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Ask HN: Does legal tax evasion work for regular people?

8 points o1o1o1 | 3 comments | 15 Mar 25 06:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.819s | source

Hello fellow HN readers,

For some time now I've been researching how to become a digital nomad and legally optimise my taxes.

There are numerous services that claim to be able to help with this, here are just two examples that I found:

https://taxhackers.io

https://denationalize.me

Does anyone have any experience of this and can tell me if it really works and is legal?

Also, why do they charge so much when there are other services that can do this for much less (e.g. Stripe Atlas: https://stripe.com/atlas)?

I am thinking of moving to Thailand, but I do not want to be a perpetual traveller. Can setting up a US LLC as a non-resident (or a UAE free zone company) be considered "foreign sourced income" without being taxed even if I am a tax resident of Thailand (>180 days living there) and what experience can you possibly share if you have tried something like this before?

What additional advice can you give me and others to make this a great trip instead of a nightmare?

Thanks for all your input and a healthy discussion on this topic!

Show context
eacapeisfutuile ◴[15 Mar 25 07:14 UTC] No.43370656[source]▶
No those services won’t be legal. If you stay in Thailand for that period you can pay tax there and then use FEIE to not pay double to the US
replies(1): >>43370681 #
1. o1o1o1 ◴[15 Mar 25 07:22 UTC] No.43370681[source]▶
Ok, this may be true for US citizens who are taxed based on their citizenship, but what about other nationalities (I am not a US citizen)?

The current laws in Thailand state that foreign sourced income is only taxed if it is remitted to Thailand (source: https://mahanakornpartners.com/overview-of-personal-income-t...).

So this should be an option, don't you think?

replies(1): >>43370878 #
2. eacapeisfutuile ◴[15 Mar 25 08:04 UTC] No.43370878[source]▶
Same, but residence probably always require a time period. I think it highly depends on your actual citizenship and what tax agreements they have with Thailand etc.
replies(1): >>43375074 #
3. o1o1o1 ◴[15 Mar 25 20:51 UTC] No.43375074[source]▶
I am not a tax resident in my home country anymore, since I already migrated to a different country (UAE). I am also not trying to avoid becoming a tax resident of Thailand, but as the law seems to state currently foreign sourced income is not being taxed there necessarily.