[dk902]

The Anglo-Saxon and Germanic countries are usually very good at bringing in their tax receipts and pursue them aggressively.

The consequences in these countries can be pretty severe for tax evasion.

However the Southern European states in particular have countrywide schemes for avoiding taxes, so it becomes a way of life. Hence the huge divide between Spain, Italy and the Northern like Finland, The Netherlands and Germany. Who resent the fact they have to bailout their frivolous European neighbours. For instance in Greece, a common practice would be to buy a house at a knockdown price to avoid a capital gains tax. The rest of the real house value would be reimbursed with a cash payment.

The old saying goes: 'there are two certainties in life - death and taxes.'

[JofSuperman]

I don't wanna pay a dime in taxes.

Offshore shell corporations and trusts in the Cook Islands are the way to go for me. Just gotta get started.

[Bad Hussar]

Hate paying taxes. Hate Tax as a subject in and of itself. Won't bore you with the details.

On a practical note I've found two fairly simple ways to reduce tax payable. One of them applicable even if you are simply an employee.

(1) As an employee work only 6 months of the tax year. Basically, due to the "progressive" nature of taxation in most countries (the more you earn the higher the PERCENTAGE tax you pay), this will likely score you a tax refund of almost 1 months worth of after tax income when filing your taxes. So you can think of it like this: Work for 6 months, get paid for 7 months. The exact refund depends on the country/region, but I've found this 1 month figure to be consistent over several countries I've been in. Also depends on your income. Very low and very high the numbers change a bit. Spend you 6 months off either "working off the grid", or traveling.

(2) If you have a business try not to have to make large distributions to shareholders (i.e. retain and reinvest the profits back into the company). That way when you sell the company your profit on sale will usually be regarded as a capital gain, which is taxed at a much lower rate that income in most jurisdictions.