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> Then, in April 1996 - by which time I’d expatriated to the Kingdom of Tonga and was working on various internet startup schemes

Why would an American working in software in the mid 90s expatriate to Tonga, a tiny island nation, population ~100k, virtually no tech industry, with little or no internet back then? (assuming Eric is American).

Maybe a govt IT contract, but it sounds at odds to "working on various internet startup schemes".

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https://www.tonic.to

Thanks for sharing. Do you have any writing on your experience living and working in Tonga?

I would love to hear more about that, too!

Tax (not cheating!,) optimization?

(Retract the cheating dig if not applicable. Make it in the first place b/c I’m bummed when folks who make their money thanks to a country’s infra, laws, etc. don’t pay their fair share, at least in those cases when there’s so much you can even give back half and have immense riches.)

Don't Americans pay US tax regardless of where they live?

The first $130k or so is excluded if you are outside the us for 11.5 months. Not sure what the amount was in 1997

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