I am not sure anyone noted yet that his Facebook earnings will fall entirely under capital gains income, which only gets taxed at 15% in the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_the_United...). Singapore has ZERO capital gain tax, so he may be trying to avoid any tax burden on this income. Still, 15% remain quite low (The go up a bit in 2013.), and I suspect he would not have to pay it until actually selling his shares. Some reports say he has already sold over half his stake, so I am not sure this Singaporean move does that much for him.
There are plenty of ways to shelter money in the United States (http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/03/20/how-fa...) and pay basically nothing. Everyone here likes to make the tax burden on US citizens outside of the US sound so horrendous, but my experience is that it is a worst of taxation situation. One gets to exclude the first 95k of income from US, but I think you also can run money through a housing allowance of around $100k depending on the cost of living.
Yes, the US tax system sucks, but the weather and disney-like atmosphere in Singapore suck more in my opinion. I think I could have fun living there for a few years, but a lifetime would be hard. The US will definitely consider this a move to avoid taxation. He will probably never be welcome again in the US, and essentially becomes a pawn in international extradition should some US administration in the future have a point to prove. If it were me, I would just dump a ton of money behind Ron Paul.
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I am not sure anyone noted yet that his Facebook earnings will fall entirely under capital gains income, which only gets taxed at 15% in the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_the_United...). Singapore has ZERO capital gain tax, so he may be trying to avoid any tax burden on this income. Still, 15% remain quite low (The go up a bit in 2013.), and I suspect he would not have to pay it until actually selling his shares. Some reports say he has already sold over half his stake, so I am not sure this Singaporean move does that much for him.
There are plenty of ways to shelter money in the United States (http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2012/03/20/how-fa...) and pay basically nothing. Everyone here likes to make the tax burden on US citizens outside of the US sound so horrendous, but my experience is that it is a worst of taxation situation. One gets to exclude the first 95k of income from US, but I think you also can run money through a housing allowance of around $100k depending on the cost of living.
Yes, the US tax system sucks, but the weather and disney-like atmosphere in Singapore suck more in my opinion. I think I could have fun living there for a few years, but a lifetime would be hard. The US will definitely consider this a move to avoid taxation. He will probably never be welcome again in the US, and essentially becomes a pawn in international extradition should some US administration in the future have a point to prove. If it were me, I would just dump a ton of money behind Ron Paul.