Hi everyone, I'm in kind of a weird situation. Back in 2015, when I was younger, I used Bitcoin for random stuff here and there. I recently checked some of my old wallets and, to my surprise, I found a total of 2.5 btc just sitting there across three different wallets. I live in France now, and I'm thinking about converting it to fiat. Not even 100% sure I will, since I had basically written it off and didn’t even think I still had it. But if I do convert, I want to make sure I do everything legally and by the book. Problem is, taxes in France on crypto gains are super high, and honestly I would rather not give away a huge chunk of it if there are legal ways around that. I started looking into options and found out that some countries don’t tax crypto at all if you’re a resident there. Malaysia stood out, and from what I read, if I move there and become a tax resident, I could possibly cash out without paying tax. So is this a realistic and legal move? I’m planning to talk to a lawyer soon, but I wanted to see what others think first. Maybe someone here has gone through something similar or knows more about how this stuff works?
I’m open to moving abroad if it means keeping more of the money. I don’t want to do anything shady, just want to be smart about it and follow the law. If anyone knows other legal options to minimize or avoid tax on this kind of situation, I would love to hear your thoughts.
btw, I was never really super invested in crypto. Around 10 years ago, I just used it to buy stuff online. So, I may be going about cashing out the wrong way, which brings me to my second question. If you were in my position and not planning to cash out, what would you do instead? What advice would you give me?