From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 05:12:30 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Plea from a parent who wants to keep their kid free of SSNs
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970925115935.1676I-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <v03110704b05076916666@[139.167.130.248]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 3:00 pm -0400 on 9/25/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> For religious reasons (explained below), we do not have Social Security
> numbers for our children, the oldest of 4 being 5 years old.

Move to Saipan (US Territory, Northern Mariana Islands)?
I don't know why I think so, but I think that residents don't have to file
tax returns.

Nope. Now that I think about it, as a US citizen, you're liable for income
taxes no matter where you are in the world. As we've said here before on
cypherpunks, the only other country in the world where this is the case is
the post-Marcos Phillipenes.

Or maybe Puerto Rico, I seem to remember they had special tax status.
(Nawww. They're more statist than we are, even if they're nominally
independant.)

Of course, all this points up what Tim has said here all along, Duncan's
esteemed financial creativity aside. If you're an American, you can run,
but you can't hide.

Pray the Y2K problem (or maybe digital transaction settlement) kills the
IRS, I suppose...

All of which makes me think that the US is Athens of the modern world.
Delian League and all.

Though I shudder to think who the Spartans are going to be. Unless they're
us, I guess. :-).


Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/