Has anyone gone through the process already and knows how strict IB are about it?
Why I want to switch: As a US expat living in Europe, I am, in terms of tax, at an extreme disadvantage when purchasing foreign-domiciled ETFs (among other securities) but the EU enacted a new law this year that prevents EU-residing retail investors from purchasing ETFs that have not provided a KID (key information document) and US-ETFs apparently have no interest in providing this documentation or have comparable EU-domiciled funds that retail investors can buy... neither of which helps me.
I'm looking into doing it, I've received the necessary paperwork from IB and while I fulfill one of the criteria (working in the financial industry for at least one year at a professional position), I don't have the average of 10 trades per quarter over the past four quarters (and certainly don't have the cash, which is another criteria but then I only need two of three). I'm concerned about how strict IB is about the whole thing because they are literally the only game in town when it comes to brokers in Europe willing to deal with US citizens due to FATCA. No one else will touch me due to FATCA.
There is a loophole of sorts where I can use my wife's brokerage account and just gift her money (thank goodness for the gift tax!) but then we have all of our stuff together in one lumped account, which we'd both like to avoid (we don't even maintain any joint accounts), and should the IRS ever decide to audit me, it looks very suspicious...
I'd appreciate any feedback the community here can give me.
Submitted August 07, 2018 at 05:41AM by wievid https://ift.tt/2OQMihp
