I'd imagine the internet just has to be good enough to have video calls and transfer the occasional large file for 90% of people. I think life on a Caribbean island would be enough reason to ditch our usual high bandwidth vices like gaming and streaming for just a year.
Some examples: https://discoverflow.co/barbados/broadband/overview https://discoverflow.co/barbados/mobile/plans/prepaid https://www.digicelgroup.com/bb/en/mobile/plans/postpaid-pla...
The real question is how good the backbone is that feeds the country. If large numbers of people move there and start doing video calls, streaming Netflix, etc then it could use a ton of bandwidth.
This is really interesting - I wonder if, in our post-COVID world, we'll see other countries doing the same. I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this, but the only thing I came up with is the possibility of distorting local rental prices. But presumably if enough countries offered such a visa, applicants would be spread over those countries, causing less distortion.
I would love to work remotely from Europe. I would think it would be in the interest of European countries to make this kind of arrangement because I would be spending my cushy US salary on European goods and services and not taking a job away from a European.
And raising local prices. I saw this happen over the years in some areas of Canada when they became more popular destinations for the US tourists. The result is not good for the majority of local folks.
This is really interesting - I wonder if, in our post-COVID world, we'll see other countries doing the same. I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this, but the only thing I came up with is the possibility of distorting local rental prices. But presumably if enough countries offered such a visa, applicants would be spread over those countries, causing less distortion.
I would love to work remotely from Europe. I would think it would be in the interest of European countries to make this kind of arrangement because I would be spending my cushy US salary on European goods and services and not taking a job away from a European.
This shouldn't just be for the remotely employed. We need to do more decouple freedom of movement from employment by a company.
Perhaps there should be something like this: An International Creative or Digital Visa that countries can sign onto.
Have something to contribute. Be able to support yourself. Don't compete for an in country job and any country should welcome your residence/citizenship.
There's no reason something like this doesn't exist in a global digital age.
This is really interesting - I wonder if, in our post-COVID world, we'll see other countries doing the same. I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this, but the only thing I came up with is the possibility of distorting local rental prices. But presumably if enough countries offered such a visa, applicants would be spread over those countries, causing less distortion.
I would love to work remotely from Europe. I would think it would be in the interest of European countries to make this kind of arrangement because I would be spending my cushy US salary on European goods and services and not taking a job away from a European.
Many countries have a minimum salary limit which qualifies you (and potentially your family) to live there. For example, last I looked into it several years ago, Spain's minimum salary for a remote working visa was USD $36,000.
This is really interesting - I wonder if, in our post-COVID world, we'll see other countries doing the same. I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this, but the only thing I came up with is the possibility of distorting local rental prices. But presumably if enough countries offered such a visa, applicants would be spread over those countries, causing less distortion.
I would love to work remotely from Europe. I would think it would be in the interest of European countries to make this kind of arrangement because I would be spending my cushy US salary on European goods and services and not taking a job away from a European.
There are some rumors that indicate the Canary Islands will set up some remote worker deal. It'd be great as they have low tax, great weather and nice infrastructure including really nice Internet.
>> only the US is brazen enough to charge non-resident citizens income tax Don't forget Hungary, Myanmar, and Eritrea, too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation
"Hey, we're doing the same things as Hungary, Myanmar, and Eritrea" is not usually a good argument for anything. Anyway, the Hungary part surprised me since I'm a Hungarian citizen living abroad and have never been bothered about tax. The Wikipedia table says residents of countries with tax treaties are exempt, and that should be pretty much all of them? The PDF link from Wikipedia is broken, which is normal for how…
Since the US has an exemption for foreign income, this seems like making overmuch of a technicality. It reminds me of the histrionics over the US not being officially metric by people from the UK.
I would love to work remotely from Europe. I would think it would be in the interest of European countries to make this kind of arrangement because I would be spending my cushy US salary on European goods and services and not taking a job away from a European.
And raising local prices. I saw this happen over the years in some areas of Canada when they became more popular destinations for the US tourists. The result is not good for the majority of local folks.
Maybe, but the cost of living in Europe is already considerably higher than in the US (barring of course the popular but disingenuous comparisons between SF/NYC and rural Europe). I'm not an economist, but I wouldn't expect an influx of Americans to drive up the cost of anything except perhaps real estate. Moreover, I wouldn't expect a significant influx of Americans period--relocating to Europe would only be for the intersection of the very privileged, those interested in Europe, and those who have the flexibility to make the move. I'm sure there's some threshold at which too many people are visiting and it's causing problems; however, I'm only arguing that the current state is suboptimal for everyone (although someone else has pointed out that it may be easier to work remotely in Europe than I'm aware of).
Other commenters have address your questions, but what I will add is that if you stayed the full 12 months (Or really, 330 days) then you apply for FEIE and won't have to pay federal income tax as a US citizen.
This isn't exactly true. You only get the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion if you actually have foreign earned income. Just can't just live abroad and pretend your income is foreign earned. There IRS defines what is and isn't foreign earned income. If you move to Barbados and just keep doing the same job you were doing in the US, then it almost certainly isn't foreign earned income.
you spoke fairly authoritatively, then hedged at the end ("almost certainly"). have you read IRS form 2555? that's probably a good place to start, as they spend a fairly large amount of time defining terms.
for all their faults, the IRS has extremely clear definitions and exceptions when it comes to foreign earned income and sequelae. while detailed and nuanced, there aren't really any gray areas that i have found.
And raising local prices. I saw this happen over the years in some areas of Canada when they became more popular destinations for the US tourists. The result is not good for the majority of local folks.
Maybe, but the cost of living in Europe is already considerably higher than in the US (barring of course the popular but disingenuous comparisons between SF/NYC and rural Europe). I'm not an economist, but I wouldn't expect an influx of Americans to drive up the cost of anything except perhaps real estate. Moreover, I wouldn't expect a significant influx of Americans period--relocating to Europe would only be for the…
It only takes 20 hours to go to the other side of the planet, 10 hours if you're in the eurasian continent. More and more young people want to travel and do business in many countries or live a life in different cultures. Lesser people want a picket fence home with 30 years of slavery.
The only thing stopping this is backward legal systems and the bureaucracy around these processes.
I imagine a lot of countries will take advantage of this and reduce bureaucracy in the recovery efforts post covid. Island nations and rapidly developing countries will probably pioneer this and young people from developed countries will probably try to escape their own high cost of living to these nations.