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Eric Schmidt has applied to become a citizen of Cyprus

vox.com

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

#271

Post by cblconfederate »

rethab wrote: post #221
enriquto wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Isn't the whole point of EU to have a common market?

also how does having a large bank account in swiss affects her taxes in germany?

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

#272

Post by robk »

bsanr2 wrote: post #152
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…

I went to the same high school as Sergey Brin, a little over a decade after he had and well after Google had become the de facto search standard. Didn't know until I was already in college. AFAIK he's never made an effort to reach out to them, grant resources, give a talk, anything. It's a majority-minority public school in a solidly middle class (like, actually middle class) suburb, so it's not like they're flush wi…

He hasn't done crap for college park either. Even the oculus founder has donated tons vs him

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

#273

Post by mFixman »

cblconfederate wrote: post #258
mFixman wrote: post #238

I don't understand why he does this. The IRS will tax him regardless of whether he has assets in the US or outside of it, and he's rich enough to get a working visa to anywhere. Does anyone know of any other possible tax advantage a rich American might get from Cypriot citizenship?

malta cyprus, ireland etc are useful for setting up business there . you can set up a local business that receives royalties from other companies and benefit from relatively low tax. He s probably not doing it for taxes, but for a convenient EU passport and a humble abode in the mediterranean

Can't you set up an offshore business in a tax heaven without being a citizen?

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

#274

Post by Splendor »

gumby wrote: post #270

Why are people assuming this is a tax issue? It's just most people find it nicer to live in the EU, even billionaires, and especially if you don't need to worry about work.

If that were the case, then why wouldn't he try to obtain citizenship in the country he's moving to? Why Cyprus?

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

#275

Post by chrisjc »

Nasrudith wrote: post #196
chrisjc wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether right or wrong, if the community that you are apart of is affected, then there are implications... some of which can become problems.

Anything done to the community affects it in some way - that criticism could be applied to sending a fruit basket to every Cypriot. Someone could get sick by eating fruit from it after it went bad.

It doesn't have to all be criticism. And that's why I said implications. Not all implications are bad.

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

#276

Post by vntok »

chrismeller wrote: post #181
vntok wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Schengen Area ( /ˈʃɛŋən/) is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sche…

I’m sorry, have you lived in Europe recently? Paid any attention to the news this year? Every country in that agreement reserves the right to restrict travel in times of emergency. Pandemics apply. For instance: Estonia forbids travel from any country with an infection rate higher than x/100k (x keeps changing...) During the first pandemic lockdown the Baltics were open at first, then Finland shut their borders, then…

Hum yes, I'm French and have lived here for about 30 years or so. Travel across the EU is much much easier if you're a EU citizen, ceteris paribus.

It's actually pretty funny that you would refer to that convoluted situation where one would have to fly first to Helsinki then to Estonia, considering both Finland and Estonia are in Schengen so no document would be required of an EU citizen to adapt their travel plans at the last minute.

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

#278

Post by Splendor »

mFixman wrote: post #238

I don't understand why he does this. The IRS will tax him regardless of whether he has assets in the US or outside of it, and he's rich enough to get a working visa to anywhere. Does anyone know of any other possible tax advantage a rich American might get from Cypriot citizenship?

It's not just about taxes. People with EU passports have fewer travel restrictions than those with US passports right now. As was discussed in the article.

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

#280

Post by wukerplank »

ben_w wrote: post #242
addicted wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you compare countries by how well they collect taxes, I am pretty sure it will completely correlate with how well their middle classes are doing. So it’s really hard to see how taxes are draconian for the middle classes. Or draconian at all.

“Middle class” is a very vague term; I assume in this case it refers to people rich enough to have a “nice bonus” from their investments, but not rich enough to actually live off their investments. For this group, I can believe it’s awkward and annoying, mainly because I am in it and I find investment T&Cs (and the consequences of being wrong) scary and confusing. However, I would not use the word “draconian” — I tak…

I'm not against taxes, it was my cynical way of expressing that it is impossible to evade them for most people while it is quite easy for those who already have more than enough.
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