Two passports and CRS

[FRANCO]

Hi,
My cousin has two passports, french and lebanese. He is living in France.
If he creates an account in Panama for exemple with his lebanese passport, CRS will communicate this news to Lebanon.
France will never receive this information even if his name is the same on both passports, correct?

Thanks

 

[Sols]

Yes, that is correct. If the financial institution has no knowledge of or reason to suspect that your cousin lives in France, the only reporting would be to Lebanon.

Just make sure to leave no trail to France. No French mailing address or phone number. No French IP address. No logging in from a mobile phone located in France. No transfers to/from other personal accounts in France with the French address (full address is included in SWIFT messages).

 

[Joe Blasco]

Yes, that is correct. If the financial institution has no knowledge of or reason to suspect that your cousin lives in France, the only reporting would be to Lebanon.

Just make sure to leave no trail to France. No French mailing address or phone number. No French IP address. No logging in from a mobile phone located in France. No transfers to/from other personal accounts in France with the French address (full address is included in SWIFT messages).

they will probably ask in the forms if he holds another citizenship, answer is no as he is at the moment citizen of the country he presents at the bank. Be careful with the stamp of entry ! Don' t send money to your french account. All other is too much TV...

 

[Martin Everson]

Yes he would need to take the precautions mentioned above. He wants to show no links to France in connection with the bank or in any personal profile or social media profile he may have online showing his lifestyle in France. If employees can get caught by employers enjoying a holiday while claiming to be sick from work then taxman can do much worse.

 

[Tax Cow]

A couple of errors.

This also requires a Lebanese proof of address. Purchase an apartment in Lebanon but lease it out, still, presenting it as your own residence to that bank. Given a French address or phone number on the bank's record, the report will go to French authorities regardless of the Lebanese PP you showed. Citizenship is out of scope of CRS; just the self-declared residency and residency indica matter.

The IP address from which you log in to online banking is not a relevant CRS indica but it's best if you take a vacation to Lebanon right after you get the bank account for the purpose of generating some transaction history there. Lebanese PP, Lebanese Phone Number, Lebanese Address, Initial transaction history (even if brief) in Lebanon... This is clean, professional, and very difficult to unravel. Just don't make rookie spending errors, like purchasing a brand new Mercedes S-Class in France when your annual tax return is comparable to that of a waitress.

Not a hater on Panama bank accounts, but as my last piece of advice, re-consider. The place is on too many people's radars due to recent scandals. Will take a decade till it washes off... until then, high-value wires between Panama and the OECD could be as problematic as crossing the US-Mexico border as a tattooed Nicaraguan skinhead.

 

[FRANCO]

Thanks for your responses.
I agree with you regarding Panama but the added value of this country is that it does not taxe foreign profits.
I am reading about the MN2H program in Malaysia, this will enable us to create an account there, but I am not sure if Malaysia will tax the income money in our accounts. Not easy to find the information

 

[Artemis Eleutheria]

Hardly any country taxes profits of non-resident bank account, that is supposedly the job of the country of residence.

Panama do not tax foreign profits for Panamanian residents, which seems irrelevant here.

Or did I miss something?

 

[FRANCO]

Well, I'll be in the following situation:
- I am not resident in Panama, I have just an account there.
- I am resident in Lebanon where I spend the most of my time.
- However, my income is arriving to my account in Panama (because banks in Lebanon are going to bunkpruts otherwise I would use a lebanese bank account).

Normally, I must pay taxes in Lebanon.

 

[Artemis Eleutheria]

Correct, you would not gain a tax advantage in Panama. Also both are CRS countries so count on Panama sending your bank info to the Lebanese tax-man.

Whether your bank in Panama is any safer than your bank in Lebanon is more difficult to determine ... they will all go bust at some time but the question is when.