@nerdontour

Hi everyone, this week I built my own forum to replace the incredibly wieldy and overfeatured Discourse.

I based this on Reddit and HN, with upvotes and downvotes, nested replies, and a pretty minimal setup.

Let me know what you think and any features I should add. Right now I still have to build an EDIT functionality!

What’s the best place?
For residency I’m looking at Portugal and they have the NHR (non habitual resident) program which would exempt dividends from foreign income.
So all I’m really looking for is the best place to actually start the company.
Biggest factors are of course low taxes and ease of setting up the company plus a business bank account that enables me to receive payments through Stripe.

What I found so far:
Hong Kong
Corporate tax rate of 16.5% (8.25% for the first HK$2 million)
⊕/⊖ offshore income from outside HK is exempt from taxation but it’s not clear whether this can be done in the first year and prorated or if it’s only through filing the offshore exemption claim. This might take two years and requires not income from HK at all. More info on that would be great
⊖ seems very difficult to get a business bank account
⊖ necessary services and fees are roughly around €2000 / year
⊖ accounting requirements seem to be very strict
⊕ Doesn’t require local partner
⊕ Agencies available that seem to handle most of the work

Singapore
Corporate tax rate of 17% (0% on the first S$100k, 8.5% up to S$300k)
⊖ requires a local director. What are the implications of this?

Malta
Corporate tax rate of 35%
There is the “full imputation system” but I don’t really understand it.
"In most cases, the tax refund to the shareholder is 6/7 of the tax paid by the company on profits distributed as dividends. The tax refund rate may be different in the following cases: " This would result in an effective corporate tax of around 5%.
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that

Cyprus
Corporate tax rate of 12.5% and there seem to be ways to lower this
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that
⊖ requires staying in Cyprus for 2 months / year

I find it surprising how much research this requires and how much “it depends” information is out there when I’d assume that there are probably thousands of digital nomads who probably have very similar requirements.

Hi guys! Who plays video games?

What system do you use? How does it work for you?

I work on a MacBook Pro, and of course Mac isn’t great for gaming. I’m thinking of traveling with a (relatively) small eGPU to crank up the graphics. There might be decent PC laptops, but I want with macOS.

I’m French and I’m leaving Paris and my current full time job. In a few month, I’ll move to Bali to be a fresh digital nomad in web development. I learn about the different possibilities to create my own business and I would have feedbacks. what’s the best ? I’ve an opportunity to work with my actual french company as a freelancer, remotly, on specific missions.
But I don’t know If I have to create my company in France to continue working with them or maybe one in Singapour like with sleek.sg. I don’t know if it’s it easy to work with a french company with a singapore company. I then plan to find other missions with fewer time differences, (Australia …)

If someone could help me thanks!

We launch in 2 weeks. In the US, we use Apple TV and Netflix regularly. Do these work abroad?

Hi everybody!

I just joined this community because I’m currently in a place in life where I can live the digital nomad lifestyle and I feel like I would really be missing out if I didn’t catch this opportunity. I work fully remotely, no fixed hours, I currently live in northern Italy and I basically have no partner or kids.

So, the question is… where to? I would love to hear the advice of more experienced digital nomads!
Laptop and internet is enough for me to work but I need decent internet for conferencing and I really have to put in the hours: some days are more relaxed, others I’ll have to work all day and night.
I enjoy more temperate climates, so no torrid heat or unbearable humidity, if possible.
I like decent food but I’m very adaptable in terms of tastes: anything is fine as long as quality is good and sanitary conditions are acceptable.
I absolutely do not enjoy the club life and would just rather go hiking during the weekends and pubs (or breweries) during the evenings. I’m a social person though and I don’t particularly enjoy places where people are too introverted (been in Seattle for four months… the freeze is real); I really look forward to making friends or acquaintances wherever I end up.
I enjoy decent transportation so places where there’s a viable metro system or Uber actually works would be nice.
I prefer places with a bit more of history and culture (this is one of the reasons why I absolutely loved Portugal, for example).
I’d like to spend under $3k average per month for rent, food and going out.

For now I was thinking either:

• Staying close to home for a first experience, so something like Vienna or Berlin
• South East Asia; I’ve been to Hong Kong a few times before, now I was thinking either Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi, or possibly Thailand
• South America, especially Colombia. I also have some people I know in Bogota and in Medellin, which I think would be a plus

When? Ideally I would leave anywhere from mid to late March and stay away for 2 or 3 months.

Sorry for the long read, I hope to get some input. Thank you for your time, if we ever meet in person I owe you a beer (or whatever you’d prefer).

We’re Americans planning to be in Europe for all of 2020 - approx. 90 days in each country, and alternating Schengen and non-Schengen. Our destinations will likely include four of these: Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Romania, and Spain.
Can anyone give us advice on cell phones? We would prefer to keep our current (U.S) numbers if at all possible. We don’t anticipate making many local calls, but will phone the U.S. about once a week. We’ll use our phones for internet quite often.
Any advice for our situation would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Heather and Lars

im looking for a voip provider that offers inbound and outbound calls to all countries.
I want to replace my swedish sim card with a voip number so i dont get charged alot while traveling, does anyone have a stable voip provider to recommend?

For those constrained by their business’ time zone, how do you manage this?

My home office is in Los Angeles – though I could swing anything in Central/South America, I’m looking at going to Lisbon or Chiang Mai for a bit. Both of them are >=8hrs difference potentially wreaking havoc on the work + social life + sleep split. This is a common question for nomads but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of posting on the site about it.

What do you guys think? Any Americans working in Asia or Europe that does it well? I could likely negotiate with my supervisor to work in Eastern standard if I was in Lisbon/Europe, which wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Noon 'til 8pm. A bit more manageable than Chiang Mai or Bali.

Hello nomads,

Due to a recent US work visa rejection (H1B), I’m considering turning to freelancing and being a digital nomad. My former employer (US based start-up) wants me to continue rendering my services as a contractor/freelancer (so I have a confirmed major client and I’ll probably take on other minor clients on the side). From the get go I want to get my taxes right and I was hoping you seasoned nomads can assist me. Some of the key aspects of my case are:

1. I hold an Indian passport and as long as I don’t stay in India for 182 days I’m considered non-resident (No taxes on foreign income as long as services are not rendered in India, otherwise 30% tax).

2. I may have to visit the US occasionally, so having a tax-residency in a country with a US tax-treaty may be beneficial (I maybe incorrect here).

3. I’m willing not to be a perpetual traveller and put down roots in a low tax country that offers easy tax residency with low-taxes.

4. Will incorporating in a tax-friendly help my case? Or will just perpetual travel be enough to completely avoid taxes?

P.s. If any of you offer sound tax advice for a fee and are aware of international taxation laws (especially US tax laws), do let me know.

Hey!

I’m wondering how many developers travel with a MBP 13" vs 15"? I currently use a late-2012 13" for iOS development, but I’m pondering the 15" because Xcode is so resource hungry. On the downside, it is rather heavy…

Do you travel with a 15"? Do you wish you’d opted for the 13" instead?

Cheers

• Ian

P.S I’m asking developers specifically as system spec is more crucial than, say, for a copywriter.