Danish citizen living and working in Senegal losing tons of money through bank fees

Hi there!
I am currently doing a school project for the owner of a surf camp in Senegal who last year spent 5000-6000 euro in different transaction fees

My client has a danish passport and a danish bank account but lives in Senegal.

His bank charge him 4euros for every international transaction he receives from his guests.

He also uses Paypal which charge him 3,75 per cent on every transaction made. Moreover, when he transfer money from his Paypal account to his bank account he gets euro at a very bad exchange rate as it converts it into the danish currency

And lastly, when he withdraws money from an ATM in Senegal he is charged with a 1 per cent fee aswell

The banks in Senegal is not an option he trusts. He is therefore open for any ideas that might work!

I have thought about N26 but since they don’t operate in neither Denmark nor Senegal it seems a bit risky to set up an account in fx. Germany under a fake address.

  • If he gets an N26 bank account - will he then have to pay taxes in Germany? Apparently Denmark and Senegal have an agreement which means that money made in Senegal is taxed in Senegal - and the other way around.

Do you have any idea what my client can do?

I look forward to your response, thanks in advance

Best regards,
Filip Færgeman

https://www.revolut.com ?

Thanks Philip Broughton-Mills but the only hatch is that "Revolut is currently available for legal residents of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. This includes the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom."

And my client’s legal residence is in Senegal

Im sorry but I cant show my client a solution like this - I need something that is secure

Get him an address in Denmark and you’re in business, you’ll find some organizations that cater for that kind of need.
So far these digital banks present themselves as THE solution for a location independent, nomadic life style but fail to understand the true ramifications of a nomadic lifestyle, although some are working on changing those kinds of rules.
They are the beginning of an answer but not yet THE answer for nomadic people in the sense that most of them still require a fixed address, an oxymoron by definition if you are location independent or a nomad. So, in the meantime we’ll have to remain creative.
In my opinion, having a bank account in Germany doesn’t mean your friend will pay tax in Germany as you are usually taxed in the country where you work unless he works for a Danish corp. And usually in the EU you can’t be taxed twice.

Thanks for the answer!

And you haven’t experienced that they double check if you actually live in the country?
A friend of mine lives in Denmark and has N26 as banks even though they dont operate in Denmark - He got it when he lived in Germany

From my experience they do not double-check if you’re a resident still out on that address.
But I’m curious to see what he chose in the end :slight_smile:

I live in Denmark and I’m almost 100%sure if you have an address in DK you pay TAX in DK. Even if you live in another country.
I know of a lady, not Danish but lived here many years, was living in her country also in the EU, but kept her Danish address to keep her pension. Well the commune found out eventually. Now she’s not allowed back in DK and list her address here.

@fcporko N26 actually just started operating in Denmark (with EUR accounts), so perhaps that can help?

The bank account won’t create any tax liability in Germany or Denmark (if he currently has none). N26 will report the account to the German tax authorities, which will then report it to Danish authorities (and perhaps Senegalese if he say he’s a tax resident there when opening the account, but I’d recommend just saying that he’s tax resident in Denmark).

However, as long as your friend is no longer an official resident of Denmark, that doesn’t matter. He’ll probably receive a yearly letter from SKAT saying that they received information about an account he has in Germany—they are actually required by law to do that. The letter will arrive in his e-boks, if he has that. But that’s it.

Hope that helps!

I have opened a lot of these things, some require a utility bill, some something less, like a bank statement.

Transferwise, and Euro based solutions should typically be a bit cheaper.
(I think Transferwise should be easy)

If you have several, you can spread the risk and compare costs.

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FinTech companies ask for utility bills or bank statements. Increasingly banks want your official address, also it is not always so easy to get a utility bill in your name.