Comment by landemva | Hacker News Reader

Comment by landemva | Hacker News Reader

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My approach has been, gradually, to put everything into LLCs and trusts. Mailing address is one of the storefront vendors. Two real phone numbers and a couple VOIP numbers. I mostly use Signal for people I want to speak with.

I don't yet have a good screen of the address on my driver license, as I get some perks where I live and want to keep that for now. I am using passport more domestically for ID because it does not have an address.

Basically, don't put any property or services in your name, and all mail uses the storefront address. I suppose rich folks have wealth management person at bank who recommends an attorney for these schemes. It wouldn't scale at reasonable price point to make a service for this, though I have considered it. Most people "don't have anything to hide" so they will not see value in such a service. If people won't opt out of TSA's voluntary full body scans, they won't be interested in privacy.

You can't screen everything overnight without help, so start small like put a car in a trust or LLC with address somewhere else.

The downside, or upside?, is that on paper you will have nothing. Definite upside is keeping controlling paperwork straight and replicated to people I trust.

Note that if you are in the US, you will have to report yourself as beneficial owner of these LLCs to FinCEN starting Jan 1 2024[0]. The government super duper promises not to leak the info[1].

[0] https://www.fincen.gov/beneficial-ownership-information-repo...

[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/12/16/2022-27...

I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. The first time was unprecedented. The people responsible for the second leak were probably really very clever, and it was a different time back when the third leak happened:

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg-law-analysis/analysi...

Also, that article from when the third leak happened points out they had three leaks in three years. It doesn’t mention anything after the 2020 leak. It’s definitely fine now.

"Beyond the direct benefits to law enforcement and other authorized users ...".

They are going to squeeze us through banking, which they already have full visibility into.

It's amazing the power they have to make up new "rules" this broad without a vote by elected officials.

In the US we need to abolish the income tax, corporate tax, and all of the other federal taxes, and add a VAT that scales higher for luxury items like houses over certain values and luxury items.

This would end up being far more progressive that the shit show we have today with the tax code. It would also lower stress levels 10x.

We also need to revoke the bank secrecy act and patriot acts. We can put in a streamlined subpoena process if law enforcement needs access to financial records for a legitimate investigation. We're not living in the 1970's anymore. The rules are archaic and overreaching and allow for total financial surveillance without a warrant. That's just too easy to abuse if you have access to these systems.

The first thing I would do if I was an evil person is put plants in government who have access these systems. The power they wield is enormous.

A sales tax is always regressive, no matter how you tier it. Poor people spend 100% of their income/net worth monthly. The ultra wealth spend something like 0.00000000000001%.

That's why we should have a progressive VAT. Food, household items, and basic durable goods would have low-to-no tax. A luxury mansion or supercar would be taxed at the highest bracket. The ultra wealthy own transnational corporations that don't pay tax, and the ultra wealthy aren't paying tax when they sell shares, unless they are a public officer of said corporations anyway. They have family and multi-family offices that handle all of this.

We've got to be more pragmatic about taxation, adhere to the KISS principle.

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