Using Wise to spend USD earnings

[blessed2day]

I’m considering investing in USD ETFs and I’m wondering how to spend my investment returns locally.

My idea is to transfer the earnings to my Wise USD account and use my Wise card to spend in MYR. I believe that if my MYR balance is 0, Wise will automatically convert my USD balance to make the payment. Is that correct?

However, I’m not sure if this could be considered a form of tax evasion since the money doesn’t touch a local bank account. I'm worried about accidentally evading taxes.

Now, assuming that:

• I fully utilize all USD balances on expenses in the tax year; and
• I do not use the USD account for anything else; then

It should be easy to track my realized USD gains since net cashflow out = taxable earnings.

What worries me is if:

• I use the Wise USD account just as a holding account to transfer funds between USD investments; or
• I don't fully utilize the balance in the USD account by the end of the year

Then net cashflow out =/= taxable earnings.

Anyone got any other suggestions on how to spend USD earnings in Malaysia, pay my due taxes, and easily track it all?

 

[resjudicata]

@blessed2day As far as I know - theres no capital gains tax on such investments in Malaysia, so you wouldn’t have to pay taxes on any capital gains made from investments locally or overseas (except for real properties)

 

[weeone54]

@blessed2day No capital gains tax yet, there is news that it might be considered in the near future though.

So any money made from stock trading aren't taxed in Malaysia.

 

[rankdtv]

@blessed2day It is quite a smart way to do it. Say in a scenario you have other sources of income from euro or Sgd , using wise card for daily expenses in malaysia or other places could be useful.

 

[ivan777]

@blessed2day There's no capital gain tax here, so taking money back through the normal channels isn't an issue.

But be mindful there is a withholding tax depending on which country you buy the ETF and get the dividends from.