I imagine it depends on the broker and whether they have automated systems that are reporting. Not everyone does.
I have vaguely heard that IB actually tracks where you connect from and if you appear to be coming from somewhere else regularly then they come after you. That is anecdotal, I have no firsthand knowledge, but certainly it’s easy enough for them to do. Not everyone is going to make that effort. And of course you can do VPN or whatever to try to account for that.
But if you are presenting a US address and phone and those “work” then “it’s your problem not theirs” may apply.
There’s different levels of interest among brokers too. The one I normally use for short-term trading really isn’t concerned. They do their part reporting that x person with address y and whatever z (according to the account data) has earned this and that amount. When I asked, they advised that they do not provide tax advice and just assume that the information provided is reliable. Fair enough.
I asked IB about my digital nomad circumstances a couple of weeks ago, never heard back from them and the account was approved even after that. I think, basically, they just want to make money and to cover themselves there’s all the paperwork you provide when you sign up.
IB is in my experience one of the more strict with compliance measures. Silly things like rejecting check deposits for no apparent reason, refusing withdrawals to related entity accounts, refusing to open an account because a form wasn’t signed correctly. I get the reasoning, but other FIs don’t have the same level of intensity.
IB seems to use an automated system to perform rejections. I had a withdrawal to a Lithuanian bank rejected for “money laundering” issues. I then opened up a ticket with IB and after presenting a suitable documentation of the reasons why I wanted the money to go there, etc., I had withdrawals to Lithuania approved. Similar issues with official holding country for the account. Resolved after explaining why.
Do folks here know a) whether IBKR provides any robo-advisor services (Interactive Advisors?) and b) are these services available for NRAs (non-resident aliens, aka non US.-person). After living in the US for quite some time and using Wealthfront, I’m now very interested in US-based robo-advisors as they seem to be better in terms of returns than EU ones (I found Charles Schwab Intelligent portfolios looking interesting, but apparently they are not available for NRAs).
I have been using the IB app for two years and no issues, transferring in/out, bying/selling, collecting dividents…etc
you can use any bank account arround the world as long as it is legitim and you provide necessary backups. The app itself ican be complicated, you need to know the basics of online trading and must be careful for not falling into gambling, must be used professionally for investment purposes