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Paul Carr, Naked In A Hotel Corridor, Embarrases TechCrunch Yet Again

9 points by solipsist 16y ago

winestock 16y ago
So Paul Carr has no fixed address, he only lives in the finest hotel suites. From the article: Even more impressive is the money Carr saves. He does all this cheaper than you’ll be shelling out to live in your own gaff. How? Well, there’s no mortgage, no bills, rates or fees. To put it simply: no worries. If you look at hotels, you don’t have to worry about maintenance or any of that stuff, Carr says. You don’t pay council tax, you don’t pay line rental on your TV, you don’t pay for breakfast... if something breaks in your room you just phone down to reception and they fix it. So what's preventing the rest of the population from living only in hotels the way that Paul Carr does?
- orenmazor 16y ago
  I don't know. nothing? why don't you live in a hotel, travelling the world.
  - winestock 16y ago
    If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Also, where would I keep all of my books? Not all of them are digitized. To say nothing of the non-digitizable belongings. Hmm. Perhaps Paul Graham's essay on "Stuff" is germane to this. Edit: The more I think about it, the more you deserve an upvote.
    - orenmazor 16y ago
      I'm really not disagreeing with you. I'm about to buy a second project car, and have an entire library that I like having around. I'm not the hotel guy, but just saying: technically, anybody COULD do it.
    - wlesieutre 16y ago
      Rent a storage unit or sell things you don't need anymore?
srgseg 16y ago
I was about to say 'how can he afford this?!' but then I pulled out my calculator. If he is a contractor and claims all travel, meals and hotels as business expenses, then he basically pays no income tax. As Paul says, he also pays no council taxes/property taxes/etc. So if he averages one flight a week costing $200 (it's 4x more than this to fly across the Atlantic, but 4x less than this to fly inside Europe), then that's only $10,400/year. If he takes red eye flights long haul, then that saves money too because he doesn't need a hotel room for that night. Out of a $100,000 income, that leaves $245 per night for hotel rooms and food and drink. Out of a $60,000 income, that leaves $135 per night for hotel rooms and food and drink. Life is pretty sweet when you don't pay income tax. I wonder whether the tax authorities will consider all of his travel as genuine business expenses and not tax free holidays. This isn't a jibe at him - I hope it's totally legitimate so I can do it too!

9 points by solipsist 16y ago

So Paul Carr has no fixed address, he only lives in the finest hotel suites. From the article: Even more impressive is the money Carr saves. He does all this cheaper than you’ll be shelling out to live in your own gaff. How? Well, there’s no mortgage, no bills, rates or fees. To put it simply: no worries. If you look at hotels, you don’t have to worry about maintenance or any of that stuff, Carr says. You don’t pay council tax, you don’t pay line rental on your TV, you don’t pay for breakfast... if something breaks in your room you just phone down to reception and they fix it. So what's preventing the rest of the population from living only in hotels the way that Paul Carr does?

orenmazor 16y ago
I don't know. nothing? why don't you live in a hotel, travelling the world.
- winestock 16y ago
  If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Also, where would I keep all of my books? Not all of them are digitized. To say nothing of the non-digitizable belongings. Hmm. Perhaps Paul Graham's essay on "Stuff" is germane to this. Edit: The more I think about it, the more you deserve an upvote.
  - orenmazor 16y ago
    I'm really not disagreeing with you. I'm about to buy a second project car, and have an entire library that I like having around. I'm not the hotel guy, but just saying: technically, anybody COULD do it.
  - wlesieutre 16y ago
    Rent a storage unit or sell things you don't need anymore?

srgseg 16y ago

I was about to say 'how can he afford this?!' but then I pulled out my calculator. If he is a contractor and claims all travel, meals and hotels as business expenses, then he basically pays no income tax. As Paul says, he also pays no council taxes/property taxes/etc. So if he averages one flight a week costing $200 (it's 4x more than this to fly across the Atlantic, but 4x less than this to fly inside Europe), then that's only $10,400/year. If he takes red eye flights long haul, then that saves money too because he doesn't need a hotel room for that night. Out of a $100,000 income, that leaves $245 per night for hotel rooms and food and drink. Out of a $60,000 income, that leaves $135 per night for hotel rooms and food and drink. Life is pretty sweet when you don't pay income tax. I wonder whether the tax authorities will consider all of his travel as genuine business expenses and not tax free holidays. This isn't a jibe at him - I hope it's totally legitimate so I can do it too!