Comment by anovikov | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anovikov | Hacker News Reader

Come over to us to Cyprus. There's no better country to live in at least as long as your passport permits you visa-free EU access, so Europeans, Canadians, etc. are fine, but Indians etc. will be fucked - getting Schengen visas here is a pain and we are an oddball of an EU country because we are the only one of them left that's still not in Schengen. In that case i recommend Portugal which is slightly worse in many things like slightly higher taxes, slightly colder climate, etc., but is in Schengen. If you have cash, a good workaround is to also get a permanent residence in Greece that will set you free of visa issues for life.

If you are an American, nothing saves you from American taxes anyway, which are, even if you don't live in any state (because abroad) so only pay federal taxes, still higher than in any of low-tax EU states, so you are more free in your choice of location, because you will be able to count your American taxes paid against your EU tax obligation, likely nullifying it. I probably recommend Portugal in this case, closer to America in time zones, and local population that's well-used to American expats and doesn't hate them.

Does it ever worry your that half the island is occupied by a Turkish puppet state with no international recognition? Could that turn violent? From the outside it looks like a very strange situation.

Context: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cyprus

There's a huge benefit in having that part around because you can do plenty of shady stuff there that won't fly in any free countries. No Turks are nice people, in a way nicer than locals, it can never turn violent. They are stuck in that political impasse a lot worse than us.

That is certainly an interesting perspective!

there's a uk base which guarantees some degree of security, and cyprus is a europen country. i don't think turkey has attacking europe on its priority list. they are often aggressive though, with their navy not allowing cyprus to drill in their own waters for instance

Adding to that, they promise we will join Schengen in about a year. Hard to believe, but there is a strong political momentum pushing the country there (it's against interests of most locals so the system resists as much as it can, but there are stronger external factors pushing us in). If that happens - but i won't bet anything on that - we will be beyond doubt the best country to live in Europe, by far. Will probably lower coastal real estate prices a bit because a lot of it is bought to rent out to tourists from third countries that are now able to enter visa-free or with very simplified visa process, that will be cut off if we are in Schengen so demand from them will disappear.

Ireland's not in the Schengen area btw.

Oh yes true you are right. They aren't even seen as "European" much from the continental perspective and are usually out of visibility from the local economic as well as cultural standpoint. Ireland as we see it from here is "a place where American corporations evade taxes and because of insane amounts of money they bring in, they pretty much rule there", correct me if i'm wrong. It has a lot more connectivity - cultural, economic, and travel-wise - with USA and UK than with EU it is a part of.

Er what?? You're so far off base. I've lived in the Czech republic for 6 years, Finland for 3 years before that. I'm catholic and my family are Spanish on one side. On the other, well let's say if I was American I would call myself Irish American but I'm not Irish in fact. Ireland has its own culture and of course there's not the continuity with other EU states (Bavarian culture bleeds into Bohemian, the Nordic countries have their shared history, etc). You might argue that they have some cultural similarities with the Brits (but Irish people I know don't think much of that idea). The phenomenon you mention, US corporations using/abusing Irish tax law, is an assault on Irish people and culture not caused by them.

To point to a specific example, Spain and Ireland recognised Palestine in a joint statement.

Yeah Ireland is very EU.

One of the reasons it isn't in schengen is it has free travel with the UK. You don't even need ID to cross the border and can stay indefinitely if an Irish/UK citizen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com