Topic: Capital Gains Tax - Friendly countries for cashing out BTC (Read 167 times)

No problem! I put out those questions because you need to answer them yourself, your situation, what you can live with, what your intentions are ...

Remember we are posting in a public forum, so I don't condone illegal activity (such as tax evasion or sometimes called tax avoidance/mitigation/minimize/whatever), but acknowledge that it happens everywhere.

What I mentioned are "legal" ways to cash out and enjoy your crypto holdings while looking all nice and normal to everyone else. It's not laundering since it did not come from crime, but it's the same difference.

How much bitcoin you have (or how much you want to spend) is important as that determines how long you can do this, and at what level. If you're a "soldier" or "cowboy" type and can live cheap, there are places here where you can rent a 3 bedroom house for 10k PHP a month, currently approximately 0.01 BTC every month, so 0.15 at today's prices should set you up for a year, including first and last month and a deposit. That's at the low end, and even I wouldn't want to do that since I have a family, and I've upgraded my standard of living already.

The other solution is to get someone to give you cash for your bitcoin, or some of it, or ask someone to help you handle that. Then you simply wire it back to yourself or do some sort of normal fiat money transfer, paypal, xoom, western union, or whatever seems normal on your end.

I'll tell you a short story: I've helped someone from 'murica move over to the Philippines, get the Alien Certificate Registration required to extend his stay, opened a bank account for him, then gave him a few million fiat later. I think he was planning to buy a condo and our first transaction was a few years ago for an amount equal to $5000 USD, later on followed by up to $50k USD.

He has a job or a business he set up himself, I think he's a computer programmer or website developer something or other, and he has maybe 5 or 10 employees now. I'm not sure what he does, none of my business. But he calls me when he needs BTC to Fiat, and I don't charge a fee, he's just happy for me to keep the change.

For other people in the "real" world, that they want to avoid 35% tax, how much "convenience" are you willing to pay, as it is unreasonable to tip 1% when you want to move millions unnoticed ... just saying.

Also, you've been here, so you know what it's like. Happy people. Happy times.

Thanks for posting guys but I guess I'm looking for practical feedback from those that have travelled this road previously. Is there anyone here that has moved to a capital gains tax - free - jurisdiction in order to cash out their bitcoin?


@olushakes:  I'm in the early days of figuring this out  - but it's not going to be cost prohibitive to take up residency in Panama.  A few thousand dollars to get the visa and bank account sorted via an immigration attorney.  As regards being 'tagged as a criminal or spy', I have no such concerns.  I do have queries with regard to bank and exchange reporting requirements - and what that would mean in terms of my home country (were they to get this information and were I ever to return to live in my home country).  If anyone has info on that - relative to Panama or any other tax friendly state - I'd be grateful to hear from you.  Naturally, I've posed this query to the specialists - and i'm awaiting an answer....but perhaps someone here has the knowledge already...


@Dabs:  It's some years ago but I spent some time in the Philippines previously.  It was definitely a happy time.  However, what you are proposing ( that I hand over a slice of my holding to someone!) - is not what I'm looking for.  Nor am I interested in giving someone a 'loan' - there's an official label for such an action - Idiot Tax.  Weather, sexuality, how much bitcoin I hold? This doesn't come into the query - with respect.


Anyone broaching this taxation issue? - either currently or in the recent past?  If so, please post your experience here.

If 35% is too high for you, considering you remain in your country and everything is legal, and you get to enjoy your capital gains, I know some places and some people who would gladly take 10% and set you up with a corporate entity in another country, buy you a house (or maybe just rent for awhile, so it's NOT under your name), hire armed security or a bodyguard, get you a decent used vehicle, with or without a personal chauffer (driver) as you may not qualify for a driver's license yet, and set you up with some low profile business like a water refilling station or a small corner convenience store.

You can live with household helpers that clean your house, a chef that cooks breakfast lunch and dinner unless you go out to eat at restaurants, enjoy the latest movies in theaters ... lots of things to do for the "retired".

You'll have to honestly answer some questions (and you can keep this to yourself):

1. How many coins are you hodling ... if 1000, is 350 too much to pay so you can enjoy 650 while remaining in your country. Or would you be willing to pay 100 to someone so you can keep your 900 and have the time of your life?
2. Have you considered one of the countries in South East Asia? Thailand? Indonesia? Malaysia? Singapore? Philippines? (I come from the Philippines, ... I can turn your bitcoin to fiat no problem.)
3. Where are you coming from? Is it cold? Is it hot? Do you like tropical weather?
4. Do you have family? Have you no intention of ever going back to your own country when you move?
5. How old are you? What are you going to do if you are not "working?" How long do you need it to last? You can live where I live for 1 or 2 BTC a year, very comfortable, just like any other ordinary middle to high middle class regular nobody that will not attract any attention. You can upgrade that so you live in a gated community that has it's own security.
6. Are you male? Female? LGBTI? Theirs? This might have a possible issue depending on what country you go to, ... it's "safer" if you just be by yourself and don't get any problems.

I don't know what you mean by "life changing amount" as anything under a thousand coins, you might just want to consider being a tourist and go travel around the world a bit, explore the countries that seem interesting, and I'm sure you'll find an expat that came from your country that is living there.

If you ever decide to come to the Philippines, do let me know ... there are "businesses" here who would be happy to take a "loan" from you and provide you with everything, and then pay you a monthly interest on said loans. There are 7000 islands here (only 10 of them really count, the rest are too small unless you want to buy one) and you can essentially disappear. You can stay for 30 days without a visa, and you can extend your stay for one, two or six months, and then you can even extend it to 24 to 36 months, legally.

There are also "blockchain conferences" around here, so you can attend those too and see what it's like.

35% is quite high though but moving to another country might be more expensive than that because solving the migration issue alone could drain you especially now you are not coming as an expatriate that an existing firm in the local country can file for you. Another is if there is no enough information concerning bitcoin in your intended country, you can quickly be tagged a criminal or even a spy when they see someone spending money with being able to verifiy the source based on their ignorance. You need to consider this factors before packing and leaving. #my opinion

I've been a hodl'er - playing the long game since 2013 and have never taken profits. I was quite content to continue to hodl.  However, the drama in recent months (dramatic rise in btc price)  has made me nervous.  I have all my eggs in one basket - which is not savvy.  I've arrived at a life changing amount and whilst I believe that there's every chance that btc will power on, It's not savvy for me not to take a proportion of profit now.

With that, I can't bring myself to pay the extortionate 35% Capital Gains Tax in my home country!  I've just put in paperwork with my employer to take a years leave.  However, that's just as a safety net.  Provided I can cash out safely and btc doesn't plummet beforehand, most likely I won't be going back to work.

That leaves me with a conundrum.   Where do I relocate to?  I guess I need a  country that has little or no CGT and preferably one that I can trust placing FIAT in their banks without the likelihood of their bank disappearing with my money!


Has anyone been down this road OR is anyone currently contemplating going down this road?


I'm considering Panama right now - but I don't have the full detail - and the devil is in the detail as we know....