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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

#321

Post by beagle3 »

jb1991 wrote: post #211
pembrook wrote: post #113

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…

> In fact, the laws are so strict, they make living abroad as an honest middle-class expat a total nightmare. I have friends who cannot find a single bank in their country that will work with them because of the reporting requirements of working with US citizens. What? This is not true at all. Getting a bank in most other countries is not hard at all and certainly not a "nightmare." As a U.S. citizen you must still f…

Then you didn’t look. There’s some rule from the ‘1940s which says only a SEC-licensed broker can manage securities for a US tax payer. It was mostly ignored outside the US until 2010 but since then, together with FATCA, is very much enforced.

Most of my US expat friends are lucky in that their local banks will let them have a checking account and sometimes even a savings account, but no other services are available to them. (And no local brokers would touch them with a 10-feet pole).

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

#322

Post by m0zg »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #304
m0zg wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's an easy way for European citizenship

A lot of European states have a wealth tax as well as estate tax, which is not a good thing for an old dude worth $17B. Heck, it's not even a good deal for someone like me, if you run the numbers.

Coincidentally, Eric Schmidt was a big supporter of Biden's plan to "tax the rich". The _other_ rich, that is, not himself, of course.

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

#323

Post by biscotti »

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. My guess is he's recognised that Trump is not going to concede to this coup attempt and is worried about the consequences. It is interesting to me that Cyprus does not extradite.

Here is the conversation he and Jared Cohen had with Julian Assange: https://wikileaks.org/Transcript-Meeting-Assange-Schmidt

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

#324

Post by beagle3 »

dbspin wrote: post #174
klaudius wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very misleading. US government heavily taxes people and organizations and spends on certain projects. But if people had more resources left to themselves, they could spend some of it on the same projects US gov spends it on. On top of that, US gov has all kinds of laws and regulations that make it difficult to do certain valuable things. For example, if companies in the same industry come together to do somet…

I'd strongly question the witch words 'heavily taxes'. The US federal government has some of the lowest income tax rates (both stated and effective) in the Western World [1]. And it's corporate tax rate is only slightly higher than the EU average [2], while in practice easily avoided [3] by large corporate entities like Google and Amazon. Sources: [1] https://taxfoundation.org/taxing-high-income-2019/ [2] https://tax…

But you have to add state taxes - in NYC and CA the state+federal is comparable to European taxes: and in Europe, those taxes include healthcare and academic education, which you pay for independently in the US.

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

#325

Post by T-A »

gnicholas wrote: post #259
garmaine wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which case you pay an "exit tax" equivalent to the tax hit from liquidating all your assets, e.g. capgains on all held stock. Renouncing citizenship never works as a tax dodge, unless you have some reason to expect large future gains in your assets that aren't reflected in their current market prices.

> Renouncing citizenship never works as a tax dodge, unless you have some reason to expect large future gains in your assets that aren't reflected in their current market prices. It also could make sense if you expect future income tax rates to be much higher, or if you expect new taxes (e.g., wealth taxes) to be enacted.

Or if you expect a major bear market and you were going to liquidate your holdings anyway.

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

#326

Post by beagle3 »

ransom1538 wrote: post #290
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…

" 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;" Boom. We have someone that knows what they are saying. Yes. It is a tax covered shell. Wonder why your $23.29 check from google for 1.2 million impressions is coming from Ireland?

These structures are available to corporations, not to people.

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

#327

Post by Scoundreller »

throwawayay02 wrote: post #226
pembrook wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Many of them have annoying requirements, like having to live there, possibly coming along with pesky tax obligations. Yuck!

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

#328

Post by beagle3 »

Splendor wrote: post #274
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?

Cyprus is the fastest route (6 months). Most other EU countries take years and require you to reside there continuously throughout those years.

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

#329

Post by sonotathrowaway »

chmod600 wrote: post #209
sonotathrowaway wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate,” Schmidt told one interviewer in 2012. “It’s called capitalism.” As much as I enjoy watching people dissemble while describing their true actions, there’s not really anyone naive enough to believe Schmidt didn’t actively create the rules google currently operates under, is there? Maybe he…

That's a different line of reasoning, and it falls under the category of "regret the previous laws". The solution for the future is to try to harder to make good laws in the present rather than somehow retroactively change the past.

I don’t advocate for trying to retroactively pass laws, as that is just mob rule. But to be one of the most powerful lobbying efforts in the country (in 2017, the single largest), while simultaneously claiming to be a helpless observer inside said system is hard for me to take seriously. His response was a claim that his behavior is socially acceptable and not tax avoidance (and thus would continue), whereas I’m saying this behavior is tax avoidance and should be labeled as such, and he’s well aware of how unpopular his opinion is and how much he invests from stopping reforms that would align the legal definition closer to the layman’s conception of tax avoidance.

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

#330

Post by JumpCrisscross »

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

They tightened the rules on 2 November [1]. (I flew back that day.) U.K. is still on a preferred list.

[1] https://www.germany.info/us-en/coronavirus/2317268

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