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Comment by dry_soup | Hacker News Reader

As a United States citizen, you can vote in congressional and presidential elections from Antarctica or low Earth orbit, but not if you're a resident of Puerto Rico (an American territory with a population of 3.3 million).

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This doesn’t make it democratic, as PR is still bound by many laws made in Washington, but it is at least the one place where US citizens are free from personal tax obligations to the IRS, as far as I’m aware. The actual taxes while living overseas are often negligible or far lower due to the FEIE threshold, but in PR they don’t apply at all.

Act 60 is fairly limited in scope, and you can only get tax breaks on a couple things. All other income may not be subject to federal taxes, but you will pay Puerto Rican taxes, which may even be higher than federal taxes.

https://www.anchin.com/articles/puerto-rico-act-60-how-you-c...

Residents of states also pay state taxes, and in high tax states those can exceed federal taxes so the "they also pay Puerto Rican taxes" line doesn't get them off the hook in any way.

Are there really states that pay higher taxes than federal? In California, a high tax state, it was nowhere close.

I mean to say state on down, including property taxes, sales tax, gasoline taxes, local payroll taxes. Could be wrong but if you had a house that went up in value over the past few years I could see a situation where the federal income tax you pay is less than your property tax bill alone.

Edit: The more I think about it the very poor pay no federal income tax and the struggling pay very little, they could easily exceed it with cigarette or alcohol taxes for example.

Yeah only applies to very low income and in those cases most progressive states do give breaks on stuff like property tax.

Fair enough, but for what it's worth, cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline are all taxed federally as well.

Act 60 seems like a limited tax incentive scheme. I'm referring to the general clause that income of Puerto Rican residents sourced in PR is not subject to personal income tax. From your linked source:

> The U.S. tax code (Section 933) allows a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico to exclude Puerto Rico-source income from his or her U.S. gross income for U.S. tax purposes.

Or there's more on the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Puerto_Rico#Federa...

Interestingly American Samoa is only loosely bound to constitution / Washington.

AFAIK it's the only territory/state with institutional laws that expressly protect racism and sexism. For instance, only ethnic Samoans can control most of the property, and on one island women are barred from certain leadership positions for 'cultural' reasons.

And people from American Samoa, as "nationals" but not citizens, can't even vote AFTER they come to the mainland (unlike Puerto Ricans). Interestingly you rarely hear social justice warriors fighting against the racism/sexism of American Samoa nor the racism that stops them from voting on the mainland -- happening by statutory decree within US borders.

If you're a US citizen but your home residence is in Puerto Rico, then you can't vote in congressional or presidential elections from Antarctica or Low Earth Orbit either.

I don't believe people on the ISS or in Antarctica are counted as resident in those places. If you're in Paris for a month, or sailing a boat over the atlantic, as long as you live in Idaho you can vote.

If you are a US citizen, born in Idaho, but moved to Paris and are officially resident in Paris, can you vote?

Yes! https://votesfromabroad.com/

So a US citizen born in Idaho who moves to Paris can vote, but a US citizen born in Idaho who moves to Puerto Rico can't?

If they have become a citizen of PR and aren't solely there on vacation (I believe the laws that define state citizenship themselves vary state-by-state), yes, they can't vote in federal elections. There are still local and territory-wide elections they can vote in.

This is silly, yes. The answer is making PR a state, but historically they haven't wanted to be one and Washington has been hesitant to make them one. Here is a short video on the matter which coincidentally was published a few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk6JrUYLyWw

> The answer is making PR a state, but historically they haven't wanted to be one

It is worth noting that the last three referendums on the topic in PR all ended with a result indicating support for becoming a state, the final one in 2020 being unambiguously clear on the matter.

If a German citizen moves to France, they don't become a citizen of France (at least without eventually applying for it)

If a US citizen from Idaho moves to France, they likewise don't become a citizen of France

Is the problem that US citizens that move from Idaho to PR are not allowed to vote at their previous address, but US citizens who move from Idaho to France are?

A person who moves from Idaho to PR doesn't immediately become a citizen of PR, just like with France and Germany. They would still be eligible to vote absentee as a citizen of Idaho unless and until they become a citizen of PR.

Heck, I've voted absentee in my home county in California once while I was living in a different county in California.

Anecdotally, the elite in PR are pretty happy with the current tax arrangement and won't have a good argument for it if they push for statehood.

Requiring to pay US taxes on your income abroad grants you the privilege of a vote :)

The USA is unusual in claiming tax on citizens resident abroad.

I am resident abroad, pay no taxes to that country, yet I can still vote in national elections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_expatriates_to_vote_i...

The only single other country who taxes overseas citizens is, Eriteria.

As an Indian, I don't pay any taxes because I am not living in India, but at same time can't vote in any election in India unless I am there from certain number of days.

Yes

Voting is a politic process, not a technological one.

That's my point

Similarly, you can vote in congressional elections from Antarctica or low Earth orbit, but not if you’re a resident of Washington DC.

Although thanks to the electoral college, your vote is completely irrelevant in most states for presidential elections

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