Do digital nomads have the possibility to avoid paying taxes all together?

[dante123]

This guy i know, doing e-commerce business , dropshipping within the US, he is no longer a resident in his native country ,he dont live there for over 3 years now

so basically he is not supposed to pay taxes back home and to my understanding Thai law says that if you keep earning outside of thailand till next calendar year then its not taxable.

So in essence, he can just live off his savings for 1 year and simply bring his last year earnings every year and not owe taxes ever ?

does someone even check that ? how can they know which money he brought in here ? how can anyone know, its not like the bills are marked with date of production lol

[Denim]

Yes if you can keep under the radar.

 

More difficult for Americans though as they like to keep close tabs on the doings of their nationals.

[dante123]

17 minutes ago, Denim said:

Yes if you can keep under the radar.

 

More difficult for Americans though as they like to keep close tabs on the doings of their nationals.

What do u mean under the radar, is there anything not kosher about this way ?

and yeah i know, he is not American 

[ukrules]

The US taxes its citizens on their global income if it's above a certain threshold which I believe is about $120k, you need to file every year though.

 

For a lot of the rest of us there will be no tax obligation at all and there's no need to fly below any radar.

 

This is why lots of expats live here for half the year and work in the middle east for the other half, they don't pay any tax and never have.

[jackdd]

Depends on his nationality, where his business is registered, where the customers are from and how he handles the money. It's possible to pay no income tax if the circumstances are right.

[dante123]

2 hours ago, jackdd said:

Depends on his nationality, where his business is registered, where the customers are from and how he handles the money. It's possible to pay no income tax if the circumstances are right.

its dropshipping within the us, not exporting out or in, not dealing with any international activity, funds are kept in either paypal or payoneer.

in the eyes of paypal ,he is operating as an individual who reside in thailand.

in the eyes of payoneer he has an account registered on  a seychells company name.

funds are moving from paypal , to payoneer and some to thai bank.

is this handled correctly in your opinion ?

[jackdd]

26 minutes ago, dante123 said:

its dropshipping within the us, not exporting out or in, not dealing with any international activity, funds are kept in either paypal or payoneer.

in the eyes of paypal ,he is operating as an individual who reside in thailand. 

in the eyes of payoneer he has an account registered on  a seychells company name. 

funds are moving from paypal , to payoneer and some to thai bank.

is this handled correctly in your opinion ? 

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/taxation-of-nonresident-aliens-1

I would say he has to pay income tax in the US for his US income, so under these circumstances he can not avoid paying income tax. But maybe what is written there is only applicable for people who spend time in the US and not stay abroad all the time? I don't have personal experience with this, but you could look up the topic "us non resident tax" further, or if you are lucky somebody with personal experience will answer

Edited December 25, 2018 by jackdd