Most people surrendering citizenship aren’t doing so to avoid taxes. They are doing so to avoid double taxation.
A Bitcoin billionaire is either paying the US 15-20% capital gains tax or France, for example, 45-50%. Either way, Caesar still gets his due.
If you have the money, most of these countries offer great quality of life. If you're sitting on a $100m gain.. it's worth it. A change of scenery isn't always bad in life. Personally I would never voluntarily pay 20% on a massive gain if there is a legal way to avoid it.
I guess what this article is implying is, since the US treasury does not know of the existence of these Bitcoins, people can easily renounce (committing US tax fraud in the process) and cash in.
Most former British colonies have a similar system (in particular, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus) and (if you have a British passport) could make use of the system there, as you do not have your domicile in those countries.
See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-mon...
Or you could move to Malta for a tax year, and then move to the UK. It would be tax free as well. In my view worth doing if it's a sizeable sum.
Not to mention the moral arguments in favor of paying the taxes you owe.
alright
> moral arguments in favor of paying the taxes you owe.
woah, not so fast. There's no morality in blind obedience.
You can support promising artists, give grants to talented people, help people out who can't afford their medical bills, end up in a bad legal situation, etc.
Edited
It is a tiny city, but it has a massive role in Southeast Asia. I have lived there before and lived a great life without being rich by US or Singapore standards. The national language is English. They are by all means a capitalist country. It is a modern high tech society. Very western if you ask me.
The only way they aren’t that I can think of is that they are not a democracy.