive international banking solutions, including offshore banking options tailored to meet your global needs.
international.standardbank.com international.standardbank.com
Click to expand...
That was one of the piss offs with my NZ solution. The banks know what you are doing and charge a quite ridiculous wire fee to make sure they get their share of your money. You might be able to wash it through xe now. You deposit into their toronto account and it pops out wherever you want in whatever currency you want.
 
  • Like
Reactions: J_F
raginduck said:
The set up fees for those sorts of things are probably more than an average person's total wealth...
Those are rich folk games. If you're at level... You have people looking after it for you.
Click to expand...

This.

If you can afford to have KPMG or Deloitte on retainer by all means
 
Another option that isnt hard to setup is a trust. That can potentially shield you from many taxes they may implement and give you options on who, how and when the money comes out. You will have yearly expenses associated with this as well so it depends on how much you are dealing with.
 
I agree there's going to be a reckoning for all this govt spending going on.

However, hiding your current assets from the CRA is only one piece of the pie that they can eat off your plate. If you're earning significant income on your capital (unlikely through interest, since all central banks are in a race to zero percent interest), it has to be via some other investment, and more people are going to claim capital losses rather than gains in the next couple of years.

Other pieces of the the pie that are unaffected by moving your assets offshore are income tax, sales tax or consumption taxes, clawbacks to government assistance (OAS, CPP, EI, welfare, etc), raising the fees for everything the government provides - permits for housing, driving, fishing, etc.

It's going to get very expensive to live in Canada after all this is over.

I think these are probably more likely avenues of taxation than going after people's current assets. The government is slowly devaluing everyone's savings anyway by printing money left, right and centre, so hiding CDN dollars in an off-shore account is not going to save you from a $0.40 loonie,. Not unless you perform some kind of foreign exchange, which can be done legally anyway, without paying the hefty set-up fees for off-shore banking.

Bottom line, I don't see the benefit of moving your assets. If you really want to escape the coming shtstorm, renouncing citizenship and finding a country that isn't affected by the financial crunch would probably be a better bet.
 
Last edited:
If you're going to take the risk, cryptocurrency might be a way.
I would expect that some money must get laundered through that.
After all, I believe that the supply is limited, unlike Canada, where Trudeau can just print an unlimited amount.
 
Baggsy said:
If you're going to take the risk, cryptocurrency might be a way.
I would expect that some money must get laundered through that.
After all, I believe that the supply is limited, unlike Canada, where Trudeau can just print an unlimited amount.
Click to expand...
I havent seen a cryptocurrency with a sustainable model. Most are barely profitable at best to mine now. Fewer miners equals longer wait times for a transaction. It just doesnt work long term. In the short term, you may make or lose a lot of money, but in a few years, most of the current cryptocurrencies will be like a cupboard full of beta tapes. It cost you a lot to fill the cupboard but you have trouble giving it away and even more trouble trying to use it yourself.
 
Last edited:
I have concerns about more than a few dollars in the bank as it is low hanging fruit for taxes and claw backs. Nothing will stimulate a business rebound like making the millions that people have stashed in banks or under the mattress get spent. Spend it or get it wealth taxed. Negative interest rates pop up in discussions from time to time.

IMO international bank accounts aren't for anyone who can't afford international lawyers and accountants.

Right now I can't get my bank to figure out how my cell phone payment went astray.
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom