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Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

bbc.com

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Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#251

Post by jamesb93 »

davidivadavid wrote: post #246
njarboe wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprising to most, the US governments spend a higher percent of GDP on healthcare than most European countries[1]. Then we also have high private sector spending on healthcare. Its pretty crazy. [1] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

Those comparisons aren't very enlightening if you don't compare the quality of services provided.

Does it really matter how much better it is when you can go immediately bankrupt from a simple procedure? I imagine there is immense pressure and loss of wealth by simple virtue that people probably don't maintain good health but go in when it gets bad enough that going bankrupt is worse than dying or being violently ill with no end in sight.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#252

Post by darawk »

paublyrne wrote: post #171
helpPeople wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How bad is it? I pay more than 50 percent of my income in various taxes in the United States. Before anyone asks, federal income, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, state income, state sales tax, local property tax, and lesser- luxury and gas tax.

For comparison sake, sales tax, gas tax and so on would not be considered under tax by someone living in Europe in that sort of calculation. People would mean income and social tax.

That's not a Europe/US thing. Most Americans wouldn't count them either. However, they're both wrong to not count them. They absolutely count.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#253

Post by johannes1234321 »

jsweojtj wrote: post #242
pergadad wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pay taxes abroad the US will still haunt you to show that you paid - and if it's lower than you would have paid back home claim the difference. Many American expats in Europe that have acquired the right for local nationality give up their nationality for that reason.

I doubted that "many" expats give up their US citizenship so I tried to find some numbers. Found some secondary sources like: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2018/05/14/fewer-ame... which states that, worldwide, just over 5,000 Americans renounced citizenship in 2017. There are also about 9 million Americans living abroad and ~1 million living in Europe. So, no, I don't think that even if all 5,000 were in Eu…

How many of these " ~1 million living in Europe" are with the US Armed Forces? (Be it as service member, spuse, family)

Quick research: Kaiserslautern Military Community has ~50k people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserslautern_Military_Comm...

Now that's the largest, but by far not only location with US Military presence in Europe.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#254

Post by mtnGoat »

adventured wrote: post #245
totalrobe wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus EU taxes often cover healthcare so there's another huge chunk of change gone for US residents when comparing.

That's incorrect. Essentially all decent paying jobs in the US take care of most or all of the healthcare cost you're referring to. That is especially true for eg software developers who earn six figures at the median. To balance a proper comparison if you're going to include the EU taxes re healthcare, you would have to inflate US wages even higher to account for the benefit that employees receive (money that otherw…

you might want to check the stats for the claims in your first paragraph, unless "decent job" in this case is top 5%. Only 49% of Americans have employer sponsored health plans and most of those are not entirely paid for by the employer. and only 91% of Americans are insured.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#255

Post by mtnGoat »

peteretep wrote: post #189
felixge wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you have to spend > 50% of your time in Bulgaria in order to be considered a tax resident there? I suspect a lot of the "too good to be true" tax evasion stories in this thread depend on lying about your true place of residence?

> I suspect a lot of the "too good to be true" tax evasion stories in this thread Considered by whom and for what purpose? Bulgaria certainly aren't going to complain if you start declaring your income as arising there, for example via a Bulgarian company. Much more important is where any other country who might have a claim on your tax think you are resident, and if you manage to not be resident elsewhere, you're do…

That would still be illegal, just because no one is enforcing it doesn't make it legal.

FWIW, some of the other low tax jurisdictions in Europe actually do audit expats living there, to ensure they are actually spending time there. I know Monaco does.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#256

Post by rgblambda »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #185
barsonme wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that’s a common misconception. In reality, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho all suck. Don’t move here, you’ll hate it.

Especially stay away from Boise. Place is a hellhole.

There was an article on HN a few weeks ago about people moving to Boise to get away from the high cost of living in Silicon Valley. Is it a hellhole as in crime ridden or more because there's nothing there?

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#257

Post by 0xfaded »

helpPeople wrote: post #150
alipang wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a company in Bulgaria while working remotely for a high-salary EU country, and it's almost shocking to realise how much you spend on taxes in most European countries when you see the difference in your bank account. It's quite a good deal if you want to be a digital nomad since it's an EU country and you can get a really small apartment for almost nothing to use as your official address while travelling. (You'…

How bad is it? I pay more than 50 percent of my income in various taxes in the United States. Before anyone asks, federal income, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, state income, state sales tax, local property tax, and lesser- luxury and gas tax.

Denmark has a law that you can't be taxed more than 56% of your income. Then there is 25% VAT (sales tax), so if you're in the top bracket and spend your entire income you can theoretically be taxed 67%. Cars have a special 160% tax (you pay 260% of base price). And there's no capital gains loopholes. There's no payroll tax per se, but the employer contributes to a maternity/paternity fund in addition to some other small items.

It's very true that the Danes receive good free health care and have good universities, but the longer I live here the more I see that a huge amount of tax revenue is squandered on administration. I'm pro taxation, but it's hard to be exposed to such waste.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#258

Post by arcticbull »

darawk wrote: post #252
paublyrne wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison sake, sales tax, gas tax and so on would not be considered under tax by someone living in Europe in that sort of calculation. People would mean income and social tax.

That's not a Europe/US thing. Most Americans wouldn't count them either. However, they're both wrong to not count them. They absolutely count.

They're fundamentally different, one is a progressive tax designed to support a civil society (income tax) and the other is a regressive usage-based tax designed to dis-incentivize behavior such as smoking, drinking and using gas/private automobiles. One's a benefit driver, the other is designed a penalty or market force.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#259

Post by malandrew »

cpursley wrote: post #194
qwtel wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but probably referring to Georgia

Close. Southern Russia, actually (Krasnodar Krai). It's a neat place off of most peoples radar.

I'm curious to hear more. Are you a Russian national? If not, how is living and working in Russia as a non-citizen? Is corruption not as much of a concern in that part of the country?

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#260

Post by arcticbull »

pergadad wrote: post #223
helpPeople wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How bad is it? I pay more than 50 percent of my income in various taxes in the United States. Before anyone asks, federal income, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, state income, state sales tax, local property tax, and lesser- luxury and gas tax.

If you pay taxes abroad the US will still haunt you to show that you paid - and if it's lower than you would have paid back home claim the difference. Many American expats in Europe that have acquired the right for local nationality give up their nationality for that reason.

> If you pay taxes abroad the US will still haunt you to show that you paid - and if it's lower than you would have paid back home claim the difference.

That's only if you're lucky, and move to a country with a no-double-taxation treaty. There's only a few of them. No tax treaty, you pay the full amount due to both governments (after excluding your US foreign earned income allowance ~$90K).

Worse, if you live in a foreign country and start a business you now own what the US considers a "foreign controlled corporation" and your new nightmare begins. Not to mention many banks won't do business with you abroad because of FATCA and you have to report your balances annually to FinCEN or risk forfeiture of 50% of the balance in the account. And you can't open a brokerage account in a foreign country because you can't have an account not overseen by the SEC.

Then if your child is born abroad with no other connection to America they'll suffer the same fate for the rest of their lives unless they renounce, which itself comes with substantial costs.

I think the number of renunciations is fairly low because most dont make >90K in foreign countries, and FATCA is new-ish.

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