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Nomadic mode with an offshore company: Do I need to worry only about personal tax/residency?

flyingadventures662

Active Member
Dec 13, 2021
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Can someone confirm that please.

Suppose I do crypto trading for myself through an offshore company, which has another director from another country (different than my home country).

If I travel into nomadic mode (<183 days spent in every other country), and the offshore company's country does not have a DTA with the country I am traveling to, I need to worry only not to become a personal tax resident there. But I don't to worry about corporate taxes? Even if the company's director's country has a DTA with the country I am currently spending time in?

P.S. I understand that I will pay dividend tax into my home country and that even in a nomadic mode, I need to keep my tax residency there as a default tax residency.

Thanks in advance.
 
It depends on where you're going, how long you stay there (183 days is not a universal truth), what other ties you have to that location, and whether anyone pays attention to what you do.

Your concern is probably more about accidentally creating a Permanent Establishment rather than full-blown tax residence.

For example, if you spend a couple of months in Germany and have business meetings or sell to customers in Germany would probably be reason enough for Germany to determine that you at least have a permanent establishment there, if for some reason you get on their radar. It might not hold up in court, if you were to spend time and money on fighting.

Study the laws of where you're going, including any applicable treaties. DTAs follow a standard model but many times have small differences that may or may not matter in your case.

As a general rule, doing what you propose is possible and lots of people do it. Just make sure you have somewhere to call home, where you can prove you pay taxes, and prove you have a permanent residence.
 
@TheCryptoAnt @Sols

Thanks, I thought the same. I can't imagine how trading as a single person from my own laptop could put me on any radar. I am wondering if opening a corporate (but not any personal) bank account could bring attention. But, if at the end of the day I remain a tourist, who even lives there without a rental contract, I think it should not matter if I am there for 3 or 183 days, as no one pays taxes while being on a vacation, please correct me if I am wrong?

The lack of DTA certainly helps as it turns the offshore company into a sealed black box. But if there is a DTA for the country of the director or anything else, I was wondering if you know if the notorious word "habitually" from the standard DTAs text has established interpretation or its interpretation is subjective:

A person acting in a Contracting State on behalf of an enterprise of the other Contracting State...shall be deemed to be a permanent establishment in the first mentioned State if he has, and habitually exercises in that State, an authority to conclude contracts in the name of the enterprise...