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Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

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Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#151

Post by lazide »

bmacho wrote: post #136
geff82 wrote: post #126

The crazy thing is that as a business owner (GmbH/AG) you can’t even move to another EU country any more since 2022. As the owner of such a company it feels like I have become a slave of the government.

Why can't businesses be owned by people that: - enjoy owning and managing a business - do think that owning and managing a business should come with the same compensation as any other dayjob (hairdresser or whatever) While managing a large amount of money naturally lead people to have enough to buy luxury items, IMO, this is just a sad fact of our world, and we should fight against it.

Huh?

Why take all that risk, for no additional reward?

If the business fails, is the gov’t going to keep paying them like a hairdresser or whatever?

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#152

Post by 1718627440 »

wolfgangK wrote: post #114
Scarblac wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that leaving the country is taxed as if you sold your shares. So selling them presumably doesn't help.

The idea is presumably that you would "sell" at an artificially low price.

Which is illegal if you do it for tax evasion.

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#155

Post by weinzierl »

WalterBright wrote: post #67

When businesses are fleeing, you're doing something very wrong.

As a German I couldn't agree more. I am your age and even I consider leaving. If I was still young I wouldn't be here anymore.

I think the combination of capital and skilled labour fleeing is very concerning and a trend that could end up self-reinforcing and hard to stop.

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#156

Post by notTooFarGone »

laurencerowe wrote: post #149
profstasiak wrote: post #138

Isn't USA even worse? If you move as US citizen to EU, you would need to pay bot h local EU tax and USA tax right? (I am not a USA citizen, this is legit question)

Double taxation treaties negate this somewhat, but there are a bunch of edge cases.

You have to file your taxes every year in the US either way. You can't even renounce your citizenship without paying a lump sum.

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#157

Post by dustincoates »

profstasiak wrote: post #138

Isn't USA even worse? If you move as US citizen to EU, you would need to pay bot h local EU tax and USA tax right? (I am not a USA citizen, this is legit question)

Not in most cases. According to this estimate, who comes from an organization that is against US citizens abroad having to file[0], 77% have AGI "well below" the cutoff where you would have to pay taxes. For those that are above that threshold, you can deduct the taxes you pay in your home country agains what you would have been charged in the US. For almost everyone in the EU, that is a higher rate than the US taxes, so you don't pay anything on that European income.

_However_, you do still have to pay taxes on your US income if you're abroad. So if you are making money from freelancing with US companies (and, I assume, they aren't paying a European business you have set up), then you'll pay US taxes there, but due to tax treaties you are generally not double taxed.

You do, also, have to file every year.

0: https://www.taxfairnessabroad.org/blog/americans-abroad-by-t...

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#159

Post by oulipo »

WalterBright wrote: post #67

When businesses are fleeing, you're doing something very wrong.

The business owners are doing something very wrong. They are failing to recognize that their business is successful in large part because of the infrastructure in their country, the educated people they can hire, the healthcare, etc

So when you get money out of this, you pay your fair share of taxes, like everyone.

Re: Exit Tax: Leave Germany before your business gets big

#160

Post by Shorel »

lazide wrote: post #151
bmacho wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't businesses be owned by people that: - enjoy owning and managing a business - do think that owning and managing a business should come with the same compensation as any other dayjob (hairdresser or whatever) While managing a large amount of money naturally lead people to have enough to buy luxury items, IMO, this is just a sad fact of our world, and we should fight against it.

Huh? Why take all that risk, for no additional reward? If the business fails, is the gov’t going to keep paying them like a hairdresser or whatever?

That's not that bad an idea, with some caveats.

An incentive for entrepreneurs?

It can help kickstart a stagnant economy.

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