3 ms·

This looks to me like the first step to generally get rid of income taxes (taxing people for working instead of for using the resources of the country).

deanclatworthy 5y ago
Just because you’re a digital nomad doesn’t mean you’re not using resources. You’ll still need healthcare, repairs to the road you probably drive on, someone to take your trash etc.
- xiphias2 5y ago
  This is what VAT and property taxes are for. When I went to Costa Rica to a hotel, I payed quite high taxes there. Also there's VAT on every other service that I took (like taxi and Uber, though taxis hate Uber in Costa Rica and go to great lengths to tell you that it's illegal). At the same time as I'm travelling, I'm still paying capital gain taxes to the country where I live officially, even though I get nothing in return from that country.
  - deanclatworthy 5y ago
    This concept is alien to me. Finland has income tax that everyone pays and it covers everything. There is still VAT when I buy an apple at the store, but it's not there to pay for the road repairs for the car I drive. We have seperate car tax. If you gain residency here, you are treated no different to a Finn. > At the same time as I'm travelling, I'm still paying capital gain taxes to the country where I live officially, even though I get nothing in return from that country. This is ludicrous and a fault of your own gov. I presume you are US.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Aerroon 5y ago
      https://vm.fi/en/the-budget https://vm.fi/en/the-budget According to this, Finland's budget revenue for 2021 is estimated at €68.1 billion. €14 billion of it (20%) came from income and wealth taxes. Your excise taxes alone are almost half of what income and wealth taxes bring in. VAT is 31% of the budget revenue. With numbers like these I don't think it's unreasonable to do away with income taxes and replace them with other forms of taxation.
      - deanclatworthy 5y ago
        Thank you for the explanation. This is new to me :)
      - namdnay 5y ago
        Keep in mind that these 20% aren’t spread across the whole population, contrary to VAT for example If you did away with income tax you’d still end up having to modulate another tax according to income/wealth, which kind of ends up being the same thing as an income tax
    - xiphias2 5y ago
      Not really, I spent a month in Portugal, a few in Brazil, few weeks in Panama, 1 month in Costa Rica, 1 month in Mexico (which was my favourite mix of US level hotels with the friendliness of latin american people). I'm European, and I was half year in my home country. Splitting income tax / capital gains between countries would be an option, but not really practical, as I could select when I'm selling my assets.
      - Jommi 5y ago
        Hey looking to do something similar, could I somehow contact yu and ask a few questions?
  - namdnay 5y ago
    The problem is that VAT is strongly regressive. If you wanted to remove income tax, you’d have to increase VAT but also give negative income tax (ie handouts) to everyone in the bottom 2-3 deciles
- el-salvador 5y ago
  Medical insurance from the Costa Rican Social Security will be required, so you'll have to pay for it. Roads are paid by tolls or tax at the gas pump. I think trash collection is paid by municipal taxes of the property you live in.
cblconfederate 5y ago
The shipping industry has been exempt from taxes for a long time now. Online businesses for long time were escaping the system. Now it seems things are going to move to more indirect taxation becaus taxing things in an interconnected world based on location is going to become increasingly impossible
GlennS 5y ago
I think this is the wrong way to look at it. You're looking at it from an individual/market economy point of view as a transaction (tax for services). But that's not how the people setting the tax are looking at it. They're thinking about how can we make this country survive, how do we make it prosper, how much money do we need to make that happen, and how do we get that money from the population. So you should expect to pay for things which are: * Larger than individual or company scale * Longer than individual or company lifespan * Less probable than individuals or companies will consider * Strategic in some other way that the market economy isn't able to handle And yeah, a lot of those aren't going to benefit you personally. It's still a good idea for someone to be paying. The above is an idealisation, and of course there is also waste and corruption to add to the picture, which is probably what you really object to I imagine.

deanclatworthy 5y ago

Just because you’re a digital nomad doesn’t mean you’re not using resources. You’ll still need healthcare, repairs to the road you probably drive on, someone to take your trash etc.

xiphias2 5y ago
This is what VAT and property taxes are for. When I went to Costa Rica to a hotel, I payed quite high taxes there. Also there's VAT on every other service that I took (like taxi and Uber, though taxis hate Uber in Costa Rica and go to great lengths to tell you that it's illegal). At the same time as I'm travelling, I'm still paying capital gain taxes to the country where I live officially, even though I get nothing in return from that country.
- deanclatworthy 5y ago
  This concept is alien to me. Finland has income tax that everyone pays and it covers everything. There is still VAT when I buy an apple at the store, but it's not there to pay for the road repairs for the car I drive. We have seperate car tax. If you gain residency here, you are treated no different to a Finn. > At the same time as I'm travelling, I'm still paying capital gain taxes to the country where I live officially, even though I get nothing in return from that country. This is ludicrous and a fault of your own gov. I presume you are US.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Aerroon 5y ago
    https://vm.fi/en/the-budget https://vm.fi/en/the-budget According to this, Finland's budget revenue for 2021 is estimated at €68.1 billion. €14 billion of it (20%) came from income and wealth taxes. Your excise taxes alone are almost half of what income and wealth taxes bring in. VAT is 31% of the budget revenue. With numbers like these I don't think it's unreasonable to do away with income taxes and replace them with other forms of taxation.
    - deanclatworthy 5y ago
      Thank you for the explanation. This is new to me :)
    - namdnay 5y ago
      Keep in mind that these 20% aren’t spread across the whole population, contrary to VAT for example If you did away with income tax you’d still end up having to modulate another tax according to income/wealth, which kind of ends up being the same thing as an income tax
  - xiphias2 5y ago
    Not really, I spent a month in Portugal, a few in Brazil, few weeks in Panama, 1 month in Costa Rica, 1 month in Mexico (which was my favourite mix of US level hotels with the friendliness of latin american people). I'm European, and I was half year in my home country. Splitting income tax / capital gains between countries would be an option, but not really practical, as I could select when I'm selling my assets.
    - Jommi 5y ago
      Hey looking to do something similar, could I somehow contact yu and ask a few questions?
- namdnay 5y ago
  The problem is that VAT is strongly regressive. If you wanted to remove income tax, you’d have to increase VAT but also give negative income tax (ie handouts) to everyone in the bottom 2-3 deciles
el-salvador 5y ago
Medical insurance from the Costa Rican Social Security will be required, so you'll have to pay for it. Roads are paid by tolls or tax at the gas pump. I think trash collection is paid by municipal taxes of the property you live in.

cblconfederate 5y ago

The shipping industry has been exempt from taxes for a long time now. Online businesses for long time were escaping the system. Now it seems things are going to move to more indirect taxation becaus taxing things in an interconnected world based on location is going to become increasingly impossible

GlennS 5y ago

I think this is the wrong way to look at it. You're looking at it from an individual/market economy point of view as a transaction (tax for services). But that's not how the people setting the tax are looking at it. They're thinking about how can we make this country survive, how do we make it prosper, how much money do we need to make that happen, and how do we get that money from the population. So you should expect to pay for things which are: * Larger than individual or company scale * Longer than individual or company lifespan * Less probable than individuals or companies will consider * Strategic in some other way that the market economy isn't able to handle And yeah, a lot of those aren't going to benefit you personally. It's still a good idea for someone to be paying. The above is an idealisation, and of course there is also waste and corruption to add to the picture, which is probably what you really object to I imagine.