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31 sats \ 11 replies \ @Undisciplined 3 Feb \ parent \ on: How to legally stop paying income tax in America Politics_And_Law
You don't even have to go full expat. Just moving to one of the territories (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Greenland, etc) gets you out of federal tax obligations.
My impression was that the obligations were stronger in the territories of the U.S, government than in the states, themselves. The territories are actual property of the DC government.
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Nope. It's a legacy of the whole "No taxation without representation." thing.
That's the deal territories get: no taxation and no representation.
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I didn't know this. I have met Marines from Puerto Rico in Tokyo, so I thought they had representation since they could enroll in the army.
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Puerto Ricians are citizens of the US. They can join the military and all sorts of things. They are just in a territory, for now. It looks like they have had several referenda over becoming a state and they have all failed. I guess there are a lot of advantages to being a territory and not a state.
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The big problem for Puerto Rico, vis a vis statehood, is that their economy cannot survive being subject to US regulations. Another perk of being a territory is that many regulations do not apply.
Initially, the federal minimum wage was imposed on Puerto Rico and it was devastating. Most of their workers produce below the federal minimum wage (or did at the time), which led to massive job losses, IIRC.
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That just goes to show you that the regulations and laws are nothing more than interference in and hampering the economy. I think they are smart to avoid being a state and accepting all the BS that comes with it.
Then, they might not be paying taxes. But, they are territories, just like DC is not one of the states, but they still pay taxes, don’t they? Actually, these territories have non-voting representation in the House. I am not sure of the Senate, though. Are they represented or not with that situation? Those non-voting representatives participate as if they were a regular representative, but they can’t vote. So, are they represented or not?
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DC does for some idiosyncratic reason that I've forgotten. I know Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands don't and Alaska didn't prior to statehood.
I believe those non-voting members of the house are called observers, or something like that, rather than representatives.
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Yes, I am not exactly clear on the details of the territory representatives, I’ve never lived in a territory. I prefer to live outside of the country if I get the chance.
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