Quote from Rearden Metal:
I'll have to take my (massively devaluated dollar) wealth and find a free country to make my new home. The Netherlands seems best on personal liberties, although their their high taxes and socialism are disgusting. Unfortunately, Holland (maybe Switzerland) appears to be the least flawed system of government the human race is capable of these days.
Anybody want to start up a new sovereign Libertarian/Objectivist Island?
European countries are mostly based on social-democracy, which I guess is a little bit like the more collectivist democrats in the US. Taxes are normally high, because of mostly free social services.
However, some countries are quite ok with respect to taxes as well. The channel islands like Guernsey, Isle of Man and not to forget Gibraltar (although maybe a bit of a hotspot after the Madrid bombings). There is also an old platform off the coast of Holland towards the UK inhabited by a "separatist" soul - if he's still there (old Wired story).
Other than that, there are the usual suspects like Andorra, Lichteinstein, Monaco, Luxembourg and even Portugal in europe. If you could travel farther, Korea is the best OECD country - tax-wise (in europe it's Portugal).
For 0 (zero) taxes consider places like Anguilla (really nice - you can see the jet-setting St.Martin/Maarten, lotsa yachts with helicopter decks - check out http://www.ai - also the place for the rather mysterious Financial Cryptography conventions) , UAE - albeit maybe you will consider it rather risky for the time being, Burmei - and I'm sure there are some more out there - but I can't seem to be able to remember them right now.
The channel islands require quite a hefty yearly income and assets to be eligible. If I remember correctly, even Elton John had to do some waiting. I used to research these things earlier, and consider all the opportunities -
Anguilla always seemed the best of all. The food on St. Martin is absolutely delishous with it's french-caribbean cousine. St. Barths is also nearby, and a jetset hotspot. Martinique is a bit farther, but quite impressive. Barbuda - I remember the USD 100 breakfasts in the clubs - per person, mind you. Some nice sailing around those islands. Rather flat on Barbuda, though.
Vince Cate on Anguilla - had to go to the Bahamas to denounce his US citizenship, after he bought a citizenship in an african country for around USD 100 - check out the story in Forbes Magazine (gotta pay for the article nowadays - but check the newspages of
http://online.offshore.ai/publicity/). That's how he escaped all US taxes - and any other taxes (consumption based tax system -
http://siliconisle.com/taxes.html ) for that matter.
Here in Brazil - taxes seems to be a sorry venue. Of (Grande) Sao Paulo's 24 million - only 2 million are considered "economically active" and contributing to taxes, but given the extremely high crime rates, corruption and that it's rather underdeveloped in the luxury goods department - it's not really paradise. 60% import taxes for consumer imports make sure you won't take advantage of any real buying power. Otherwise, rather communist-standard conversion and transfer regulations of capital makes it a sad story - along with the danger of actually flaunting any money. I guess around 80-90% of all the Jeep Grand Cherokee's here are fitted as level 3 bulletproof - I know some are level 5 bomb-resistant (not bomb-proof
). Level 3 adds around 100 lb to your car, I opted out on my Cherokee Overland, but I do have all kinds of alarms.
