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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: 0.632s | 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!

1. seekingcharlie ◴[17 Mar 25 18:26 UTC] No.43391350[source]▶
An LLC is a pass-through entity, which means you don't pay corporate tax but you pay personal tax on all profits. With an LLC, you can't pay yourself with dividends like a normal company, so it won't count as "foreign sourced income". This means that it's generally a bad solution for paying less tax, as personal tax rates are much higher than corporate.

You should look for countries with low corporate tax that don't tax on dividends.

replies(1): >>43399382 #
2. o1o1o1 ◴[18 Mar 25 13:49 UTC] No.43399382[source]▶
I think you misunderstand how personal income is taxed in Thailand. Take a look at what the Revenue Department has to say about this: https://www.rd.go.th/english/6045.html

I quote: "A resident of Thailand is liable to pay tax on income from sources in Thailand as well as on the portion of income from foreign sources brought into Thailand" (resident = stay >180 days per calendar year).

If the "income from foreign sources", which should include income from a foreign company, is not "brought into Thailand", it should not count towards taxable income, if I understand this correctly.

Do you have a different interpretation which would make income from a foreign company with no clients in Thailand fully taxable and how would you explain that?

replies(1): >>43499066 #
3. seekingcharlie ◴[27 Mar 25 22:42 UTC] No.43499066[source]▶
I don’t understand what you are asking. How are you going to live in Thailand without bringing income into Thailand?

The quote from the revenue department is clear - you will need to pay personal income tax in Thailand since you’re resident there. “Sourced” most of the time means where you do the work, which will presumably be in Thailand for you.

If you set up a company, you will need to pay both corporate tax (wherever you incorporate), plus personal tax on the dividends that you pay yourself with in Thailand.

You originally asked about the LLC, which was why I mentioned it specifically. With an LLC, you would be fully taxed in Thailand at the personal tax rate, because that’s how LLCs work (you don’t pay corporate tax with an LLC).

My advice would be to look into Cyprus and their non-dom program. You can get tax residency there with only spending 60 days per year. Create a Cyprus LTD and your tax rate would be 12.5% + 2.65% for social security. You don’t need to pay personal tax on dividends.