"Economist Intelligence Unit has calculated where are the best places to be born in 2013. Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Not surprising, Switzerland, perhaps the freest country in the world, tops another list of best country to live in." Continue reading →
"I recently had an opportunity to visit Iran. Family and friends warned me not to go because everyone knows the people in Iran all hate Americans. I found the Iranian people to be among the friendliest I have ever met anywhere in the world. I have new friends there that I will hold dear to my heart for the rest of my life. Oh how I wish a million Americans would visit Iran and meet the people there. If more Americans could see for themselves what I saw, they would demand our government change its policies toward these wonderful people. I met the enemy ... and I love them." Continue reading →
"Facebook is structured so that companies buying advertisements on the website in the UK, or anywhere outside of the US, have to pay Facebook Ireland. This allowed Facebook Ireland to make gross 2011 profits of £840m – or £3.1m per each of its 287 staff. Despite the high gross profit, Facebook Ireland was able to cut its tax bill to just €3.2m by using an accounting technique called the 'Double Irish'. The manoeuvre allows multinationals to move large amounts of money to other subsidiaries in the form of royalty payments. Facebook moved nearly £750m to the Cayman Islands and its Californian parent in licensing and royalty payments." Continue reading →
"Since Google’s arrival, south-east central Dublin has been rapidly transformed into a technological hub similar to Berlin’s Silicon Allee or London’s Silicon Roundabout. Other companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Zynga, HP and Dropbox have all set up in Dublin. Ireland has been able to attract these world-famous corporations despite the depth of its financial and economic crisis, due to the lobbying work of the country’s Industrial Development Authority; a highly educated, young, English-speaking workforce; and, crucially, the Republic’s rock-bottom 12.5% corporation tax. And now the weather can be added to those factors." Continue reading →
"The key to the Internet's survival is the Internet's decentralization — and it's not uniform across the world. In some countries, international access to data and telecommunications services is heavily regulated. There may be only one or two companies who hold official licenses to carry voice and Internet traffic to and from the outside world, and they are required by law to mediate access for everyone else. Under those circumstances, it's almost trivial for a government to issue an order that would take down the Internet." Continue reading →
"Millionaire wealth in the United States and Canada in 2011 fell 2.3 percent to $11.4 trillion - still the wealthiest region by this measure - though it had 1.1 percent fewer millionaires, slipping by about 39,000 to a total of 3.35 million. Strong economic growth in China and other markets increased the ranks of millionaires across the Asia-Pacific region by 1.6 percent to a total of 3.37 million, as Asia vaulted past North America as home to the most millionaires." Continue reading →
"The terrorist attacks of 9/11, 2001 have been used as a twisted justification by the U.S. Congress and by two presidents to enact unconstitutional laws that sacrifice the very principles they claim to be defending, all in the name of an elusive national security. This is a list of illegal and unconstitutional actions on which I recently spoke to a group of 50 Sovereign Society members who visited Uruguay last month. Many in the group seemed genuinely surprised when they saw the list, unable to believe such things were possible in America." Continue reading →
"Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to offer French movie star Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport to resolve his tax row, calling him a friend. 'If Gerard really wants to have a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we can consider this issue resolved positively,' Putin said at his first major news conference after his return to the Kremlin in a March election. Depardieu on Sunday threatened to give up his French passport and take up Belgian citizenship to protest at the Socialist government’s new tax hike on the rich." Continue reading →
"It may seem obvious, but Americans who have lived abroad for many years and not filed tax returns still sometimes do not realise that they will bring the IRS down on them like a ton of old tax records when they: 1. Register the birth of their child at a US embassy in the country where they now live, or 2. Renew a long-dormant US passport. 3. Appearing at a US airport with a non-US passport that reveals the bearer was born in the US is almost certain to set alarm bells clanging back at IRS headquarters in Washington. 4. [..]" Continue reading →
"Some of the reporting requirements defy any level of reasonable logic. A US citizen, stay-at-home mother for instance, who likely has no income and is signed onto her non-US citizen husband’s accounts, is required to report HIS bank account numbers, balances and so on. I doubt any US Homelander would be willing to do the same if living in the US, married to a foreigner with a government who demanded the same, or else be prepared to lose a considerable portion of savings, retirement plans, etc. Now FATCA promises to be even more punishing." Continue reading →