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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

#391

Post by dundarious »

gamblor956 wrote: post #367
dundarious wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not claiming he is _definitively_ doing so, even just in part for tax purposes. Nor am I claiming he is not already able to use many advantageous tax loopholes in the US. I only claim two things. One, that by most reasonable definitions, Cyprus is a tax haven -- there is even a recent sordid history there, exposed in The Cyprus Papers. And two, given tax havens are often used as a means to minimize tax in transfe…

Cyprus is not a tax haven. The Cyprus Papers were about people paying for Cyprus citizenship to get the benefits of being a citizen of the EU.

A casual search shows that plenty of tax advice and preparation organizations think Cyprus is a tax haven. And The Cyprus Papers show that the local authorities likely intentionally failed to enforce rules regarding PEPs. A culture of intentionally weak enforcement makes Cyprus an even more advantageous haven.

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

#392

Post by jb1991 »

beagle3 wrote: post #381
jb1991 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most of my US expat friends are lucky in that their local banks will let them have a checking account No, it's not luck. Getting a bank account is not the chore you are making it out to be. A securities broker for trading stocks -- that I have never tried -- but when it comes to opening a regular bank account, there are no major hurdles whatsoever. Your expat friends, assuming they are living legally in another coun…

I have known. Totally legally residing expats. Everyone who persevered was able to get one, but some gave up after 4 months of back and forth of increasingly onerous requests. And none of them was able to get any reasonable saving rate - saving accounts pay less than local government bonds in just about every place, but the most anyone was able to get was a savings account with low interest (and in some cases, not ev…

There is definitely more to the story than either you are telling or that you know. I am certain of that.

Also, this:

> And none of them was able to get any reasonable saving rate - saving accounts pay less than local government bonds in just about every place, but the most anyone was able to get was a savings account with low interest (and in some cases, not even that).

Has nothing to do with whether you can open a bank account, and is an entirely different topic. In the Netherlands for example (and most European places), all regular bank account offerings are the same for all residents, regardless of their actual citizenship.

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

#393

Post by jb1991 »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #364
jb1991 wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original thread was about finding a "single bank" and in that regard, it is not a problem to open a bank nearly anywhere, including in Europe (assuming legal residence there). Brokers, that might be a different matter, if you wish to trade European stocks from a European account. Taxes can be the added hassle of having to file in the U.S. regardless of where you live, but we were originally discussing getting a b…

You're right, they can't find a bank because they don't have a visa that allows them to work. It is common for people to say they "live" somewhere while doing visa runs, leaving and re-entering the country, in order to remain. It's unfortunate that this statement [1] is so prominently placed in this thread. That's social media for you I guess. [1] "I have friends who cannot find a single bank in their country that wi…

Yeah Americans in particular are famous around the world for choosing to live in places they have not tried to legally reside in, and so much of these anecdotes are likely coming from stories like that.

Even in the U.S. it can be very hard if not impossible to open a bank account with an American bank if you are not legally living there, so the shoe fits on both feet.

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

#394

Post by beagle3 »

jb1991 wrote: post #392
beagle3 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have known. Totally legally residing expats. Everyone who persevered was able to get one, but some gave up after 4 months of back and forth of increasingly onerous requests. And none of them was able to get any reasonable saving rate - saving accounts pay less than local government bonds in just about every place, but the most anyone was able to get was a savings account with low interest (and in some cases, not ev…

There is definitely more to the story than either you are telling or that you know. I am certain of that. Also, this: > And none of them was able to get any reasonable saving rate - saving accounts pay less than local government bonds in just about every place, but the most anyone was able to get was a savings account with low interest (and in some cases, not even that). Has nothing to do with whether you can open a…

Oh, the offering is the same. But you can get up to 0.5% more buying a government bond than the (equivalent, risk wise) bank deposit - except that due to SEC rules, the local bond purchase is unavailable to US taxpayers (even if they are also local citizens). In that sense, is taxpayers (even if they hold a local citizenship) are discriminated against.

And no, at least in Israel, there isn’t any more to the story. Each of the big three Israeli banks have paid between $400m and $900m in fines for noncompliance with US law, and as a result they offer the minimal services they can without getting sued. I’ve heard similar stories about places in Europe where I am less familiar with the details, so I won’t say it’s necessarily the same in Europe - but in Israel, that’s most definitely the case - and I heard it from both customers and bank officers.

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

#395

Post by temp667 »

arsenico wrote: post #158
temp667 wrote: post #83

THis is interesting - is this an Trump opposition dump on Biden? Pretty good timing if so :) And for all the folks going on about taxes. 1) Rich people can already avoid taxes by investing overseas and not generating realized gains so funds stay untaxed overseas. I don't think being a citizen of EU would change that much. 2) US citizens are taxed regardless of second citizenships as US citizens. "If you are a U.S. ci…

Exactly. I don’t think those who comment understand that IRS will tax Schmidt anyways, and he also is already avoiding taxes as much as he can.

For folks with a family office the question is not too complicated. Someone says, would it be beneficial to have another passport (EU). The answer is yes (sometimes also intended to benefit kids by giving them lots of options in terms of schools etc). Then someone else does all the paperwork. You need to buy property worth $400K? That is not even an expense. This is not a "high cost" approach.

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

#396

Post by gumby »

punkbit wrote: post #388
gumby wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why a Cypriot passport he can live in France or Germany or Italy or any other EU state. But Cyprus provides passports quickly. Malta and Portugal are also quite good in this regard.

What makes you think Portugal has this sort of dodgy business like Cyprus and Malta? Mind share some evidence of your claims, please?

Feeling sensitive? Portugal's program is widely discussed. By an apartment and spend seven days a year in Portugal (which is a very nice place to spend time!)

Here are the first two links on DDG:

https://www.second-citizenship.org/permanent-residence/portu...

https://www.escapeartist.com/blog/get-residency-second-passp...

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

#397

Post by freehunter »

BurningFrog wrote: post #297
AGSYS wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this a "conspiracy", that post is pointing out how wealthy and powerful people don't have to worry about the long term effects of their actions like their employees do.

> "Eric Schmidt can [...] ignore the fact that he owned a social network (Youtube) that knowingly hosted radical content and disinformation which would have (in part) caused the civil unrest he’s fleeing from." Conspiracy is maybe the wrong word, but OP seems to genuinely believe that Schmidt caused the recent civil unrest through his Youtube ownership.

I’m not sure where you read in my comment that I “genuinely believe” that he “caused” the “recent” unrest when I feel like I went to major lengths to paint the situation as a hypothetical scenario that may possibly take place in a hypothetical version of the future. I used a lot of “if” statements and “for example” and future tense, and “as a result of the recent election” (so not relating to this summer’s unrest). I even used so many weasel words like “whether or not that’s his intention” and “true or not” and “what people are seeing”. None of that in any way implies a genuine belief or does it imply I’m speaking about something that actually happened in the past.

I then linked to an article that shows this hypothetical future situation has actually happened in the recent past, billionaires fleeing to safety while their employees suffer and die. If that’s “QAnon levels” of “conspiracy madness” then holy fuck we’re screwed because this has actually happened, and recently, as shown in the article I linked to. And the fact that it actually happened is the reason people assume that’s what he’s doing now... because the same thing actually happened earlier this year with other billionaires.

I mean, I went way out of my way to explicitly avoid comments like this and it seems like you just ignored all of that and read exactly what you wanted to read. That’s not the level of discourse I expect from HN.

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

#398

Post by mFixman »

cblconfederate wrote: post #288
mFixman wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

sure. i guess being american means you d have to report dividends back to the IRS.

But Schmidt is not renouncing his citizenship, so he'll still have to report dividends back to the IRS despite also being a Cyprot citizen.

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

#400

Post by bduerst »

nostromo wrote: post #71
bduerst wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are currently blocked from travel to many countries, European included, due to the bungling of their Covid 19 response.

For what it's worth, the US is outperforming several EU member states with fewer deaths per population.

Overall the US has double the Covid infection rate and double the Covid death rate of Europe. Cherry picking doesn't matter because you could do the same with certain states.
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