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

8 points o1o1o1 | 1 comments | 15 Mar 25 06:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.221s | 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
carlosjobim ◴[15 Mar 25 10:41 UTC] No.43371588[source]▶
Your life should be split like this:

One country for citizenship, one country for residence, one country for your money.

This arrangement earns you a lifetime of peace of mind.

replies(2): >>43372555 #>>43375092 #
scarface_74 ◴[15 Mar 25 13:57 UTC] No.43372555[source]▶
Why is that optimal?

I understand at least having a dual residency as a back up plan and that’s our plan with establishing residency in Costa Rica before retirement and keeping our by then paid off condo in the US.

replies(1): >>43373432 #
carlosjobim ◴[15 Mar 25 16:12 UTC] No.43373432[source]▶
It's optimal because you get left the hell alone. Governments do not know what they citizens do if they are neither living in the country nor having their money in the country. Governments do not know what their residents do, if they are neither citizens nor have their money in the country. Governments do not care what foreigners do with their money in their country if they are neither citizens nor residents.
replies(1): >>43374480 #
scarface_74 ◴[15 Mar 25 18:59 UTC] No.43374480[source]▶
Can you explain a real world scenario based on ease of applying for residence, tax situation, etc?

I haven’t researched anything aside from the US && (Costa Rica || Panama) scenario. There are really no tax advantages or disadvantages that way.

replies(2): >>43375120 #>>43375711 #
1. o1o1o1 ◴[15 Mar 25 21:00 UTC] No.43375120[source]▶
A simple example would be someone who does not have US citizenship (or Eritrea) and is able to move their tax residency to a second country that has very low or no income tax (e.g. UAE).

There are other countries (e.g. Cyprus) that do not require you to stay for 180 days or more to gain residency, so I think this is the kind of setup he is talking about.

The last piece of the puzzle would be international bank accounts, which gets easier the more money you have (e.g. HSBC Expat, which requires 50k USD to set up).