How do you invest in japan? Recently opened a nisa account with sbi only to find out i am unable to invest in anything nonjapanese. Something to do with fatca. How are others going about this?
I avoid the hassle and do everything in the USA. It isn’t worth the risk to be subject to PFIC reporting. Stocks might be OK, but ETFs and Mutual funds will subject you to PFIC reporting.
As u/c00750ny3h points out, Due to PFICs US citizens/green card holders are pretty much limited to Japanese equity stocks.
But Watch out, even some Japanese companies are considered PFICs too.
Basically, US citizens should just invest in interactive brokers or a US broker. It means you can’t really fully utilize your tax free options Japan offers it tax residents because even if you invest on a US broker you will still need to declare taxable events (capital gains/dividends) to Japan whilst you reside here as tax residents.
As someone who wants to live, and retire in Japan, US citizenship is probably the only “developed world” citizenship I would happily renounce and naturalize to Japan for due to restrictions on investing.
3 comments
I avoid the hassle and do everything in the USA. It isn’t worth the risk to be subject to PFIC reporting. Stocks might be OK, but ETFs and Mutual funds will subject you to PFIC reporting.
As u/c00750ny3h points out, Due to PFICs US citizens/green card holders are pretty much limited to Japanese equity stocks.
But Watch out, even some Japanese companies are considered PFICs too.
Basically, US citizens should just invest in interactive brokers or a US broker. It means you can’t really fully utilize your tax free options Japan offers it tax residents because even if you invest on a US broker you will still need to declare taxable events (capital gains/dividends) to Japan whilst you reside here as tax residents.
As someone who wants to live, and retire in Japan, US citizenship is probably the only “developed world” citizenship I would happily renounce and naturalize to Japan for due to restrictions on investing.
/r/japanfinance