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Fiscal Setup for an European Youtuber

pixbix

Active Member
Jul 6, 2022
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Romania
What fiscal setup can I have if I want to be a YouTuber? I want to travel and create cool reports about the world. I am a European citizen. I wouldn't want to complicate things with Romania, to be honest. There are many deductible expenses, but at any time, they can come after 5 years and say they will tax you at 50%, because you traveled and it was for you, they can tax you 100% of that restaurant meal especially if you were with a girl, etc. ...
 
You are from Romania? Where are you living now? How many days per year you want to spend at home. I mean in you old home, not the airplane.

What is your expected annual turnover and profit?

If you travel enough, a US LLC will probably do it. Maybe Georgia self employed.
 
How would it work if one is not at home for 180 days anywhere? Wouldn’t the smartest thing be to be registered in a country where one pays as little personal tax as possible and then, for example, set up a US LLC, perhaps in New Mexico?
 
How would it work if one is not at home for 180 days anywhere? Wouldn’t the smartest thing be to be registered in a country where one pays as little personal tax as possible and then, for example, set up a US LLC, perhaps in New Mexico?
Yes, would chose Wyoming instead. But I prefer opaque companies, so better chose Singapore or Guernsey, Gibraltar, etc. But it only makes sense if you earn good money as you easily spend 5k on fees.
 
First start earning some money and then think about lowering your taxes as Romania micro company taxation is one of the lowest worldwide.
I understand your reasoning and I would have written the same. However, I must say that in these times, where the tax authorities chase every euro for inexplicable reasons, it can be risky to start a business without considering whether it might make money. If it does, and you live in a high-tax country, then you're caught. It will be difficult to move the business later without hoops to jump through or making some form of tax payment.
 
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You are from Romania? Where are you living now? How many days per year you want to spend at home. I mean in you old home, not the airplane.

Like 10 to 100, they can't track me down as i can easy travel across europe as well, unregistered.
What is your expected annual turnover and profit?
About 50 to 10k, i don't want to share 20% with Romanian Government .
If you travel enough, a US LLC will probably do it. Maybe Georgia self employed.

Please explain me more .

First start earning some money and then think about lowering your taxes as Romania micro company taxation is one of the lowest worldwide.

3% tax and 8% on dividends, and 10% for health insurance...21%
 
Like 10 to 100, they can't track me down as i can easy travel across europe as well, unregistered.

About 50 to 10k, i don't want to share 20% with Romanian Government .


Please explain me more .



3% tax and 8% on dividends, and 10% for health insurance...21%
Georgia sole proprietor has 1% or 3% turnover based tax
 
What fiscal setup can I have if I want to be a YouTuber? I want to travel and create cool reports about the world. I am a European citizen. I wouldn't want to complicate things with Romania, to be honest. There are many deductible expenses, but at any time, they can come after 5 years and say they will tax you at 50%, because you traveled and it was for you, they can tax you 100% of that restaurant meal especially if you were with a girl, etc. ...
Your setup is already optimised; your revenue is at $0, and you pay $0 tax on that revenue

Making money from YouTube as a travel vlogger is extremely difficult, so I'd start filming and uploading some videos before you worry about tax optimisation. Remember, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months to even get monetised on the platform.
 
Like 10 to 100, they can't track me down as i can easy travel across europe as well, unregistered.
The question is how long you can do this, and maybe one day you'll think about settling down permanently. At that moment, you'll face problems with disclosing where your potential fortune comes from, and in the worst case, the tax authorities might come after you and assess a fictitious amount you owe in taxes because you haven't paid taxes in the years they couldn't find you.

You should be prepared for such tricks from the tax authorities; if something doesn't exist, they just invent it
 
Your setup is already optimised; your revenue is at $0, and you pay $0 tax on that revenue

Making money from YouTube as a travel vlogger is extremely difficult, so I'd start filming and uploading some videos before you worry about tax optimisation. Remember, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months to even get monetised on the platform.
It is sometimes hard to give an advice. On one side, starting without good setup makes you vulnerable to unnecessary exit taxes. On the other side, starting without profit wastes personal money on setup costs.

YouTube income is royalty income, as far as I know? So you'll want to have tax residency in a country that has a good tax treaty with the US. Otherwise you may have to pay a lot of tax in the US.
Yes, this is correct. Withholding on royalties is 30% in the US. This is much more than the 21% you mention in Romania. (There is a treaty with Romania, so you would pay another 10% on top of the 21%.)

You can check the tax treaties here:
https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/united-states/corporate/withholding-taxesPlease note that the Georgia entrepreneur visa requires about 15k USD in annual income. Until then, Bulgaria may be an option.

Please also note that you need an address to register anywhere. Unless you have friends in that country, this will cost you additional for a room in a student apartment at least.
 
It is sometimes hard to give an advice. On one side, starting without good setup makes you vulnerable to unnecessary exit taxes. On the other side, starting without profit wastes personal money on setup costs.
That might be true if you have a business that you can turn on the revenue overnight, e.g. you work at a place, and if you leave, you know X clients will pivot to you immediately, which means revenue from day one. In which case, it would make sense to plan.

But how can you advise on tax optimising a nonexistent YouTube channel? You need 1k subscribers and 4k watch hours before you can even make a single cent. And then you need hundreds of thousands of views from Western countries to make anything like a living or an amount that might be worth considering relocating for. I don't think I'd be trying to optimise my setup for $400 a month.
 
But how can you advise on tax optimising a nonexistent YouTube channel? You need 1k subscribers and 4k watch hours before you can even make a single cent. And then you need hundreds of thousands of views from Western countries to make anything like a living or an amount that might be worth considering relocating for. I don't think I'd be trying to optimise my setup for $400 a month.
Yes, I agree with you, especially as chances of success are low, looking at how many tried and how few succeeded with travel vlogs. But let's assume he is one of the future successful ones. If he starts with a bad setup and then moves away from EUSSR, he runs into the risk of the emigrant country demanding a taxation on the goodwill in the order of up to 15 yearly profits. That's why I do have sympathy with OP, even he really better stay in Romania registered for a good while and start bothering when the first 20k arrived.