In this article, you can read about stock trading abroad over the internet. How to buy shares of Google, Microsoft, Apple if you are not in USA? If you are not satisfied with the choice on the domestic market, nothing prevents you from investing on the foreign market.
For example on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange. You can do all this from the comfort of your home via the internet.
No law (foreign exchange law) prohibits individuals from buying shares directly. So it is not necessary to go through domestic brokers or ask for any permits, consents, etc.
All you have to do is open an account with a broker (the first one on my mind is Ameritrade, although there are probably better and cheaper ones), then go to the bank and transfer the money to the broker’s account (fill out order 14 in any bank). Remember the amount of money you can transfer is NOT limited, but if you pay more than $1000 you will be asked for some more information. 🙂
Once you have transferred the money to the account from the broker, you can start investing. The only thing you are obliged to do now is to fill in the IU-IP form for the first shares you bought and submit it to the CB (Central Bank of your country).
However, what if you sell them the other day and buy some other stocks? What if you are a daytrader who buys and sells 50 stocks a day? Semi-verified information (over the phone) is that you don’t report these subsequent transactions and I really don’t know how you would report it. They would be more in the CB than trading stocks.
At the end of each year, ie until 28.02. next year you must also report annual foreign investments on the IU-GP form.
Don’t let these patterns scare you. Use one when you first make an investment and the other only once a year. The CB is very kind and if you need help feel free to call them. You only fill in the second part of the form because the same form is used when a foreigner invests.
Since you do NOT open a foreign currency account abroad but pay the money directly to a foreign broker through a domestic bank, you do not need to ask the CB for its opening or report transactions on that account – what would you report if you do not have one? It is recommended that when you come to the bank and send money, you have a contract with you to open an account with a broker.
The exceptions are Serbia and Macedonia where you are really asked to open your account. You will get permission from the CB for that and there is no problem.
You do not pay any income tax unless a capital gains tax is introduced. Dividends that are payable and taxable in the United States are deducted by the amount of tax done by your broker, and you should receive a reduced amount in your account.
It is clear to me that for some this freedom means just one more “betting”, that is, another way in which they can lose money quickly. But I prefer freedom to the care of the authorities to protect me from myself. They should have protected us from greenback interest rates and financial engineering, not prevented us from investing our tax-paid money wherever we wanted.
Never risk money that you are not ready to lose, and before you invest a single cent, read at least 10 books covering the area, monitor the market, test free applications with which you can make virtual stock purchases, learn to read company financial statements, etc. etc. Not because you wouldn’t lose money (you’ll lose it for sure) but because investing in stocks is one way you can really become financially free.