<story><title>Ask HN: Location-independent entrepreneurs, where do you live and why?</title><text>If you&amp;#x27;re a location-independent entrepreneur, please share where you choose to live and why.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>bgroins</author><text>Amsterdam. As an American (or Japanese) citizen you can get a residency card easily here if you start a business under the DAFT. You can also get a 30% tax break for up to 8 years as a highly skilled migrant, which is good because the highest effective tax rate here is 52%. Aside from those things, the city is very clean, extremely safe, cheap groceries, tons of green space, and extremely easy to navigate by bike or public transport. My wife and I came from LA where none of those things are true. Going out to eat is also about half as much as LA, and there is a lot of restaurant variety due to the multicultural nature of the city. Cheap insurance for individuals with a highly rated health care system. Downsides are the weather can be unpredictable, and definitely cold and gloomy in the winter. Also high rents in some popular areas, but that&amp;#x27;s probably true for most places. Overall though, we&amp;#x27;re extremely happy with our choice and considering staying long term. Also speaking only English is no problem.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>camkego</author><text> Thank you for pointing out DAFT, that is pretty interesting. One question about starting a foreign corporation, Do the  penalties and fees of the IRS regulations relating to US citizens owning a foreign corp. concern or worry you? 
 For example, a $10,000 a month penalty for failing to report ownership interest in a foreign corporation.  (Form 5471)
This is the one thing that really stops me from considering owning a foreign corp.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Location-independent entrepreneurs, where do you live and why?</title><text>If you&amp;#x27;re a location-independent entrepreneur, please share where you choose to live and why.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>bgroins</author><text>Amsterdam. As an American (or Japanese) citizen you can get a residency card easily here if you start a business under the DAFT. You can also get a 30% tax break for up to 8 years as a highly skilled migrant, which is good because the highest effective tax rate here is 52%. Aside from those things, the city is very clean, extremely safe, cheap groceries, tons of green space, and extremely easy to navigate by bike or public transport. My wife and I came from LA where none of those things are true. Going out to eat is also about half as much as LA, and there is a lot of restaurant variety due to the multicultural nature of the city. Cheap insurance for individuals with a highly rated health care system. Downsides are the weather can be unpredictable, and definitely cold and gloomy in the winter. Also high rents in some popular areas, but that&amp;#x27;s probably true for most places. Overall though, we&amp;#x27;re extremely happy with our choice and considering staying long term. Also speaking only English is no problem.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>janpieterz</author><text>Just an FYI, if you want to go through the effort of setting up a BV instead of a ZZP one, you get effective tax brackets of 40% after your first 44,000. Your BV will be profit-taxed 20% (I think) and then another 25% dividends (or the other way around). Set it up beginning this year with an accountant, if you&amp;#x27;re in the effective 52% bracket you might want to check (no idea how it works with the 30% break though!)</text></comment>