[sparrc]

On the other hand, I know someone from the UK who moved away and lived in places like Qatar and Oman for 20-30 years, keeping their UK citizenship and paying zero taxes to the UK (and extremely low taxes in the gulf countries).

Then they retired, returned to the UK, sent their kids to subsidized state universities (in the UK), receive free healthcare on the NHS, and receive state benefits for retirees.

They receive all of these state benefits and they paid almost no taxes to the UK government for most of their adult life. Is that fair?

[vasco]

If I don't do any of the dodgy parts of that story but move to another EU country with children they'll also get free school, Healthcare and so on. For this to be "fair" you'd need some global EU contribution scheme OR nobody can move.

[chii]

But then do the same people making the argument it's not fair to have paid zero taxes believe that welfare isn't "fair"?

[cpill]

it's not, but it's not the general case and also you realise this is the very opposite of the US: you get taxed when overseas (unless your a large corporation) and then get no benefits when returning because that would be communism.

[sparrc]

That's a bit of an exaggeration, social security (state pension) and medicare (state healthcare for retirees) are not perfect but they're not terrible either.

[sgerenser]

If you were outside the U.S. for most of your working life, it’s unlikely you’d qualify for social security (requires 10 years of work paying into it).