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Comment by throw9349494 | Hacker News Reader

> be in Germany twice a year to sign off on having done the management within Germany.

Pretty stupid. You are signing paper that claims you never left Germany!!!

You are opening up yourself to personal German tax residency, with all pleasures it brings. Payable 10 years back!

And do not believe that 185 days bs. Correctly losing tax residency in state like Germany, Denmark, Norway or Australia is very difficult. You can not keep any assets like company or house there!

Edit: why downvotes? Many states only require 90 days or less to become tax resident. Australia is fine with a house. Norway will tax your income for 3 years after leaving!

Claiming you manage holding company within Germany, is a huge red flag!!!

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> You are signing paper that claims you never left Germany!!!

No you aren't. You are signing a paper that says a managerial decision about the shares of the company happened in Germany. Where you live does not matter. You just have to do a board meeting, and be physically present in Germany during the meeting.

In fact, you likely want to keep any proof of your travel from a different country, which makes it obvious to the authorities that you don't spend all your time there.

There's multiple variants though, this is just one of them. You can also pay someone to manage the shares (and of course contractually bind them to not do anything without permission).

Edit: Also, to be clear, you don't need to manage the company from Germany. You only need to manage the holding company from Germany, where the only managerial decision is related to the shares themselves.

Someone should tell the German government about the internet. Who cares where you physically are?

If your company bylaws are set up properly, you can do board meetings via video calls just fine.

Very few acts require actual presence in the country. What is required is that you can, at any time, enter Germany to perform those acts - which shouldn’t be a problem if you are German Citizen.

Do you own and manage company in germany? If yes you are tax resident, if not you pay exit tax. Winwin.

This what ifs do not really work in tax laws. The question is, if your current current structure and tax law interpretation will hold in 8 years. After germany had new election, new socialist goverment changed and it is trying to milk everyone.

Some flight ticket from lufthanza are not going to save you!

> You can not keep any assets like company or house there!

Alternatively, simply keep both the house and company in Germany. No exit tax since, thanks to that house, you haven't technically exited, right?

You could technically do that but then you’d have to keep paying taxes to Germany on your income in the other country. And the other country will consider you a resident too and will want a chunk of that…

Double win!

Welcome to americans' reality! It's actually more humane than the way US treats its overseas citizens - no onerous PFIC/FATCA, and you have an option to divorce the tax system while still keeping your passport.

Double taxation should be taken care of by tax treaties. Usually you'd pay the maximum of the two tax rates in total, with your current residence country getting first dibs.

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