311–320 of 401 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This feels like suggesting that it's immoral to buy a car because someone else might not be able to. >People like Schmidt purchase themselves [...] freedom of movement This is not immoral. >where ordinary people [...] are locked into their country This is
No. Buying a car is not necessarily parasitic behavior. Bailing on your taxes is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
FWIW Cyprus is kind of a shithole, so it's not exactly like "buying an expensive home anywhere in the world". These people want the citizenship, not the real estate. Not that I think there's anything wrong with this, probably half of my friends have these passports. Until recently this was the easiest way for Russians to move to the EU.
> kind of a shithole, well not exactly
There's nothing that Cyprus offers that's not done better somewhere else in Europe if you have the money to spend.
Sure, there are worse places out there. But to the Eric Schmidts of the world it firmly falls in the shithole category.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
> There is no way to dodge taxes as a US citizen by moving abroad Well, no way to "legally avoid"; "dodge" is broader, and there are probably many ways of dodging taxes that are easier if the institutions you deal with in your daily life aren't subject to US jurisdiction and regulations designed to expose tax evasion to US authorities. Also, typically you want to have at least one national citizenship, so if you are…
It used to be possible. Ted Arison renounced his US citizenship when the end of his life was visible, thus avoiding estate taxes. This prompted an immediate change (you are a US tax payer for 10 more years after renouncing) and later redone with the current “you are dead to us” treatment.
Eduardo Saverin took a bet with FB: he renounced, which set his tax obligation at X. Then FB went down, which meant he had to pay a larger percentage of his wealth. But then FB shot up significantly, so he ended up saving much on taxes (as to whether he did this to avoid taxation is not settled - he naturalized in Singapore which does not allow dual passports. Arison moved to Israel which does, so it was clearly a taxation avoidance plan)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then COVID is the perfect cover for shifting citizenship. It gives a plausible non-tax reason for making the change. Someone who is worth $15B would be very well-advised, and if he's been thinking about doing this in the past, his advisors may have decided that now is the right time to pull the trigger. Also helps to have plenty in the news these days, to avoid becoming 'the story' on a slow news day/week.
Why would COVID be perfect cover for giving up your US citizenship? It might be good cover for getting another, sure.
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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many EU countries sell citizenship in exchange for very modest investments. Cyprus, however, is a very suspicious choice.
Oh really? Which ones? I'd only think of Cyprus and Malta
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are there US citizens here who wouldn’t take dual EU citizenship if it was offered to them? Taxes and social stability aside, Europe is full of nice places to visit, do business, and live. The value of being able to do these things without restrictions seems self-evident. I don’t see why you’d presume a nefarious motivation.
As an US citizen you can already visit all these places without restrictions. Why would you need EU citizenship for that?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> On top of the obvious tax benefits in Cyprus There are no tax benefits for US citizens in Cyprus. Giving up your US citizenship involves a significant exit tax.
> There are no tax benefits for US citizens in Cyprus - Dividend gains exemption - Capital gains exemption - Pension income capped at 5% - Abolished inheritance tax - All of the above plus bonus EU freedom of movement/residence The guys fortune is parked on GOOG stock how can you say he has nothing to gain? There is a reason russian oligarchs are parking their money in that tiny island.
Can he even get a second citizenship? As far as I was aware (as a US citizen myself), the US doesn't allow you become a citizen of another country without renouncing your US citizenship except in the very specific dual-citizenship scenarios regarding birth or familial ties. I know under the Obama administration the federal government had turned a blind eye to people not renouncing a prior citizenship when becoming a…
"...it’s important to recognize that the USA follows a ‘master nationality’ rule. What this means is, it recognizes only the US nationality of an individual, regardless of whether that individual holds any other citizenship."
So it's not that it doesn't allow it so much as it just pretends that your additional citizenship(s) don't exist. The USG will come after you for entering/leaving the US using a non-US passport though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure Erich Schmidt has access to resources not available to your friends. There is absolutely the potential for a tax angle to this application, perhaps involving creating business entities in Cyprus to avoid the IRS's reach. That is of course just my suspicion and I could be wrong, but I think my suspicions are reasonable enough to dispute the strength of your claims ("There is no tax dodge. There is no way to d…
Wouldn't he be able to form business ventures in Cyprus in which he could own a stake, but which would pay him very little taxable income? Furthermore, wouldn't he be able to grow those ventures and later take a distribution when his pals in US Congress abolish the "global taxation" nonsense? Or alternatively, by renouncing US citizenship? What other reasons are there to seek citizenship in a country like Cyprus?