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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: 0.683s | 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!

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chvid ◴[15 Mar 25 06:55 UTC] No.43370576[source]▶
As far as I can tell these service are essentially the same as not reporting an income in a roundabout way - illegal but you will likely get away with it because how will the tax authorities of your country know.

Do these services provide you with legal representation towards your home country? My guess is probably not.

replies(2): >>43370693 #>>43370923 #
1. csomar ◴[15 Mar 25 08:15 UTC] No.43370923[source]▶
It's 2025 and your depending on your country they might be getting quite a bit of information (bank accounts, brokerage account, insurances transactions, Beneficial Ownership, etc...) Lookup CRS.
replies(1): >>43371440 #
2. chvid ◴[15 Mar 25 10:11 UTC] No.43371440[source]▶
But do any of these setups help you with that? Ie. get a tax free company that is not under your name but under your control. And get an international bank account for that company plus an international debit card.

Plus you would need customers who are cool with paying you through an entity like that.

replies(1): >>43371743 #
3. csomar ◴[15 Mar 25 11:12 UTC] No.43371743[source]▶
Not only that but the system is guarded through the banks. Even if you open a bank account for your company, you have to fill beneficial ownership rules for that bank account. So they might end up linking you to it that way.