Oh and I thought
Norway is the dream country everyone aspires to be, everyone is basically a
millionaire thanks to the national oil pension fund, right?
Or maybe I'm missing the other stuff like 45% tax burden, publicly available tax records, social justice warriors in Barnevernet, and all sorts of other weird things. The only good thing is probably not being member of the EU and not using the euro.
Seems to be a trend now, in the past it was a few billionaires here and there fleeing - like the shipping magnate Fredriksen renouncing Norwegian
citizenship and becoming Cypriot. Now it is even middle class and various companies. You notice that in the US as well - Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Oracle - all of them fleeing California to Texas.
This is not an "wow, it's even reverse" situation. This is a standard situation in 90%+ of countries I imagine. In criminal proceedings presumption of innocence should apply (unless you're North Korea). In civil and administrative proceedings presumption of guilt applies.
Anyways the question of the OP goes down to the actual enforceability of a law. There are intellectual property rights but how will they be enforced when I download a Netflix series via Bittorrent? There is a law that I can't transfer 10k abroad without declaring, how will that be enforced when I take
crypto with me? There are absurd laws related to Covid-19 right now, from wearing face masks in forests to shutting down restaurants, how long will countries try to enforce this before people start operating speakeasies just like in the 1920s?
It is the same with taxes - noone, literally noone pays taxes e.g. in
Greece and Italy if they have even the slightest opportunity not to do so. Extremely easy if you worked in tourism on an island (now of course you got hit with covid), very easy if you're a
digital nomad, still easy if you're a corporation that can hire a big-4 consultant to find a good structure for you. Not possible if you're a state employee or even just a regular employee in a corporation.
Not all transactions / incoming transfers qualify as income. If the "tax representatives" (I have doubts if that is the correct term lol...) had to go after every person with high turnover on the account, they would go crazy and be ineffective. There is a higher chance they will be triggered by your ex-wife, envious neighbour or some shady activity associated with you.
The goal, at least for now, is not to check everyone's income and all their accounts and all transfers to the last cent. The goal of the heavily taxed countries is to keep the system running and people compliant and scared as much as possible. That is why the tax office is actually MORE likely to go after moms dropshipping stuff on local eBay without licence and without paying taxes - rather than going after a digital
nomad with a higher turnover.
Someone following the
flag theory is a much more difficult target - even with stuff like spying and
CRS. At the very least live in country other than your citizenship, have company in country other than where you live - then add additional stuff like good banking, good company structure, perhaps second citizenship if that helps you. Be two steps ahead - then there will be thousands of much easier targets than you. And as the saying goes -
you don't need to be faster than the lion, you just need to be faster than the other zebra.
