- Joined
- May 2019
- Messages
- 6,542
rydg187 said:So my question is where can I set up an offshore corp and send and receive visa and mastercard payments for my business while keeping my hard earned money safe from frozen accounts and endless requests for supporting documents etc?
You'll need to go back at least 10 years into the past. Due to FATCA, as soon as someone catches wind there's a US person involved, what you do will end up reported. Add to that vastly increased compliance in general, and the days of moving money around internationally without risk of frozen funds and without risk of having to show source of wealth, source of funds, and other due diligence are long gone.
You can go the route of synthetic or stolen identities ("darks"), but all you're doing is adding wire fraud and money laundering to your activities, which if/when the structure blows up takes you from mere tax crimes (which depending on their severity can be negotiated down to fines/penalties, maybe some symbolic prison time) to a long-term rent-free stay in prison. That is if the bank/EMI doesn't just freeze your account before then.
There are ways to accept payment in fiat (i.e. debit/credit cards) and receive settlements in crypto from the PSPs. These are normally used to avoid anti-gambling regulations and such and usually cost quite a lot. But it could be a way to let your customers pay how they prefer while you end up with crypto. The same problem occurs, though: what you're doing is illegal by not reporting/paying taxes, and now you're adding money laundering et cetera on top.
The root cause is the US citizenship. You're toxic goods and need to completely remove yourself or your US citizenship from the equation.
Renouncing citizenship is a big decision that should not be taken lightly, but it is an option. You can acquire other citizenships in somewhat decent jurisdictions for at around 500,000 USD and upwards.

