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Comment by joncrane | Hacker News Reader

Are there any additional benefits other than the collector value? Can you keep your money in Antigua and Barbuda or Vanuatu to avoid enough taxes that the deal becomes a net positive? Are the banks there reliable enough that the risk is low and you can be confident it's going to work out?

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The IRS can now revoke your passport if they feel you owe more than $50k in back taxes. One could think of a number of reasons that could be quite bad for you. Like if you need to travel for business and suddenly cannot until you wade through the bureaucratic mess to settle the issue. Or you are an expat living overseas and suddenly cannot renew your visa because your passport has been cancelled, and for the same reason you also cannot travel, so end up in some sort of weird limbo. A second passport could come in very handy in those situations.

I was saved unexpectedly by my second passport a few months ago when taking a trip from the US to Europe. My US passport was valid for another couple months, but at checkin they told me I couldn't use it for an international trip because it needed to be valid for at least the next 90 days from date of travel. Luckily I was able to whip out another passport for them, but I'm sure otherwise I would have been stuck trying to get a rush passport and rebook flights.

Travelling would be the first one that comes to mind. If you're from a country low on visa restriction index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_visa#Visa_restrictions) a passport like this could ease your travels significantly.

Once you are a high net worth individual, I don't think getting visas would be difficult. My best bet is still to get tax break.

There's still much less hassle, and time necessary.

Your link is broken by a trailing comma.

Fixed, thanks.

I suppose if you are 'super' rich, at a certain wealth point it makes sense to, er, diversify your citizenship portfolio.

It might also help avoid extradition, if they're into that.Edit: IANAL

Visa-free travel.

Germany has visa-free travel to 176 countries, Sweden 175, many other countries still give you access to more than 170. Yes, a US Passport gets you visa free to 174 but that could change at the drop of a hat with the wrong invasion or military strike.

If you're American and America does something the world sees as shitty, you're suddenly restricted where you can travel and may in fact not want to be travelling on an American passport for very real threat of harassment.

Having an Austrian, Maltese or Cypriot passport lets you freely move, work and reside in any EU/EEA country.

Aha. This is a good one.

I really don’t get why Turkey is on this list tho

Because it is one of the countries where you can get a passport for money. That's what the article is about.

For EU countries the benefits are obvious, you can then live and work anywhere within the union. For the other smaller and more isolated countries I'm not so sure how it works out.

Well, you could always hide there if you're charged with a crime, right? Even if it's white collar. Suddenly, that country is asked to extradite one of their own nationals rather than someone with a visa (and if they renew that visa when you're wanted it looks pretty bad diplomatically).

Political instability in their home country/lack of rule of law - basically an escape plan.

The tax issue doesn’t really apply as residence (rather than citizenship) is the determining factor for the vast majority of people (but not Americans)

No capital gains is what does it for you because it means the money you earn in your sleep is tax free (at least if you are not a US citizen). There is no need to use the banks or brokers in the country you're citizen of. It's important where you live officially and with a citizenship it's easier to claim residence.

I wouldn't be surprised if lots of them didn't actually use their real name. I know it's illegal but with a few millions nobody will care.

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