3 ms·

The US is the only country that taxes worldwide income. So i travel between different countries without living much in any particular one and i pay zero tax. A

The US is the only country that taxes worldwide income. So i travel between different countries without living much in any particular one and i pay zero tax. And if i ever want to live somewhere fulltime, i can defer income into trusts and collect it in future years when i happen to not be domiciled anywhere. Options available to everyone except US citizens. Or for example my friends in Russia who are US citizens have to pay a crazy US rate instead of the far more reasonable 13% in russia. All the comments about scandi countries assume people actually declare income without using many more legal strategies available there compared with the US. The effective tax situation for wealthy US citizens is actually much worse, it is just obfuscated by the headline number.

cr1895 9y ago
>The US is the only country that taxes worldwide income. Technically no, so does Eritrea tax non-resident citizens on their worldwide income. And it's frankly hard to make sense of the rest of your comment. It's difficult (or impossible?) as you say for an American citizen to basically be a perpetual tourist, not actually residing anywhere? >to pay a crazy US rate instead of the far more reasonable 13% in russia. >All the comments about scandi countries assume people actually declare income without using many more legal strategies available there compared with the US. Well, yes, I am assuming that people generally don't try to live as a perpetual tourist and skirt tax burdens by not actually living anywhere. >The effective tax situation for wealthy US citizens is actually much worse, it is just obfuscated by the headline number. Still eager to see this proved.
- sergefaguet 9y ago
  the point is a US citizen who is a perpetual tourist still must pay US taxes. as a non-US citizen i can live in the US for many years and keep accruing income/assets into a trust + take loans against said income/assets to fund expenses. then one year when i happen to be a perpetual tourist i distribute all of that from the trust to myself. zero taxes.
discreteevent 9y ago
I worked with a guy once who moved from country to country paying zero tax and he was bragging to me about this. He also had a wife and child with him. So I just thought: Nice for him: He gets to live in a country with clean water and sanitation, the rule of law, disease control, free education for young children etc ---- I pay for it.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  I don't know about you, but my water and sanitation are billed to me directly by the non-government companies that provide them, and my employer pays a fraction of my health care burden to an insurance company instead of me, for tax-avoidance purposes. Every education system I have ever seen is funded by property taxes, which are paid by owners or renters via monthly checks to the owners, without regard to citizenship or domicile. The rule of law is increasingly paid for by selective enforcement of offenses with revenue-positive fine structures. I'm not sure what exactly it is my income taxes pay for, but about anything I might want from a government is already paid for by direct billing or by some other type of tax. Maybe I'm paying for a seat cover of an F-35. Maybe I'm paying for a bridge repair that has been overdue for 30 years. I lack the attention span to follow the money that far. That guy still pays sales taxes, and any taxes that may be indirectly passed on to him through business dealings. It isn't zero; it's just less than you, at the price of being a technically domicile-less nomad. The lifestyle is a bit more stressful, as you have to schedule mandatory events around several sets of local laws.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

cr1895 9y ago

>The US is the only country that taxes worldwide income. Technically no, so does Eritrea tax non-resident citizens on their worldwide income. And it's frankly hard to make sense of the rest of your comment. It's difficult (or impossible?) as you say for an American citizen to basically be a perpetual tourist, not actually residing anywhere? >to pay a crazy US rate instead of the far more reasonable 13% in russia. >All the comments about scandi countries assume people actually declare income without using many more legal strategies available there compared with the US. Well, yes, I am assuming that people generally don't try to live as a perpetual tourist and skirt tax burdens by not actually living anywhere. >The effective tax situation for wealthy US citizens is actually much worse, it is just obfuscated by the headline number. Still eager to see this proved.

sergefaguet 9y ago
the point is a US citizen who is a perpetual tourist still must pay US taxes. as a non-US citizen i can live in the US for many years and keep accruing income/assets into a trust + take loans against said income/assets to fund expenses. then one year when i happen to be a perpetual tourist i distribute all of that from the trust to myself. zero taxes.

discreteevent 9y ago

I worked with a guy once who moved from country to country paying zero tax and he was bragging to me about this. He also had a wife and child with him. So I just thought: Nice for him: He gets to live in a country with clean water and sanitation, the rule of law, disease control, free education for young children etc ---- I pay for it.

logfromblammo 9y ago
I don't know about you, but my water and sanitation are billed to me directly by the non-government companies that provide them, and my employer pays a fraction of my health care burden to an insurance company instead of me, for tax-avoidance purposes. Every education system I have ever seen is funded by property taxes, which are paid by owners or renters via monthly checks to the owners, without regard to citizenship or domicile. The rule of law is increasingly paid for by selective enforcement of offenses with revenue-positive fine structures. I'm not sure what exactly it is my income taxes pay for, but about anything I might want from a government is already paid for by direct billing or by some other type of tax. Maybe I'm paying for a seat cover of an F-35. Maybe I'm paying for a bridge repair that has been overdue for 30 years. I lack the attention span to follow the money that far. That guy still pays sales taxes, and any taxes that may be indirectly passed on to him through business dealings. It isn't zero; it's just less than you, at the price of being a technically domicile-less nomad. The lifestyle is a bit more stressful, as you have to schedule mandatory events around several sets of local laws.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]