St. John shouldn't be lumped in with St. Thomas or St. Croix. St. John is pristine, very safe and allows one incredible activities if you're an outdoors person. Rockefeller donated a lot of land to the park service years ago and it can't be developed so there's plenty of open space, it's not crowded and trading there is very feasible. I spent time there in 2007 and traded while on a vacation. It's only accessible by boat and flying into St. Thomas can be a pain with their somewhat antiquated airport. But areas around Caneel Bay and Cruz Bay are great spots.
Good questions to ask indeed. For me I am a simple, common sense kind of guy, don't need much. I would be happy with nice water, fast internet, and cable/satellite tv. A few decent restaurants, nice people, and low crime I'm a pretty comfortable. No court jesters for me.
You can make a lot of money with the right connection at dominican republic, a lot of physical grain traders Over There , you can buy anybody. I know lot of grain and soft traders downthere who trade mostly EFP with the US exchanges. they also have very good restaurants and bars, and the nightlife is pretty good. IF you have a deep pocket you can live in those private cites like Casa de campo and punta cana or cap cana, bayahibe and you will get everything from the first world. And people are very nice. And the island is not expensive at all. The beaches are beatifull, extremely beautiful, especialy in the samana area. And soon, this island will be the financial center of latinamerica. take a look at this. http://www.ifcamericas.com/ You will get World Class Championship Golf Course and a lot of celebrities have a home down there, Like Brad Pitt, Julio Iglesias, Oscar de la renta, Bill Clinton, Collin Powel, Robert Kravis (KKR) Ron perelman, Donald Trump etc etc etc. The Cons: High Crime rate at some area in metropolitan santo domingo and puerto plata (the rest of the island is pretty safe). Electric problems (but on those private cities there's no problem with this at all). Traffic in santo domingo is hell! this is one of my favority spot down there, (playa rincon). chavon
I don't know if anyone mentioned it earlier in the thread, but the USVI enjoy a much lower tax rate than the mainland for anyone who runs a business there, such as trading. I think the income tax rate is something like 5% possibly. That said, it is a special break that was approved by the federal govt and technically could be rescinded at any time. But paying such a low rate legitimately is nice. Even if you live in a country with no income tax you still have to pay tax on money you make in the US from securities trades, I believe. Plus, you would have to give up US citizenship(if that's what you have) or owe any tax you would have owed the Feds if you were living in the US. So you can do it illegally and have to worry(and not be able to come back for visits) or do it legally and pay just a little tax in the USVI. St Croix is the best in the USVI , imo, it's the biggest island in the USVi but doesn't have too many people and so much crime like St Thomas, and isn't so cramped and with cranky locals like St John. I actually prefer the BVI, but I'm not sure what the tax situation is.
The USVI is United States Territory. Giving up your passport would do no good. If you live there you pay your taxes to the USVI and not the US IRS. The rates are all about the same however, unless you do some legal corporate stuff with a tax attorney, but it may involve hiring 10 locals to get the 10% tax rate. There are a few hedge funds that legally do this, as well as some big individual traders. I believe it may be spendy to set up however. I was thinking of doing this also, but I got tired of the humidity rather quickly.
Are you sure the rates for citizens are roughly the same? The reason the IRS clamped down on the hedge funds there was b/c a few unscrupulous ones were advising clients to get USVI drivers licenses in order to claim local residency (all the while they were living state-side in the Hamptons). If the 10% rate is only for business owners, why were the HFs pitching local residency scams to clients? It must have provided some benefit over regular IRS rates for ordinary USVI citizens (non-business owners).. Also, how about IRC 1256 for futures/FX traders, is that all the same down there?
You know ... Except for #1 I would say São Paulo, Curitiba and a number of other brazilian southern cities. That is also the case for more south american cities. But if you have the money - you can do good on security as well. We have the highest number of bulletproof cars in the world.
Thats all good until one of those natives with the big machete' comes after you becuz u didn't give him a "Dolla"
Well I started to look more closely at crime stats on St. Thomas and St Croix and hmm, not sure I want to move there now. I appreciate the feedback people have posted. Every place and thing has it's pros and cons, but the rate of violent crime in St. Thomas appears higher than normal http://www.vimovingcenter.com/island_living/crime.php Granted it appears to be domestic violence and drug lord vs. drug lord but even their police dept. website talks about the problem of hang gun violence.
Yeah, the tax tables are about the same, or everyone would move there. Its the only place on earth you can move to as a Yank and not pay taxes to the IRS (unless you are paying to another country). There are ways to get the 10% rate, but you'd need to sit down with a local tax attorney to get the correct scoop on this. I know its not easy.