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Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

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Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#221

Post by rethab »

enriquto wrote: post #148
digianarchist wrote: post #121

Cyprus is under investigation by the EU, along with Malta for “selling” citizenships.

I do not understand why selling citizenships is wrong. If both the seller and the buyer agree to a price, what's the problem?

Listened to a podcast about this subject recently (in German though: [0]).

What eg. a German (very!) rich person would do is get a second passport in Cyprus and then open a Swiss bank account. To the Swiss bank, they'd say that they only have that one passport from Cyprus. Therefore, the Swiss bank does not report to the German state that the German individual has a bank account. This is how that person avoids German tax.

0. https://www.kuechenstud.io/medienradio/podcast/di090-geldwae...

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#222

Post by nielsbot »

jasode wrote: post #201
justincormack wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you still have to pay exit taxes on renouncing, so not clear this is a good way of avoiding tax.

Also... if the renunciation is motivated by avoiding taxes, the person is banned from re-entering the USA. excerpt[1]: If the Department of Homeland Security determines that the renunciation is motivated by tax avoidance purposes, the individual will be found inadmissible to the United States under Section 212(a)(10)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(10)(E)), as amended. EDIT REPLY to : "Wou…

Would they have to prove intent?

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#223

Post by zajio1am »

Barrin92 wrote: post #34
magicalist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

> Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country.

Citizenship is just a legal relation between a person and a country. If both sides want that relationship, then it is perfectly moral to start such relationship.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#224

Post by Nasrudith »

Barrin92 wrote: post #34
magicalist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

You don't get to decide that about citizenship - Cyprus does. There are consequences to whatever they decide but "ought" in itself is meaningless as an argument.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#225

Post by [deleted] »

esarbe wrote: post #19
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't blame him for taking advantage of the system. What I blame him for is all of his supposed altruistic bloviating. No different than a Russian oligarch.

Huh, why not? If not for people taking advantage of "the system", "the system" would not exist. I mean; here we have a guy that has taken all the advantage of all the benefits a developed industrial country has to offer and then in turn does everything in his power to give back as little as possible. Hell yeah I'm going to blame him. It's not moral behavior. I don't care whether it is legal or not, he's behaving like…

[deleted]

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#226

Post by throwawayay02 »

pembrook wrote: post #160
wukerplank wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what is this? His passion for the Mediterranian? Reconnecting with his ancestor's roots? BTW: All tax systems are draconian, at least to the middle class. Not to people who can afford creative lawyers.

My guess, ease of movement in the EU for him and his kids. When you've got Eric Schmidt money, you probably want to have the ability to live and vacation anywhere you want, whenever you want. Otherwise you're limited to 90 days in the EU at a time as a tourist.

Many EU countries sell citizenship in exchange for very modest investments. Cyprus, however, is a very suspicious choice.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#227

Post by polote »

pembrook wrote: post #113
areoform wrote: post #67

If this is indeed for a tax dodge, what's funny is that the US Government helped fund Google. Or, more accurately, they funded the research into the seemingly esoteric problem that became Google; > In 1995, one of the first and most promising MDDS grants went to a computer-science research team at Stanford University with a decade-long history of working with NSF and DARPA grants. The primary objective of this grant…

This is not a tax dodge. There is no way to dodge taxes as a US citizen by moving abroad, the US is the only country in the world with a real global taxation system. EDIT further information I posted below: The US has the unique position of being able to actually enforce this due to the fact the USD is the reserve currency of the world and every country needs to stay on the good side of the US Treasury to transact in…

> they make living abroad as an honest middle-class expat a total nightmare

There was a guy a few days who wrote an article about giving up on his US nationality exactly for that purpose

https://larrysalibra.com/goodbye-usa/

(found on https://hnblogs.substack.com/p/hn-blogs-51120)

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#228

Post by sgt »

drummer wrote: post #126

When Mars is ready in a few years, many will buy a one way ticket to escape from governments, tax collectors and other similar criminal organizations on earth. The only question will be, for how long will you be safe?

Yes, this is the question we really should be asking right now.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#229

Post by nikanj »

hammock wrote: post #142
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Americans are currently blocked from travel to many countries, European included, due to the bungling of their Covid 19 response These rules are littered with loopholes. If you work media, you (and your staff and family and apparently girlfriend) get a free pass in Portugal and Italy. I just got back from a wedding in Germany—just had to quarantine in London for two weeks first.

Link? I'm trying to get to Germany and would like to avoid 2 weeks in Mexico first if possible

Please don’t try to find loopholes in the quarantine rules. They have been put in place for a reason.

Re: Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

#230

Post by dragonwriter »

Barrin92 wrote: post #34
magicalist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not moral behavior. Getting a second citizenship?

Buying one. Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country. People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

> Citizenship is something that ought to be earned and given to people who show that they want to live in and contribute to a country.

But, by buying the citizenship, they are not just showing in some vague indirect way that they "want to" contribute to the country, they are actually, directly, palpably contributing to the country.

> People like Schmidt purchase themselves a tax excemption or freedom of movement in a world where ordinary people right now lose their jobs and are locked into their country.

I'm confused, is your complaint that Schmidt hasn't done enough to "earn" citizenship, or that people that don't have less capacity to contribute should also enjoy what Schmidt does.

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