Whether to continue with offshore account or start with NISA

[krishsangs]

Hi everyone, greetings !
I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I am from India and it's only 3 years since i came to Japan. I am not yet a permanent resident for tax purposes. Keeping this in mind i opened an interactive brokers account in US late last year. The primary reason being i am not liable for tax on capital gains until i repartriate them back to Japan. But i hear that this loophole is closed this year by a tax amendment. Would it make more sense to move the money back to Japan and open a NISA account here instead?
I am more comfortable with ETFs listed in US. Any recommendations for a local broker who support investing in them through NISA?
Thanks & Regards
Sri

[RetireJapan]

Hi Sri

From what I know Interactive Brokers are an excellent choice, and you are right that you don't have to report any income from overseas sources until you become permanently resident for tax purposes (normally five years in Japan).

After that you should report dividends and realized capital gains (ie when you sell things) but if you buy and hold you won't have to take any action.

I believe the new tax laws apply to inheritances not foreign income.

If you wish to buy US-listed securities through a Japanese broker, SBI seems to be one of the best choices in terms of low fees and wide range of products offered. I personally use Rakuten through inertia, but would choose SBI now if I were starting from zero.

Hope that helps

[krishsangs]

That helps, thank you very much

[krishsangs]

Hi
It looks like Non-permanent resident tax exemption is only for stocks bought overseas before 1-April-2017 and sold after 1-April-2017. Refer here for details - https://www.pwc.com/jp/en/taxnews-inter ... 511-en.pdf

Whether or not money is repatriated, any capital gains arising from stocks bought after 1-April-2017 will be taxable in Japan if the holding period is less than 10 years.

Unfortunately rules are so complicated and keep changing every year.

Regards
Sri

[RetireJapan]

Uuurgh. I don't even want to think about that. Figuring out the other stuff was bad enough.

Fortunately (???) I'm a PR for tax, so things are relatively straightforward.

I sometimes think Japan doesn't want people to understand all this stuff...