The US taxes citizens on world wide income, no matter where they are resident, so they are probably the worst choice among the first world nations for the super rich. There are people, like Eduardo Saverin, who give up their US citizenship to avoid US taxes.
The UK is a haven for a lot of these people, as it has a very attractive non-domiciled rule (live in the UK, only get taxed on UK income or income which you bring into the UK - income which stays out of country is effectively untaxed).
Or, perhaps a jurisdiction like Hong Kong with no capital gains tax might make sense.
I think there is a reason why Chinese money heads to West Coast USA / Canada and Russian money heads to UK. The large Asian population in the Coastal North American cities makes it a place that a rich Chinese person would actually want to live long term and send his family there. It is a place where they would have an easier time assimilating.
You need to ask for more than just outstanding shares, but about also liquidation preferences and convertable notes as well. Otherwise, you won't get a true understanding of the value of the options.
I assume it's just a typo/incomplete edit; his graphic directly below has the bit representation 00000000111111111111111111111111 indicating [0x00, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF].
Except what do you do if you have venture backed competitors who are willing to spend and lose huge amounts of money in the land grab for marketshare, and thus have far larger sales teams and development teams?
"Google worked out a deal with “full service” broker to give us free accounts"
That is actually really interesting. How much did this broker have to pay to get this box full of highly lucrative leads - access to a large set of newly wealthy individuals, many of which don't have experience with managing large amounts of money. A bunch of people who may be experts of technology, but probably are not experts on finance.
It seems like inviting the fox into the hen house, and telling the hens what it deal it was
Google did a fantastic job of educating employees before the IPO. They brought in a ton of smart people to bring us up to speed, emphasize the need to diversify and minimize risk, etc. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a company to do a better job of educating us.
In addition, they arranged to give us default accounts with a broker so that we could sell our shares. My decision to park some money in commercial paper was strictly my own, and I should have done more research on it first.
It certainly is the trend here in New England, where winters are reasonably harsh. And the new outdoor malls aren't very walkable, either. They're separate stores, or sometimes chunks of stores, that you almost have to drive between. With an Olive Garden or an Applebee's in the middle of the parking lot.
I see those in California too. I really don't understand the phenomenon; my best guess is that there is some sort of incentive from the developers or city zoning for shops to open there, but nothing as cohesive as an actual mall.
You can already get a visa-for-money from most major first world countries, and after a few years, it is easy enough to make the jump towards citizenship. Is it really that big of a jump to get rid of the time component?
For example:
USA
EB5 investor visa: $1,000,000 or $500,000 depending on the area you 'invest' in. One of the easiest ways to get a green card, and from there, citizenship
UK
Tier 1 investor visa: £1,000,000 in 'investment', which can just be the purchase of government bonds. Apply for indefinate leave to remain (green card equivilant) after 4 years. If you invested £5 million, you only need 3 years. If you invested £10 million, it is down to 2 years. The UK non-domicile tax status can also be very very generous to wealthy expats (unless they are American and thus are taxed on world wide income regardless).
Canada
Canada used to have such a program (Immigrant Investor visa for $800,000 CAD for people with net worths of at least $!.6 million), but that was terminated recently. I believe the Quebec version is still open though
USD $1 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 5 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 5 * 182 days + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for as long as he remains a citizen plus 10 years afterwards
In UK's case:
£1 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 6 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 6 * 182 days
You mentioned 2,3,4 years for the indefinite leave to remain and the powerful non-domicile tax status, all of which are true but irrelevant to this analysis. Anyone trying to gain citizenship through the investor program must be a tax resident for at least 6 years.
In Canada's case:
CAD $0.8 million + tax on the worldwide income of a millionaire for 3 years + spending of a millionaire in the national economy for 3 * 182 days
The UK does not tax worldwide income. In fact, if you hold your money in an offshore account, you can declare yourself a "non-domiciled" UK person. This special category exempts you from all tax on foreign income in exchange for a small fee.
It is not for no reason that every corrupt Russian oligarch and oil baron and African dictator flocks to London.
UK does not tax worldwide income based on UK citizenship, but it does tax worldwide income for all UK domiciled residents, which includes all citizenship-seeking immigrants.
Your trivia on the non-domicile status is interesting, but both the grandparent and myself have already mentioned it, and I specifically said that it's "irrelevant to this analysis".
>>EB5 investor visa: $1,000,000 or $500,000 depending on the area you 'invest' in. One of the easiest ways to get a green card, and from there, citizenship
I do want to take a moment to point out the ridiculousness of paying half a million dollars or more being one of the easiest ways to get a green card in America.
I'm really impressed, I was set on getting an apple watch until now, but this may change my mind - great form factor and style, has the sensors I'm looking for, and cross platform. I'm eagerly waiting a review.
The UK is a haven for a lot of these people, as it has a very attractive non-domiciled rule (live in the UK, only get taxed on UK income or income which you bring into the UK - income which stays out of country is effectively untaxed).
Or, perhaps a jurisdiction like Hong Kong with no capital gains tax might make sense.