Ninjastic
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Re: Seasteading
by
Elwar
on 10/03/2020, 16:26:31 UTC
⭐ Merited by franky1 (1)
Quote from: Febo on March 10, 2020, 02:54:16 PM
Quote from: BADecker on February 23, 2020, 01:54:21 PM
Quote from: big_hercules on February 23, 2020, 11:44:52 AM
I just found out about it. I heard a long time ago about casino ships in countries where casinos are prohibited, but I hear about accommodation for the first time. If you do this, you need to carefully consider where to get food, where to take out the garbage, etc. But the idea is good!

The casinos on ships are not in the countries. The ships might be registered with a country. But when they do their casino activities, they do it outside of the 12-mile limit, so that they are in international waters.
Many governments want to legalize international waters. The UN has been trying to do this for years. The point is that legal anywhere is important only when there is military or police strength to uphold and enforce the legal activity.
Might doesn't always make what is right, but it always makes what exists.

Yes it is not about prohibited or not but about paying taxes. There are casinos in Florida so should be slowed also in Miami port. But If ships would allow gambling close to Florida coast then they would need to follow Florida gambling regulations and pay taxes there. 15 years ago I worked on a cruise ship and casinos simply started working after ship go to international waters. Same with the shops. On cruise ships that also makes sense. When on sea everything is open, when the ship dock then people go off the ship. So there is not even need to have casino and shops open. Even most bars are closed during port days. And crew members can go off the ship or take a long sleep.

I've been to one of these casinos in Florida. I got on a ferry that took us 12 miles out to a casino boat. We sat out there gambling all day then came back on the ferry.

I have no idea how they pay taxes or if they do at all.

The thing US seasteaders do not understand is that by living in international waters they are subject to paying US income taxes as if they are in the US. People who live outside of the US get the Foreign Earned Income tax credit which makes it so that their first $100k of income is tax free if they live in another country.
But if you are in international waters you are not in a foreign country. So the default goes back to paying full US income taxes.

This has been demonstrated in court cases, one man on a contract in the Antarctic tried to claim the Foreign tax credit. He was turned down due to not being in a foreign country.

So the whole idea of seasteading being a tax haven is false. You must pay more taxes (as Americans).