←back to thread

How to not pay your taxes legally, apparently

(mrsteinberg.com)
113 points jimhi | 2 comments | 05 Jul 25 18:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.454s | source
Show context
bgnn ◴[05 Jul 25 20:07 UTC] No.44475156[source]▶
For start-up founders: There are countries, like the Netherlands, where there is no capital gains tax. Move to such a country.
replies(5): >>44475202 #>>44475257 #>>44475323 #>>44475434 #>>44475465 #
1. StrandedKitty ◴[05 Jul 25 20:31 UTC] No.44475323[source]▶
From what I understand, you are taxed on the unrealized gains from your assets, so you are effectively paying ~2% of the value of all your assets every year. Even if you simply own a stake at a startup, you still have to pay the wealth tax regardless of whether your stake ends up having any real value at all (most likely it won't).
replies(1): >>44475623 #
2. bgnn ◴[05 Jul 25 21:17 UTC] No.44475623[source]▶
It depends. I have been in this situation several times. The benefit of the current regulation is that you can pay 0 income tax over stock options if you exercise them at the value of FMV. This is extremely beneficial for early employees. The disadvantage is that the tax service treat them as any other asset and if the company valuation skyrockets your shares might worth more than the 100k or so threshold they have for Box 3 tax. Ecen in that case you do pay a fractional tax over potential income they calculate over this. This might be tough but a very privileged position to be in as a good lawyer can come to an agreement with the tax service if the prospects are looking good (a potential IPO or acquisition). You will not pay ANY income tax over the profit you made in this scenario.

The same applies to house ownership too for example. I did pay 0 income tax over 150k profit I made over my previous house when I sold it. When the money was on my account the wealth tax started to kick in, but it is after you make the capital gains not at the moment you make it.