Ask HN: Living overseas with a profitable online business

Post by elai » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 11:17 PM UTC

nagrom wrote: post #49

andreshb wrote: post #22

It seems to me all the answers so far make it look far more complicated than what it actually is. What I've done is just travel as tourist staying in each country around 3 months. When I "lived" in Chile I just took weekend 'visa vacations' to Argentina and had my stay extended for another 90 days. Nothing changed in terms of taxes for me, since I never really become resident of another country. Earning money online…

This is great advice. I've done something similar and found that after about 2 months you can get a flavour of what life in that country would be like. It's a fantastic thing to do, and it will completely change your perspective on life in the UK! It's incredibly important to have someone you can trust to take care of admin issues at home if you're gone a while though. My parents helped me out, but a lawyer or accoun…

Post by goatforce5 » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 11:20 PM UTC

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #26

jacquesm wrote: post #3

I've done it for a couple of years (5 in all), from the Netherlands to Canada. It cost an arm and a leg, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. As for taxes, the rule in my case was that as soon as I spent more than half a year per year in the one country that one became the one where I paid my taxes. I did create a corporation in Canada in order to have a bigger footprint and to help with the immigration proce…

But, I keep hearing and reading all of these "horror stories" about people waiting up to even TEN YEARS for immigration applications to get approval, particularly in Canada. The minimum I've read has always been over a year's wait, which still seems really long to me in this age of instant gratification. Did you just go to those places as a visitor and lived there while applying for a more permanent residency or did…

Post by elai » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 11:23 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #20

goatforce5 wrote: post #12

If I found myself in your shoes, i'd probably be planning an itinerary with one of the round the world tickets offered by the various airline alliances. They're really good value and allow you to see a heck of a lot of the world. And keep in mind you can use the round the world ticket to get to, say, Hong Kong (I love it there - recommended) and then use local budget airlines to hop between South East Asian countries…

Absolutely don't buy a RTW ticket. Definitely go around the world, but do it by purchasing a single one-way ticket. Travel overland as much as you can and when you hit the end of a continent, buy another one-way ticket to the next. There's nothing worse than having a date on a calendar. It will mess up your trip over and over again, even if it's months in the future. Avoid dates at all costs. Get to the first place a…

Post by butu5 » Sun, Oct 03, 2010, 11:42 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #3

I've done it for a couple of years (5 in all), from the Netherlands to Canada. It cost an arm and a leg, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. As for taxes, the rule in my case was that as soon as I spent more than half a year per year in the one country that one became the one where I paid my taxes. I did create a corporation in Canada in order to have a bigger footprint and to help with the immigration proce…

Post by butu5 » Mon, Oct 04, 2010, 12:01 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #59

Tunisia (My country) may be a good place for you. When re-searching on how to start my own company, I found out that non-residents can easily form a company over the Internet and submit all papers (even without being here). Taxes are 10% but if you sign before 2011, you'll pay no taxes for 10 years. Here's the website in question: http://www.tunisianindustry.nat.tn/en/home.asp It's in English and has lot of useful in…