Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
2253

Speaking as a layman, not as a tax expert:

If you are a US citizen or legal US resident, the IRS asserts a claim on a portion of your worldwide income. They assert this claim, regardless of where you live (in the US or abroad), where your income is earned (here or abroad), or whether you have an income tax liability in another country.

In your case, regardless of (1) whether you live here (or in the Philippines, or anywhere else in the world), (2) whether you earn your money here (or somewhere else), and (3) whether you pay taxes in the Philippines (or even in several other countries), the IRS will claim that you have a US tax liability, by virtue of your US citizenship. So, count on having to file US income taxes in every year that (1) you are a US citizen, and (2) you have worldwide income in excess of the US tax-filing threshold.

If you pay income taxes in the Philippines (or in any other foreign country), then your goal should be to accurately claim credit on your US tax return for the foreign taxes you have actually paid.

That’s about as far as I can go with un-official advice. You need to exercise your own due diligence, from this point forward. Request the relevant tax publications, and forms, from the IRS. If those materials are not sufficient to answer all your questions, and guide you in claiming your foreign tax credit, then you’ll need to consult a licensed tax adviser.

Keep this in mind: you can get free advice from the IRS on matters like this — BUT they can be wrong — and when they are, they assume that it’s YOUR fault for taking bad advice! Ain’t they a swell bunch of folks?

This post might be of interest to you — especially the part about my Canadian friend.

2254

Hello Clint and happy U.S. traders
 hope you’re all well.

Of the 130+ brokerages Clint brought us back in late June for comment & consideration, here are the 27 I think are worthwhile to drill down on.

From his original list, I’ve removed
(a) duplicates,
(b) those already in our Group 1 or Group 2,
© out-of-business,
(d) orphaned or ghost sites,
(e) white labels, relabels, IBs
(f) CFTC/NFA/FCA/et al. regulated entities if evident
(g) 50:1 or less max offered on spot currencies
(h) sites I couldn’t access due to security flags - namely Solidity Brokers and Vertifx.

Any questions about why specific brokers were chucked out, reply here and I’ll give you what notes I made in the process.

Questions about the filtered list below? do the same. There are likely a few still to be expunged. I haven’t full disclosures on all of them, that’s the next stage and I hope you all will join in.

Alpha Trading CM   alphatradingcm.com
ATIG Securities      atig.com
EFX                      efxco.com
Equilor Trader        equilor.hu
Exto Capital        extocapital.com
Forex Ltd              forexltd.co.uk  
Forex Optimum      forexoptimum.com
Frontier Forex        frontierforex.com 
FXD24                   fxd24.com
FXFlat                   fxflat.com
FXT Swiss              fxtswiss.com
Goldboro               goldboro.com
Goldstein Brokers   goldsteinbrokers.com
GreenFX Traders     greenfxtraders.com
IHI - Investment House Int'l    ihifx.com  
Market Investments Team (MIT-FX)  mit-fx.com
NatureForex         natureforex.com
Nefteprombank       nefteprominvest.com
Persepolis Capital Management    pcmbrokers.com/en
Real Trade Group    realtrader.org
RTFX                     rtfx.com
Shaw Markets         shawfx.com
Swiss International  swissfs.com
Titan Financial Group (TFG)   titanfingroup.com
Teletrade               teletrade.ae
TradeOrbitz            tradeorbitz.com
UMOFX                   umofx.com

What I’d like to see is traders ‘claiming’ a few of these as projects (it’s not a lengthy process) and posting the basics so Clint can have ‘more fun’ with his list (how ya doing, Clint? :-)). This way we can cover more ground without duplicating each others’ efforts in the initial vetting stage.

See Post #1 for the essential data to obtain.

Maybe we can’t always give what we’d like to friends who have helped us and who might be in our thoughts as the year turns over again. This is a way we can lend a hand to other U.S.-based currency traders who would like to start the year with a fresh and freedom-enhancing brokerage relationship.

I’ll claim the first 5 on the list.

Who’ll take one or two more?

2255

Seychelles and Dominica have become more popular in the past couple of years as corporate domiciles. Brokerages may retain old registrations while posting ‘official’ address changes, too. Some addresses were always accommodation spots or camouflage, as deep DD isn’t often done (or possible) on firms truly determined to offer services they see a market for.

I’ve seen some companies scoot like bugs all over the map yet never operate a scam or run with funds. RefCO, MFGlobal and PGF would have done well to emulate some of these ‘fringe broker’ practices, if only in the sturdiness and adaptability departments. But then, if you want to get favors from on high you end up paying three times, every time (old Gypsy saying).

Once things wind down here, I’ll see what I can do on spot-checking. Thanks again for this thread, Clint. We’ll keep it shiny.

2256

Hey Gypsy,

It’s good to hear from you. I’ve been wondering where you were hiding out. It’s been — what? — a year-and-a-half since your last forum post?

Thanks for lending a hand with the aforementioned vetting. Your contributions to this thread have been much appreciated in the past, and are welcome here once again.

2257

Hello Clint! Glad to see you’re thriving. We’ve been mostly traveling from July of '12 to end of summer this year, and are set up now back in NYC. Trading’s been mighty decent to us and we’re grateful for a wee break now through the New Year.

Eager to expand Group 1, both for the U.S. and poor Canadian sods feeling the stinking paw of the CFTC/NFA & minions.

I had some commo with IC Markets yesterday, nice fellows in Australia. They openly explained it wasn’t legal for U.S. residents to trade elsewhere. My question of course was “whereabouts in the Act or regs did you discover that, as I’ve combed it like sifting for gold and can’t find a single grain of prohibition!” They shuffled their feet a bit but stood on “general legalities,” such youngsters. I passed them a hint or two, one being maybe (if so) it would show prudence to remove USA from their demo and live application pages


anyway cheers and “let the vetting begin!” ha ha

2258

This has been addressed many times. It is simply not worth the headache or the trouble for the majority of the reputable fx firms to accept US residents. In order for them to solicit US residents for retail forex business, they must register with the CFTC, which would then bring them under CFTC jurisdiction anyway. CFTC has sued several companies that initially tried to continue soliciting US residents. Overwhelmingly, the majority all folded to CFTC pressure and either closed accts and/or refused new US resident clients.

You’ll notice that none of the developed countries fx firms with regulation accept US retail clients openly or at all. But the good news is that it is pretty easy to get non-US residency and then open accts as necessary.

I do appreciate what Clint has done here though.

2259

Brokerages will have websites. If that constitutes soliciting, then all brokers are always soliciting everyone with a browser.

What’s reputable, though?

I’m not concerned about putting this information on a public website. Accepting a client is private business. If the client tells others, he may change his mind in the meantime and close the account, or maybe he lied. Or maybe it was long ago. Let the bottomfeeders wear themselves out chasing our leads. They’re all on broker search/review sites all over the web, anyway. Is simplifying things for BabyPips readers such a bad idea? Of course not.

We’re aware of how this government’s agents and ‘partners’ work.

I mean, look how various ‘malaysian meet-up’ services work. It’s not even as acceptably ugly as it looks; it’s really ugly. It’s not ‘business’ at least not how traders with clean hands look at business. Governments love that stuff; in fact they run most of it worldwide.

Business is interesting and worthwhile, it seems to me. On the other hand, why not just cave in to coercion, fear mongering, and psychopathic parasitism? We don’t like to encourage it, that’s why. Seems obvious.

Clint’s list has been valuable for years and continues to be so. It’s a good idea too, for reasons well known and little known.

2260

A little less than a year ago some of the Meta4 trading stations of some brokers, in the lower right hand corner said “Old Version,” and they stopped working. So traders had to download the most recent version. I had trouble for a while downloading that newer version until I downloaded FxChoice’s new “zip” version of the Meta4, which apparently is a more compressed, more easily downloadable version of it. Maybe this information will help some traders.

Also, according to 2 recent online chats with Arab Financial Brokers, they no longer accept US traders. They seem to be hanging on to already established US accounts, though because I opened a small account about 1.5 years ago and can still trade with it. I sent an email to them about a week ago asking if existing American accounts will be allowed to continue, but so far no response has come from them, and the online chat person told me that he is unqualified to answer that question. The United States is still in the drop down list of areas of residence when applying for a new account, so maybe that chat person was just incompetent. AFB recently introduced individual US stock trading in their standard accounts which require a minimum of $2,000 to open. The stock trading is a good feature of AFB because, according to my knowledge, with US brokers you usually have to deposit much more money to get started with stock day trading.

2261

Thanks for this info, compounder. I will try to confirm their policy regarding new U.S. accounts.

2262

I have cleaned up the LIST (removed the red ink, etc.).

2263

Just opened a account with FXCHOICE. will repot back what i think about them.

2264

Hello Clint,

Thank you for all of you work you put into this thread. I for one appreciate it very much! I made a comparison of the brokerages that have not bowed to the proud USA for a certain strategy which may be provide more details to help others. The one I chose to begin testing on their demo account won my decision because of the excellent customer service from 3 different people at their brokerage that I corresponded with, which is ForexBrokerInc (Malta). Please see the attachment. Best regards Google Sites: Sign-in

2265

Hello, [B]Deuteronomy818.[/B] Welcome to this thread.

After you’ve done some trading with [B]ForexBrokerInc,[/B] let us know what you think of them.

Your screen-name refers to a Scripture verse which is appropriate for traders:

Deut 8:18 — “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth,
that He may establish his covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
(quoting Moses) — The New King James Version

2266

[B]Forex FS,[/B] the only Australian broker on our List, has gotten its wrist slapped by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Here’s a short article by Avi Mizrahi, posted today at [I]Forex Magnates.[/I]

ASIC Bans Forex FS From Offering Retail Managed Accounts For Ten Years | Forex Magnates

This regulatory action against Forex FS involves a program of managed forex accounts having only 34 participating clients. Therefore, this action probably does not directly concern anyone on this forum. However, if you happen to be a customer of Forex FS, or if you are considering a customer relationship with them, then knowing about anything affecting this broker should be viewed as part of your [I]due diligence[/I] as an informed trader.

I will reference this post in the listing for Forex FS.

2267

Thank you Clint. I am testing their demo platform now. I will open a live account with them today. From their excellent customer service I expect a profitable business relationship with them.

Thanks for displaying the Scripture. God’s power is available to all that are in covenant with Him.

2268

Well, if someone else can get away with quoting the Bible here, maybe I can, too.

To be more specific about applying Clint’s Scripture, Matthew 23:23 says: “
 You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (New Living Translation). The Common English Bible also “spells out” the need to tithe with this verse.

Most traders need all the help (including divine blessings) they can get. A recent unprecedented study (www.STATEofthePLATE.info) proves tithing generally helps financially. We don’t need Malachi’s curse or possibly even Haggai’s monetary curse for failing to faithfully tithe on our net, after tax trading or other income (Malachi 3:8,9, Haggai 1:6).

2269

For the canadians out there, I just received an email from hotforex:

Dear Client,

HotForex has always been committed to being transparent and supportive of our clients. We monitor situations and make strategic decisions that we hope act in favor of our clients and we always look to provide the best service we can given the environment and constraints that we have to work in.

Unfortunately sometimes these decisions are taken out of our hands. It is for this reason that we are contacting you with an update about a strategic business decision we have made about the provision of our services to Canadian clients.

Even though HotForex does not have any offices and/or operations in Canada and does not engage in the solicitation of clients it was communicated to us that the Ontario Securities Commission does not allow us to offer our services on a cross-border basis to Canadian Clients. Therefore it is with great regret to inform you that HotForex will no longer be offering its services to new or existing Canadian based Clients.

We recognize the importance of this decision to you and we apologize for any inconvenience this development may cause you, regrettably it is a decision that we have no choice but to roll out.

In light of the above, by the 16th of May, 2014 and no later than 12 midnight server time all open positions and pending orders in your trading account with HotForex will need to be closed. Any positions left open will be closed at the prevailing market price at that time and all pending orders will be deleted.

Please note that the deadline may change if it is necessitated by our regulators.

Any accounts that have a zero balance and accounts with balances but no open trades as of this email being sent will be closed with immediate effect.

Once the accounts are closed, the funds will be cleared of any outstanding bonus and based on your withdrawal request sent to the original source of funds – in line with our anti-money laundering policy.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us at support at hotforex dot com.

Best regards,

The HotForex Management Team

2271

I’m testing vbcapitalfx.com currently. Quite good so far
 Will keep you posted.

2272

The Czech broker ForexCent has gone out of business due to a “dispute with the Russian company Metaquotes,” and their trading station is now nonfunctional. US accounts can be transferred, or try to be transferred to Liteforex by opening an account with them and emailing their finance department with the ForexCent account number, according to the ForexCent website, but Liteforex currently will not usually accept “new” American traders. Maybe they will make an exception, though, for US traders that held ForexCent accounts. Liteforex’s chat representative told me they “cannot forbid,” whatever that means, opening an account with them registering under a country other than the United States since the US is not listed in the drop down list of countries you can select as the one you live in.

2273

Anyone know what happened to Arab Financial brokers (AFB)? If you go to their usualsite "WWW dot afb dot com dot kw you get a message saying that they are not involved in any way with AFB Invest but the site is not otherwise functional. My MT4 on my iphone and on desktop has stopped working. What is weird is that AFBInvest site looks a lot like what AFB site used to look.

So is AFB dead? What happened to them, anyone know? Bear in mind this is AFB not AFBFX. I was never involved with AFBFX.