Citizenship

Something I tend to think about quite a lot about is citizenship, there is just something about it that fascinates me. It amazes me how having access to different citizenships can open substantial opportunities to people. Anyone who knows me has definitely heard my rants about citizenship by investment programs, my hatred for FATCA laws and the global taxation of Americans. In my lifetime I want to be a citizen of as many countries as possible, I think the best way to do that would be through citizenship by investment programs. Even though having a few passports could be easily more than enough for one person. To me every additional passport I feel is like a new opportunity a new place to have the right to live and do business. I also feel as though governments should be looked at more contractually and I should look at what I am giving a particular government vs what I am getting back in return. I feel I should go to whatever government is going to treat me best. Although I love the USA I do have concerns about both it's future and how it's regulatory environment will interact with my future. Take for example FATCA and US Tax Code applies to US citizens regardless of where they go, which to me just doesn't feel right. I'm also concerned about the growing US debt crisis, the interest on US debt has surpassed the military budget. I don't mean to be completely negative there are still many advantages to the United States a big one being that it is a massive economy. The USA is also a hub for a lot of rapidly growing industries such as AI and Space. However I don't think it will hurt either to have additional citizenships that can act as a backup as well as open more opportunities. A mindset that a lot of Americans have that I think I may have once had is this idea that America is the only country in the world where you can live a normal life. I think there are a lot of countries where you can live a normal life but you also get varying degrees of tradeoffs that you have to evaluate. For example there may be many caribbean countries that have a more favorable tax or business environment, but don't necessarily have the best healthcare. So here I have to gauge which I value more. I do find flag theory quite interesting where an individual plants flags across countries and moves between them throughout the year taking the best benefits of each while becoming essentially a tax resident of nowhere. If I had a wish for laws I wish it would change, I would want it to eliminate the global taxation of Americans, kill FATCA, I would also want to see the USA move their tax system to a territorial tax system. There are three main tax systems in the world residential, territorial, and global. Residential means you are taxed on all global income usually if you have lived in that particular country for more than 180 days. However if you move from that country they will stop taking you. Territorial says you are only taxed on income earned in a given country and no where else, think Costa Rica, Singapore, Namibia, etc... If I live in Costa Rica yet make money in Germany, Costa Rica won't tax any of my German gains only Germany. To me this setup seems the most fair. Then you have global taxation where very few countries fall into this category USA, Eritrea, and Myanmar. Two of these are military dictatorships, and I don't think that it is good that we share this in common with them. Though I have to clarify something the USA does have tax treaties to reduce the burdens on Americans abroad. As well as the Foreign Earned income exclusion which excludes the first $130,000 you make abroad from US taxation. The IRS also allows a credit on your tax return of any foreign taxes paid on that money. Which essentially means if I move to a country with a higher tax rate than the USA I won't be paying any extra taxes back to Uncle Sam. However what if I want to move to a lower tax country. Then I will have to pay both that country's taxes and my US taxes on income earned in that country. To me that is completely unfair. I should have the right to move to a country that has a lower tax rate for that tax rate. As perhaps they may offer fewer services and I'm willing to make that tradeoff or that particular government is simply more efficient with their money. But what is even more frustrating is that let's say I decided to renounce my US citizenship to do exactly this, then I will have to pay Unrealized gains exit tax. Even after that tax I would risk not being able to return to the USA under the Reed Amendment or possibly Roger Ver'ed.

If your wondering how I got so into global citizenships and taxation it started with me reading the Nomad Capitalist by Andrew Henderson. Then I just kind of went from there doing my own reading and research on the varying tax systems of countries. Also funny note, someone pointed out to me that a bare a resemblance to Andrew Henderson while I was reading his book so I took this comparison photo below.