Offshore Banking

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Can anyone relate their experience with UK offshore banks? I have fairly basic needs, company is going to pay split salary (CHF and GBP) and I need to work out how to manage it.

2
One thing offshore accounts have in common is that they are expensive.

The Swiss authorities don't recognise the concept and if you are the beneficial owner of the account then you should declare it on your tax returns so if you are being straight there's little advantage.

Wouldn't it be easier to maintain a UK account for the GBP element?

3
I don't want to have any taxable income other than the rental property in the UK. Are you saying I can get a GBP account in Switzerland?

I want to be able to access a UK mortgage without paying the buy to let premium and I know UK offshore accounts let you do that.

4
You can get pretty much any currency account you wish within your personal account. Okay, maybe not Kazakh Tenge or Botswanan Pula.

Going offshore is the same, except way way more expensive.

5
I think that may be true for Offshore Swiss but not Off shore British which is kind of strange.

6
In what way are UK off shore accounts expensive? The UK and CH have tax agreements to avoid double taxation. As far as I know If you have a house in the UK then you pay UK tax on that and if you have house in CH you pay tax there. Personally I would sell the house in UK if you intend to stay in CH for a while. But I'm no fianancial wizard.

7
Any offshore account is considerably more expensive than an onshore one because the offshore fees are a multiple of onshore fees.

8
UK offshore accounts to seem to be a different charging regime entirely.

Tax isn't straightforward (when is it?) as I'm coming on an expat deal and am tax neutralised. The main issue is convenience and access to sterling financing without paying a buy to let premium on my mortgage.

9
Check out HSBC in Channel islands or Singapore and their multi-currency offshore account.

10
I had a very good experience with HSBC offshore banking.

11
I shall give you a streetwise opinion if you are not talking about mega amounts.

Open a safe deposit account and put Swiss Francs cash in it.

With interest rates at 0.125%; banks charging fees; tax deducted at 35%, you are not going to make anything on interest.

Off course if you were not to declare the cash in your safe deposit box on your Swiss Tax Return you would save Capital Wealth Tax I have been told.

12
I don't understand your idea of avoiding a buy-to-let mortgage.

Most mortgage companies wised up to this market a while back - i.e. at least 5 years ago - when they automatically started charging more for buy-to-let mortgages. You could buy a house, but if you put tennants in it without declaring it then you could get into trouble with the lender if they find out.

That's my understanding of it anyway.

Oh, and another thing, off-shore accounts are not protected (or minimally protected) by the government in case of bank devaluations - as happened only last year.

All-in-all just keep your on-shore account for managing your mortgage and declare everything (unforunately).

I would also say (although, re-reading your post, I'm not sure this is relevant to you):

As stated above, you will be taxed on all global assets by the CH authorities, so there is no real "off-shore" element to your CH tax position as far as I can tell - unless, as economisto said, you are not going to declare your money.

As an expat, you would also be exempt from tax deductions (assuming you are going to have an agency managing the property for you) from your rental revenue in the UK, so again, no benefit to an off-shore account.

13
Holy thread resurrection batman! This is from 2007.

Credit Suisse definitely do a GBP current account. I have one as part of my Bonviva Platinum account. You can also have them for USD, EUR, JPY. Youdon'tt get any interest on them though.

14
Doh

15
Seems like you weren't the only one. It always makes me smile when someone registers/posts for the first time on a thread that is several years old, especially when it seems to be little more than an advert.

16
I pay Sfr. 10 a year for a Zugerkantonalbank GBP account

Transfers out and in have been free as far as I can tell, but interest is minimal.

17
The ones I really get caught out by are when a couple of other people have stuck in "recent" replies, e.g. on this one.