Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nmridul 4636 days ago
Taxing is mainly to pay for the facilities that the Government is providing you currently. That is the reason why vast majority of the countries (99% ?) are taxing based on physical presence. So if you are out of the country for most of the time during the last year, then you don't pay tax.
1 comments
LekkoscPiwa 4636 days ago
US is immigration based. 60% of New York City population wasn't even born in the USA. Wouldn't you think that in this circumstance a substantial number of them could avoid taxation by living more than 6 months abroad even though their income would be generated in the US? I'm a dual Polish/US citizen. Easy scenario: remote work in US for $100k+ a year while residing all that time in Poland. That's why they have it. There is no other country in the world that's that rich and is based on immigration, so people would have incentive to game the system. That's why the system is built that way that you have to _declare_ your income even when abroad. If somebody can't do this because of $3k lost, that's just shows for them not for the US.
link
ajmurmann 4636 days ago
That's a problem, but it doesn't have anything to do with citizenship. Rather with residency vs. place of work. It's a problem every European country faces (work in France, live in Germany for example) and still none of them motivate their citizens to abandon their citizenship when they live abroad. I am a German living in the US and I have no downside of being a German citizen. As a green card holder the only thing that I cannot do is vote. It would be nice to become a US citizen one day, but given the huge downside of the tax burden if I ever decide to ant to live somewhere else for a while is a big deterrent for me.
link
LekkoscPiwa 4636 days ago
> It's a problem every European country faces (work in France, live in Germany for example) and still none of them motivate their citizens to abandon their citizenship when they live abroad.

What I'm saying is that it is practical and pragmatic for the US to have this law. It's not for Germany. Why? Because the number of immigrants in the US is extremely high.

Was US to implement the same law Germany has then 60% of New Yorkers would be able to avoid paying income tax in the US. Not that all of them would do that, but just saying. US has this special circumstance of having a big chunk of their population with 2 passports. Not 10% like in Germany, but 60% like in New York. Then you have to enact a law to discourage people from taking advantage of their 2nd citizenship in terms of taxes, or nobody would pay, they would just stay over 6 months in their mother countries whenever that's convienenient (i.e. reaching retirement age).

link