-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 2:12 AM +0000 7/10/02, anonimo arancio wrote:

On reflection, I did not make my situation clear.

I made a fair bit of money in my home country, despite a corrupt kleptocratic government that that does its best to prevent people from earning an honest living. I came to the US, became a green card holder and made a fair bit more money, and now would like to return to my home, where the cost of living is way lower, the food is much better, the skies are bluer, the ocean is warmer, the girls are prettier, and there is now no way whatever to earn an honest living. Fortunately I can afford to retire young.

I am considering becoming a US citizen immediately before I leave. My concern is that if I become a US citizen, the IRS might want to tax me wherever I go.

Oddly enough, this is topical to cypherpunks -- or it was before people heard the answer twenty times here in the last almost 10 years - - -- as the answer points out something people have said here all along: the increasing futility of "hiding" your own money in an increasingly politically-enforced book-entry global financial system. Buy financial cryptography and not your congressman, and all that. So, to contribute to the steganographic clutter, it seems to me that, since the US at least *used* to be the world's greatest tax-haven, as long as you're not an actual citizen of the US you should just move home, leave your money here, and don't forget to take your American Express card. I say "used to be", because Uncle has been making every other tax-haven take its pants down for a little digital-anal probing, and, as a result, there are fewer tax-havens out there to choose from, thus making changing Uncle Sam into a financial version of Uncle Ernie (may John Entwhistle RIP). You might want to talk to your friendly local Arthur Andersen partner, or the local "Cheshire Cat" money laundry and hawala franchisee for details. Reciprocity's a bitch, and all that. Unless, of course, you fancy yourself riding out of the ether on an infocalypse-horse, or you're from one of those seven dirty countries whose name you can't say on television without the appropriate perjorative, in which case all bets are off, same as they ever were. In that case, expect a little probing yourself when leaving for home, if not every second Thursday from now on for posting a question here in the first place, "anonimo", or not, traffic analysis being a bitch, as well... The only reason you'd *want* to become a citizen is if you want to stay here for good, while taking the odd jaunt to troll your good fortune around the Old Country. I mean, you can almost buy a gun here, our roads are still pretty good, our girls ain't all ugly, they still haven't nuked us yet, and, frankly, it's only immigrants like you who actually work for a living around here anyway, while correspondingly making significantly more money than others in their social "strata" -- but it appears, from the size of the roll in your pocket, you've noticed that already, or were at least happy to see us. If you *do* get a US passport, and go back home to live on the cheap, and your former home government puts you in jail for farting upwind of the local jefenisterie, the only thing our government is likely to do is make indignant mewling noises in your general direction, like they do about the odd naturalized Chinese who is foolish enough to go back and "dissent" against a country which still fancies itself a communist state, thankyouverymuch. Stir political fluids in the opposite direction for America de la Sur, YMMV, IANAL, ya get whatcha pay for, etc., yadayadabingbang, and so forth and so on... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 7.5 iQA/AwUBPSxLI8PxH8jf3ohaEQKF9gCfQZY9puGXVt4NzOskTqIXn71CfjoAn1KE +Y8oeeW+W3nZd/i/NGWbI7/O =GvdR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'