Are You Permanent Tourist/Prior Taxpayer Material?
Are you sick and tired of being treated like a cash cow and milked for every penny you earn by your local corrupt government?
Are you a professional blogger, steemian, stock trader, poker player, freelance translator, cam-girl or entrepreneur who derives the bulk of their income from work you do online?
Do you feel limited by your current circumstances and would like to widen your horizons by experiencing other cultures and ways of living?
If you answered in the affirmative to the three questions above, then maybe you should look into becoming a PT - a Permanent Tourist and Prior Taxpayer.
PTs structure their affairs in such a way as to legally avoid government extortion in the form of taxes.
So, usually the first step would be to acquire legal residency in a country with no personal income tax like St. Kitts and Nevis, or Panama. This can be achieved through a variety of ways, but most legislation employ the 183 day rule to ascertain 'substantial presence' in a country within the context of international taxation.
You'll need to jump through a few hoops, like proving you have 'important economic interests' in your new country of residence by, for example, owning or renting property, or perhaps by showing you're married to a legal resident of that country. You'll also likely be required to show you've convincingly cut ties to your former 'owners' in your own country of birth, so the process isn't exactly straightforward, and will most likely require legal expert help.
Once you've overcome these various hurdles, however, you'll finally be able to enjoy the fruits of your own labor without a portion of it being siphoned off by government bureaucrats and similar blood-sucking parasites.
You'll also benefit greatly from structuring your financial life in this way -- even if you don't leave your current country of residence and continue to pay taxes -- because you'll be able to rapidly flee the country in case of an emergency.
As a digital nomad, you're impervious to government attempts to confiscate your wealth through, say, an official ban on Bitcoin. Simply get on the next flight to some tropical location where the cost of living is cheap, and get the hell out of dodge!
Your income stream wouldn't be affected in any way, as you'll still be able to run your business online, independent of most geographical restrictions.
This optionality, coupled with the emergence of services like Local Bitcoins, is the real reason the status quo is so openly hostile towards cryptocurrencies.
Their goal has never been to thwart money laundering by drug cartels or terrorist cells, but rather to dissuade the tax cattle from pursuing a life outside their matrix of control.
As things progress and more and more of our liberties are eroded, it'll become increasingly difficult to gain access to offshore structures allowing individuals to retain their right to liberty and sovereignty.
It's likely the powers that be will continue to put pressure on smaller nations with laxer regulations to share depositor information, and perform increasingly intrusive forms of KYC. The list of Tax Havens will continue to grow shorter and shorter in size, until there's quite literally no place left to hide.
This may be the dystopian future that awaits us, but that's still no reason not to at least look into it. If not for the tax optimization aspect, at least for the risk management component of having multiple income streams independent of one's physical location.
What would you guys do if you woke up one morning to see your portfolio had skyrocketed 100-fold, and you wanted to cash out some of those gains into fiat? Would you simply pay the piper and fork over however much tax authorities deem fair? Or would you put up a fight and try to move some of that money into a less hostile legislation?
As always, thank you so much for reading. If you've enjoyed this article, don't forget to leave an upvote and a few lines in the comment box below. See you next time!