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Online software dev ~100k USD PM

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NoobDev

New member
May 18, 2022
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#1
Hello, my first post!

I am location independent online software dev with over 100k yearly income (and rapidly increasing) with euro passport currently based in EU(Baltic countries). Initially I was just looking to get Dubai freelance visa and just relocate there and pay 0 tax, but their VPN blocks would make my life too hard as a software dev.

Looking to hear any recommendations to how reduce taxes to 0 or close to it. I'm willing to relocate/open offshore business etc. Thanks, let me know if I can improve my post as I'm relatively new to the forum.
 
#5
NoobDev said:
Hello, my first post!

I am location independent online software dev with over 100k yearly income (and rapidly increasing) with euro passport currently based in EU(Baltic countries). Initially I was just looking to get Dubai freelance visa and just relocate there and pay 0 tax, but their VPN blocks would make my life too hard as a software dev.

Looking to hear any recommendations to how reduce taxes to 0 or close to it. I'm willing to relocate/open offshore business etc. Thanks, let me know if I can improve my post as I'm relatively new to the forum.
Click to expand...
I see no reason why some cool RDP won't serve your purpose, except it's some fraud,
RDP would do where VPN is failing
 
#9
Since you mention screen scraping, if network latency is a concern, UAE is not the place to be. Bandwidth is OK but peering to for example EU and US can be atrocious so latency is unreliable. Especially if you add a VPN or RDP in between for extra latency. A few hundred milliseconds turn to seconds.

As an EU national, the easiest options are relocation to Malta and Cyprus. No rules there prohibiting VPN. Taxes won't be 0% but quite low.
 
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#10
UAE Internet Speed

Latency 5ms (Median)
Mobile is ranked #1 country

87EDAC2E-97BD-4C0A-B01D-9855F66DA32E.jpeg
 
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#13
@RealDude even if a firewall is in the way, the server you're timing must be within 931.4 miles to get 5ms latency.

This is fine if you're downloading cached content from Google, Amazon, Netflix etc. You can use fast.com to see the time from your local Netflix server.

For work/dev purposes, you need to test the latency to servers where you will to connect to. Also it's worth testing again on Friday evening. My 100mbps fibre connection in Thailand was blazingly fast for local content at any time, but it could be very slow to connect to North America on a Friday evening. This isn't always the case, in Georgia there's no difference because the pipes running out of the country are not over-used.

It would be interesting to see what you get from UAE to Californian servers. in speedtest.net you can click "Change Server".
 
#14
Funny how the question was to find a good juristiction except UAE due to a specific problem (internet censorship).

And all the replies are exactly the same:
"oh you're stupid, it isn't bad, do not worry, do not do anything illegal and you'll be fine, I have 5ms ping look how cool I am"...

If you experienced censorship and VPN blocks in countries like China or the Gulf Coast, you will know it is NOT FUN and not something to get over. Especially when you have options.

I want to stress - this isn't about speed, sure you can get 100 Mbps or even 1000 Mbps in many countries. It is about finding a location where you will not be throttled and blocked, your ISP won't spy on you (too much) and the government won't spy on you. Difficult to achieve in UAE when the ISP oligopoly is state-owned.

ISPs in places like this will block popular VPNs by default, the less popular ones are not blocked but usually throttled - without VPN you'll get 50 Mbps with VPN you'll get 0.1 Mpbs. You may try to use obfuscated servers and other stuff, in that situation the ISP will start playing games with you and block your servers one by one, every day a new one. Like a cat playing with a mouse.

And if you think this isn't bad enough, I can drop probably the most evil thing you can imagine:
https://www.securityweek.com/mozilla-moves-deny-uae-firms-root-inclusion-request
To the OP: try places in southern Europe (Malta, Cyprus) or Eastern Europe (Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia...). You won't get a complete 0 % but you can achieve a nice combination of low taxes, low cost of living, small state and limited internet censorship.
 
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#16
KJK said:
If you experienced censorship and VPN blocks in countries like China or the Gulf Coast, you will know it is NOT FUN and not something to get over.
Click to expand...

Obviously the well known VPN providers will be blocked, but I've often wondered how they stop you from using a cheap VPS and routing through it on port 587 or whatever.
 
#17
RealDude said:
The „great firewall“ is not active in this case?
Click to expand...
Your question makes no sense because you don't understand how the Internet works.

To get some real results you should do a Speedtest to a server in Frankfurt or Amsterdam for example.

khinkali said:
Obviously the well known VPN providers will be blocked, but I've often wondered how they stop you from using a cheap VPS and routing through it on port 587 or whatever.
Click to expand...
There is obviously no way for them to stop you. I haven't specifically looked at UAE's firewall but I'm sure it's much, much easier to get around it than China's DPI for example. Which by the way also isn't 100% bulletproof.

OP I am certainly not shilling UAE but I'm sure there are a lot of IT workers in Dubai/UAE and they all somehow connect to internal infrastructure of their clients; I wouldn't worry about it.

https://www.tamimi.com/law-update-articles/is-using-a-vpn-in-the-uae-illegal/
 
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#18
I don't get it - I'm in a similar business myself, having dedicated servers, technical infrastructure and premium connection in first world countries close to the data sources I work with to minimize latency and eliminating most points of failure and sources of trouble

then you only need to access this remote setup from anywhere in the world - even local prepaid data sim or crappy wifi works for me... I have no personal experience with China but I don't see how anyone could stop you doing what you need to do
 
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#20
RealDude said:
UAE Internet Speed

Latency 5ms (Median)
Mobile is ranked #1 country
Click to expand...
That's domestic traffic. UAE to UAE.

When you send packets (data signals) to/from servers in EU or US from UAE or anywhere else in that region, the path those packets is often unreliable, congested, and erratic. One might expect that a packet from UAE to EU goes via Turkey or Russia to Europe, but sometimes they go through Singapore, to the US, across the US, across the Atlantic, and finally to EU.

You don't notice it when downloading large files or streaming. But you do notice it when you use something that requires fast action and response time.

When you download a file and it takes a few seconds to get started but then continues at high speed, that's bandwidth and is no longer in any meaningful way subject to latency.

When you move your mouse cursor on a remote desktop on a server in Germany and it takes a few seconds to update if you're in Dubai but is nearly real time if you're in Spain or Cyprus, it starts making a difference.
 
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