Best Warm, Safe Country with LOW taxes?? (real estate, hotels)

[hkgal]

BTW - where I live, Hong Kong, fulfills all your criteria. It's just not all that idyllic - a big, heaving city!!

[jtur88]

Leaving a country to avoid paying taxes seemed like a good idea to all those corporations that moved to the Cayman Islands. It looks like it works for them.

The fact is, yes, there is a tax law that would require one to pay US taxes. But this law is almost never enforced, and Americans living abroad in tax havens are nearly all gtting away with. Those that get caught are likely just being stupid or careless. Everybody falls into one of two categories: Small Potatoes, not worth going after, and Big Potatoes, who can afford the advice to keep them a step ahead of the IRS.

I once needed to get a new passport whenI was in Canada. They made me fill out a form that asked if I had filed US tax returns for the past ten years (I marked No), Why not (I marked Didnt know I was suppolsed to), Do you want us to send you forms (I markes Sure, why not). I got a big box in the mail with about ten pounds of xerox copies. one side only, of tax forms and instruction booklets from the past ten years. I used the backs for scratch paper, and never heard from them again.

As a moral question, lets say you live in Panama, you are subject to Panama law, and you are protected by Panama law. You own shares in a Cayman Islands company with a US DBA that is traded on the New York stock exchange, and some rental property on the French Riviera. Why, morally speaking, should you have to give a quarter of your earnings to the US govenrment, merely because you have a US passport?

[glenn72]

Honduras

[chilaili]

Isn't there a law where some countries have reciprocal tax agreements with each other? Ie; if you're paying taxes overseas you file that on your US return and the IRS doesn't double-charge you? I'm 99% sure that the US has agreements with most other Western countries, esp. Europe. Something to look into perhaps?

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by chilaili

Isn't there a law where some countries have reciprocal tax agreements with each other? Ie; if you're paying taxes overseas you file that on your US return and the IRS doesn't double-charge you? I'm 99% sure that the US has agreements with most other Western countries, esp. Europe. Something to look into perhaps?

The general rule, applied in many countreis, is that if you have a tax liability to two countries, you can pay whichever one you want. If you pay to the country with the lesser tax levy, you are obliged to pay the difference to the higher one. For example, if you owe 10K in taxes in Canada and 15K in the US, you may opt to pay Canada the entire 10K, and then owe the US only the 5K difference. Or, alternatively, you may pay the entire 15K to the US, and owe Canada nothing. Provided the two tax levies are on the same global income.

[DontH8Me]

Originally Posted by glenn72

Honduras

That was a joke, right? She said safe.

[StealthRabbit]

Guam, or another US protectorate may be your least expensive / less hassle destination.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by DontH8Me

That was a joke, right? She said safe.

Why do you think Honduras is unsafe? The Americans I know who live there feel safe, however the towns on the Caribbean can be a bit rough.

Almost every country is safe in the daytime. Few are at night. In any country, the most dangerous thing you can do is drink at night with strangers. If you don't do that, you'll be fine.

[JennySquirrel]

Thanks for eveyone's responses. I'm going to have to look into this more, and quickly. If we are at 35% now, then soon we will be up to 39.6% + an addition 2% on SS tax, then throw on the state, city, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. UGH Will it go higher? Who knows but I am going to get the heck out of dodge. I have 3 other friends who are also looking into just packing up and leaving. All of us are ready to give up our citizenship if we have to.

You can only squeeze someone so much before they leave.

Someone sent me a DM from Croatia and I accidently deleted it. I never got to look at the link she sent.

Some of the islands I have looked at look like a viable option but I have visions of the floods and hurricanes, you know?

Does anyone know how a person would go about being able to move to another country and give up citizenship in the US? I am clueless to all of this??

Also, what about medical records? Will the Dr's be able to access ours from the US or should we hand carry them?

Thanks

[hkgal]

In order to give up your US citizenship you would need to hold citizenship for another country first. This could potentially be your biggest hurdle if you do not already have dual citizenship.

As far as I'm aware the US just changed their tax rules so you are *supposed* to continue paying taxes on your foreign income for about 10 years after renouncing citizenship, or some equally large disincentive. Not totally sure how it works. It would be something you need to research.

Citizenship is a very serious issue because if your move does not work out or you need to return to the states for any reason, you will be treated as any other foreign national. You will no longer have rights to live, work or even visit freely depending on the new citizenship that you take up. The rights your citizenship affords you are many and its very extreme to renounce citizenship on the basis of taxes. The downsides of holding the passport of another nationality may outweigh this.

Just something to consider.