I joined Baby Pips for this thread and wanted to give a shout out and big thanks to Clint for all his work maintaining and moderating this thread. Also to all the people sharing their experiences and input.
Putting in my vote for Assets Fx. I have been trading with them since Feb 6 2015. No server freezes or being unable to place orders, no crazy spikes in spreads. Pretty fast response to emails and chat boxes although they don’t go out of their way to bowl you over with friendliness.
I had some initial concerns about their company as I had funded with Paypal and then a week or 2 later PayPal had disappeared from their website. Contacted customer service and they said they would “honor” Paypal withdrawals up to the initial deposit but any future withdrawals would have to be wire transfer.
I demoed them, Traders Way, Forex Broker Inc and Tallinex and went with Assets Fx because they had the lowest commissions $5.20 and tightest spreads. Much better than Traders Way and Forex Brokers Inc. The Tallinex demo account was the non pro version (spreads only) so I need to contact them for a Pro ECN account demo to get a true apples to apples comparison. The spreads only version had TERRIBLE spreads by the way and this is coming from a former Oanda trader.
Slightly off topic but very relevant to this thread: Any fellow US traders using Skrill, Neteller or other e wallet to fund/withdraw with these brokers ? If so how is the experience ? I can’t find a straight yes/no on their websites to verify if people in the US can fund and withdraw. One of the reasons I went with Assets Fx was the ability to use Paypal but that is no longer possible.
I am looking to get away from oanda. looking at tradersway and tallinex. I use c trader then do my trades at oanda.
I want ecn broker but not sure where to switch too. Been looking last 2 weeks and its getting in way of my trading now.
Anyone with experience with either.Im looking to switch very soon.
Great thread also, wish I had time to go through it all.
If you read the website information properly then you will see that the [B]maximum[/B] leverage for a Pro account is 1:500 - nowhere does it say you get 1:500 off the bat.
What actually happens is that new accounts get the default 1:200 while our automated risk-assessment system looks at how you trade over a period of a few weeks. During the rolling evaluation period, you can try selecting a higher leverage level via your back-office (the current permitted range is displayed if you hover your mouse over the Leverage selection list).
The system looks at a number of things including account balance, average trade size, currencies traded, currencies traded concurrently, average floating P/L, whether trades are held open at weekends, etc. There’s no specific thing that’s going to get you 1:500, but things to avoid as much as possible are heavy floating losses and holding positions (especially negative positions) over weekends.
** If you desperately need higher than 1:200 and can’t wait for the risk-assessment system to kick in then it’s possible to request 1:300 as a manual override, but leverage will then be locked at that level so you’d have to request the lock be removed if you subsequently wanted to revert to the automated assessment system.
I hope Sensus Capital hasn’t really caved in to the [B]unreasonable[/B] demands of B. Hussein Obama’s Dodd Frank hit squad, who might be described as goons by some.
I wish that at least another 15 to 20 more people had voted on their foreign broker preferences here. Anyway, I believe that both Profiforex and Tradersway should be classified as a Trusted Broker now since, seemingly, a growing number of traders have been able to trade profitably with them and withdraw their profits with no problems. Also, I am not aware of any significant wrong doing on the part of these brokers which have been in the forex industry for years.
Where did you get this information?
After seeing your post, I successfully began the process of opening a live account with Sensus.
[B]As of 12:15 am New York time,[/B] Sensus is awaiting copies of my identity documents, and funding.
[B]
Here is the current status of my application:[/B]
I applied using my USA place of birth, my USA citizenship documents, and my current USA address.
There is some sort of glitch in the application process, where it asks for phone number.
After trying to enter my phone number using several different formats, I went to live chat, where Dennis instructed me to just enter 123456789 as my phone number, until they get things sorted at their end. Except for that glitch, the live account opening process couldn’t have been easier or faster.
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There seems to be unanimous agreement that [B]Trader’s Way[/B] (Dominica) has earned our trust, and deserves the [B]TRUSTED BROKER[/B] 
label. I will add the label to their listing this morning.
[B]Profiforex[/B] (Seychelles) has been running a close second to Trader’s Way, but I’m going to hold off for a bit, before pinning the label on them, until we get a little more live customer feedback.
Later this week, I’ll clean up the List (remove the red ink, etc.), and bring the links up to date. To make room for links to recent posts, I’ll have to remove a few of the oldest links (as I mentioned here).
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I think that PaxForex deserves to be on the trusted list. I have been following them (and running an account there) for quite some time. They still accept US clients and I think it may be one of the best offshore brokers who accepts US clients.
This makes me mad! I am getting my passport this week now. Admittedly I do not hold one.
I hold both US and EU passports, unfortunately it’s not where your a citizen of, but where you reside.
Don’t know what to tell you.
I received an email from Sensus (early Tuesday morning) confirming the account which I had just set up. The email included my new account number and detailed instructions for funding the account.
My experience over the past 24 hours indicates that US residents are welcome at Sensus, and setting up a new account is remarkably easy.
You got set up with Sensus through an IB (ForexSignals.com) which, in turn, was set up as a Sensus partner only about 6 weeks ago. Here’s a LINK to your forum’s thread on Sensus.
Maybe Sensus is severing its ties with your IB.
Sensus as of late last month no longer accepts new U.S clients as the regulation loophole has been closed by their regulators according to Sensus customer support. Old clients are not affected.
now if someone from there can answer my question on how to get ny close I would switch. But cant seem to get right one or anyone else to get back to me. I really wanted to use them but its dwindling.
Exactly, so the passport is step 1 to residing elsewhere. In a few years I will be gone for this and other reasons.
Chat with [B]Sensus Capital[/B] at 4:15 PM today, EDT.
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: Hello Tom and welcome to Sensus Capital Markets. How may I help you today?
[B]Tom[/B]: Hi Milos, is Sensus still accepting US clients?
[B]Tom[/B]: I have been hearing conflicting things. Please let me know.
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: As from 26/03 we are not accepting NEW US clients
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: Do you already have an account?
[B]Tom[/B]: Yes
[B]Tom[/B]: I had withdrawn but was planning to fund it in the near future
[B]Tom[/B]: But I am wondering, will I be asked to leave soon?
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: Can I have your account number
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: As far as I know, we have no reason to ask you to leave
[B]Tom[/B]: 1011***6
[B]Tom[/B]: Well, if the MFSA asked you to stop accepting US clients, I assumed you would be dropping your current ones eventually as well.
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: I have no informations about that,
[B]Tom[/B]: Alright
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: Please contact your sales person
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: “Lukas Hantschick” <[removed email to prevent spam]>
[B]
Milos Petkovic[/B]: He will have all the answers you need[B]Tom[/B]: I know someone who signed up for an account a couple of days ago
[B]Tom[/B]: From the USA
[B]Tom[/B]: and he was accepted
[B]Tom[/B]: So I am wondering how he was able to sign up then? He did not go through an IB, just signed up like normal.
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: The account must have been opened before 26/03
[B]Tom[/B]: It was done on the night of 3/30
[B]Milos Petkovic[/B]: Please contact Lukas for any other question about US clients, I don’t have enough informations here
[B]Tom[/B]: And yesterday, the account was confirmed
[B]Tom[/B]: Okay
[B]Tom[/B]: Good day to you.
I don’t know what is going on.
Well, over the last few years the US has been tightening rules on taxation, and I think that this is a major reason why many brokers are not allowing U.S clients. Just a thought,…
Speaking of taxes, how do we handle taxes when we have a foreign broker? Will a foreign broker send us forms at the end of the year detailing our earnings, like other businesses in the U.S. do?
In the past, most U.S. and offshore brokers [B]have not reported[/B] tax information to the U.S. IRS. Previously, they left all of that in your lap. [B]This is now beginning to change.[/B]
There are two things you need to know about U.S. taxes and reporting requirements:
• [U]Your tax obligations under IRS regulations[/U].
[B]The U.S. claims the right to tax you on your worldwide income.[/B] So, if you have an offshore forex account which produces profit (taxable income) in a particular tax year, then you must report that income on your tax return along with all your other taxable income.
If you can prove that you have paid tax to a foreign government on your offshore forex profits, then you can claim a tax [B]credit[/B] for the foreign tax that you paid.
• [U]Your foreign account reporting requirement under IRS regulations[/U].
[B]The IRS requires that you report all of the foreign financial accounts[/B] (bank accounts, forex accounts, etc.) that you hold, IF the total value of all those accounts combined equals or exceeds $10,000 (or the foreign-currency equivalent of $10,000), whether those accounts produced taxable income, or not.
For example, if you have an offshore forex account, [U]and[/U] an offshore bank account, [U]and[/U] on any day during the current tax year, the funds in those two accounts [U]combined[/U] equaled or exceeded $10,000, then you must file an IRS form called Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) — previously called Foreign Bank Account Report — revealing to the IRS the accounts you hold and the balances in them.
If the aggregate total of your offshore balances is less than $10,000, then [B]you need not file the FBAR.[/B] However, you are responsible for reporting, and paying tax on, any income derived from your offshore account(s).
If your offshore holdings equal or exceed $50,000, there are additional reports which you are required by law to file along with your U.S.tax return.
In the past, it has been fairly easy for small retail forex traders holding modest offshore balances to ignore the IRS, and simply not reveal their accounts, or report the profits made in those accounts. The IRS has long been aware that small traders were able to fly under the radar, because their offshore brokers didn’t alert the IRS to the existence of their accounts, or the amount of their forex profits.
To try to catch such tax evaders (and others), the U.S. has entered into reciprocal tax information agreements, called FATCA — Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, with many foreign governments.
FATCA does not impose new requirements on forex traders who trade offshore, but it imposes burdensome requirements on foreign financial institutions — and this includes offshore forex brokers — WHO DO NOT REPORT THE ACCOUNTS OF THEIR U.S. CLIENTS to the IRS. In other words, foreign financial institutions, including offshore forex brokers, are now required to act as agents of the IRS, or face all sorts of crap from the U.S. government.
[B]Bottom line:[/B] If you’re willing to risk heavy fines and penalties — and potentially jail time — then take your chances and flout the tax laws.
Otherwise, just accept the fact that your offshore forex profits [B]are taxable by the U.S.,[/B] and that’s simply one of the costs of doing business.
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Clint, thanks so much for the useful information. I have zero knowledge in how to handle any forex profits I make in regards to paying taxes on it to the IRS. I was always able to do my own taxes with the simple low paying job that I had, but I assume paying taxes with any forex earnings is different.
But my question still remains: do foreign forex brokers send out W-2 forms to their American clients, in order for us to do our taxes to pay the IRS? Or do we just copy our trading statement of every single trade we’ve made and send those stats to the IRS?
I guess it is easy to see how dumb I am in these matters. LOL.
By the way, my question is not only for Clint but for anyone that has traded with an offshore / foreign broker and has had to pay taxes to Uncle Sam.
Hello again, pipfreak
This post might give you some useful additional information — 301 Moved Permanently
As I mentioned in my previous post, in the past, forex brokers generally have [B]not[/B] furnished tax information to clients, or to the IRS. This was true of U.S. brokers and offshore brokers. Things are changing. The IRS is under intense pressure from Congress to raise revenue. Hence, FATCA (which relates specifically to offshore financial entities), and other measures enacted to close tax loopholes domestically.
So, [B]assume[/B] that your offshore broker is reporting your account details [B]to the IRS,[/B] in order to avoid the sanctions which the IRS can put on him for failing to do so.
But, [B]don’t assume[/B] that your broker will furnish the equivalent of a Form 1099 [B]to you.[/B] You may get no tax documents from your offshore broker — and, thus, you may find yourself in the position of having to crunch through all of your account P/L, in order to arrive at the correct profit (or loss) figure to enter on your tax return.
As for copying your account statement, and sending that info to the IRS, don’t do that. Use your account statements to calculate the bottom line (overall profit or loss for the tax year), and enter that figure on your tax return.
Keep all your supporting documents on hand, in case (anytime in the next 7 years) you have to prove to the IRS that the figure you reported on your 2014 tax return is accurate.
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The List has been updated.
I succeeded in adding 13 recent links (in the listings for AssetsFX, Sensus Capital, ProfiForex,
Trader’s Way, PaxForex, and Tallinex) without having to delete any previous links.
For now, I have added a “caution” to the listing for Sensus, indicating that they are in the process of “disallowing” new U.S. clients. When the dust has settled on this issue, I will move Sensus to Group 2.