Are there any (livable 🥺) countries that basically allow anyone to become a citizen? Specifically where an English speaker could get by.

Edit: by allowing anyone I mean poor people with no skills.

  • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The US is one of a hand full of countries that require you to pay income tax on money earned abroad. If you are a US citizen that has moved to another country and received citizenship there, and you aren’t worried about having “the local government send you to the gulag”, then renouncing your US citizenship is probably the best financial decision you can make. Caveat: they make you pay up front when renouncing for all of the potential tax they would have earned from you had you stayed a citizen abroad for the rest of your life.

    • Bondrewd@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      What the fuck. So lets say, if the country to move to has a minimum income, then you will have to pay the tax for atleast the minimum income until retirement? Am I getting this right?

      • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yes, but its not as aggressive as it seems: 1) the US gives a tax-free amount up to ~$100,000 earned abroad, and 2) that’s after deducting the tax you paid to the country you earned it in (as an example, say you earned $100,000 abroad and paid 30% tax, you’d only have to report $70,000, and because that 70k is below the tax-free amount (in the $100k neighborhood), you don’t owe any additional tax in the US.

        HOWEVER, the tax-free break is only given if you file your taxes. If the IRS decides you need to be audited, and you didn’t file (because you live in a different country and think it’s absurd to have to file taxes to a country you didn’t earn that money in), you lose the tax free amount (which basically means you can be double taxed).