Looking for another country to call home

Evening ATS.

I come here saddened that in only a few short days, the country I currently live in will officially become the Worlds most taxed country, with roughly 25% of the working class supporting the rest of the populace.

The finance minister intends on imposing a 50% tax on wages should you make more than 32k euro a year which goes nicely with 20% v.a.t and yearly income tax.

So, I've decided to start looking for a new citizenship. Unfortunately, I've only obtained this one through birth right and know absolutely nothing about "getting the heck out of here".

I guess, my first question would be what citizenship and how to apply for one? Has anyone of you done something like this before?

I would greatly appreciate your help and ideas.


Kind regards, M.

edit to add: Oh, it just dawned upon me, that it would probably be wise to supply the name of the country in question. That would be Slovenia.

edit again to add: ...and I've just learned that it already IS the most taxed nation on the planet. So it just went from worst to more worst. No big change really.



[edit on 26-8-2009 by Manawydan]

Great Googly Moogly! What country do you live in?!?!?! And those of us in the States are whining about our taxes!

Wish I could help you out on the expatriation problem, but alas, I have no expertise in this matter.

new zealand is probably your best bet

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


The countries name would be Slovenia. Nice place if it wasn't for the taxes, grumpy people, corrupt politicians and people who think you should work because they don't like to.

And I complain. Silly I know.

reply to post by Spiritfilled


Stop reading my mind. New Zealand was the first country I thought of from the top of my head.

But from what I've been able to learn so far, I would have to be living there permanently for a few years before being eligible for applying, no?

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Manawydan]

reply to post by Manawydan


So a 50% tax on income over 32K Euro (roughly $45K USD) plus a 20% VAT (similar to Sales and Use tax here in the US) would imply that you are being taxed approximately 60% for every Euro you spend. Wow.

for those who wonder about the math:

1 EURO * 50% -> .5 EURO - 20% -> .4 EURO.

You get to keep 0,4 EURO for every 1 EURO you earn.

Incredible. And at such a low wage as well. You can barely survive in the US on $45K per year if you have a car payment and a house payment.

New Zealand would be the place to go my friend.

Go to the government website:

Becoming a Citizen

It's much easier to get in if you have technical skills, they are in very high demand.

The website above will give you all the details .

Hope that helps.

~Keeper

Not sure if this is what your looking for, but it may help. Has point of contacts for questions once you clink on the country.

www.multiplecitizenship.com...

I think you might want to look into work or temporary residence visas instead to get your foot in the door. Acquiring citizenship is a lengthy process and I don't believe any country gives you a direct path to citizenship.

reply to post by rogerstigers


That's not totally exactly right, but at the end the math works out either way. What they do here is, lets say I get payed 6k a month, but the state takes away 50% of it right away. So it costs my employer 6k in order for me to get payed a little less than 3k.

After which as an end customer I get to pay 20% v.a.t. for practically everything and come April, they send you your income tax form which is just like kicking you in the *bleep* when you're down.

They also had a swell idea of taxing houses based on size a few years back, but the database was so poorly maintained that they canceled the whole thing after spending millions of tax payers money and called it your "tax bonus" for that year.

Yes, I still live in this sick place, but I do feel sick.

reply to post by tothetenthpower
Why thank you Mr. Keeper. Very kind of you sir in providing a link as well.

And thank you as well jam.

I would suggest reading a book called "Emergency" by Neil Strauss. It is all about his attempt to obtain citizenship to another country, and him trying to prepare himself for when the SHTF in America. He obtains citizenship to St. Kitts in the Caribbean.....its a lot harder to get citizenship to most countries than you would think.

Well what ever nation you are interested in i would contact that nations embassy in Slovenia for details on their imigration procedures.Im sure they vary from country to country with some being harder to get into than others.Its a big move your planning and i wish you good luck.

reply to post by PokeyJoe


Working people who actually fall inside the top taxed class only barely, are almost better of not working at all, just collecting social security for as long as they possibly can. You get to have a looong holiday.

Pension plans are so horrible that you can retire only after working for something like 45 years or hitting 65 years of age. I can just see employers lining up to hire a 60 year old computer geek. A "senior developer" Mwahahaaha.

Oh and many thanks for the book you suggested, I'll look that up.

[edit on 26-8-2009 by Manawydan]

find a diplomat with in your own country . and get a diplomatic carrier passport for carrying papers to that other country.

the country is not important.

they will pay you to visit other countrys , but you will do a get deal of air travel , and the job is not easy .

if you have any crimnal record of any kind , this is not an option.

the fastest way is to ask for a job as a handiman , delivery driver , cook , or any task at all at the mission .

you will need to always be honest , open and friendly.
it is perfectly alright if you make your personal reasons known , that you wish to immagrate to another country in the future.

you are looking for work , not looking for a way out .
you need to present your self a solution to a problem of carrier of items .


as you travel , to the target country of your choice , get an apartment , bank accounts , telephone accounts , water bills , electric bills ...

make the target country your home on paper , each time you visit it .

the rest will happen on its own .

I'm hoping to do the same thing just as soon as those Texans get off the dime and declare themselves a Republic once again.

Good folks too.

Now they tend to brag about Texas a little bit, but there's no ill intent. It's apparently a genetic thing that's passed from generation to generation.

Come on Texas!

( post script )

it is not a good thing to leave a country behind because of one thing you do not like .

it is very much "not a good thing " to leave a country of your birth for reasons that are as nebulus as tax's , parents , cultural .

go to a thing , never run away from a thing .

direction is the heart of calm thinking , goal seeking is the mark of successful people , dreamers who seek a thing that is real only in their mind is the beginning of goals .

be where you stand , see in the minds eye where you wish to be, then move in slow steps tword the place in the future where you wish to stand .

be in the moment , but no one can go to a city , untill the city is known to them .
you can't go anywhere if you don't know the place you wish to arrive .

that said ... the going is more important than arrival or departure.

go to a place .

traveler have a place to go , refuguees have a place to leave.

Out of curiosity, why would you want to become a citizen of another country? You could just become a "permanent resident" like I am here in Germany. If you became a citizen of another country, you may lose your Slovenian citizenship, which you may regret later.

I'd go insane, I think, if they jacked taxes up like that up here. But, I guess, it's something that the people shouldn't get too bent out of shape if/when it happens--the government needs to pay for all the social programs somehow, right? Regardless, no one should pay, what, 60% in taxes? That's silly.

As for a country, much like the others, I would have to say that, going somewhere quiet, like New Zealand, is probably your best bet, should you choose to emigrate. America is going down the tubes, Europe is tax city...yeah, Oceania sounds good. You wouldn't even have to learn another language!

reply to post by readerone


While I understand what you're saying and admire a kind of poetry you display, this is not my story. I wasn't born where I live, not even close. I live here now and own some real estate but that is about it. I usually cant even explain my nationality because, I am a little bit of everything. Part Italian, Hungarian, French, German,... people usually stop listening right about there.

Even the language, my Dad was a diplomat, so he insisted I start learning English at age of 3. I've only been speaking the local language since I was 12. That almost makes me a liar when I say English is not my native language, I honestly don't think I have one any more.

Here's something cheerful for the people whos country is not at rock bottom. Happy single table

Kind regards, M.

reply to post by octotom

I didn't realize that was an option until you mentioned it really. And I fully agree with you in regards to social services, but they are so below standard it's not even funny any more. Health care is free granted but only on paper. You can't get to see a specialist for anything without being forced to wait for a few months as the corrupt (and state owned) insurance agencies refuse to pay for more than a limited number of visits / procedures a day, so the doctors will not work more. No one is supposed to know this officially, but the doc lets you know up front.

Someone calculated the average cost of a kilometer of a two-lane highway that was built in Slovenia and came up with 21Mio euro. Take a neighboring country of Croatia for contrast at 1.2mio euro per kilometer. And before you ask, No the roads don't come with a free TV for every new purchase of a car and free lifetime gas for everyone.


[edit on 26-8-2009 by Manawydan]

I have family in oregon , USA .
my family has lived in oregon for a bit over 16o years , so I have heard the storys of what they did and how they lived .

in the 1900's if you needed a road , you buildt one .
when the goverment pass'd a bad law you ignored it .
when the cop saw you driving drunk.. he took you home , and your wife gave you heck for the shame you caused HER .

your children were afraid to be bad ,or dishonor the family .
you felt sorry for people who work'd for the goverment , because they were so poor .
working for the goverment was a service , like the military .

they were always asking for more money, higher tax's , more control ... they promised things no one beleived .

the goverment was not afraid of the people , because the people didn't take them seriosly .

the citizens were poor but had power to live free and deal with the real problems of life , the goverment was poorly under funded and effective only in roles clearly defined as its role .

now

the citizens are poor but have no power to live free and deal first with the govermental problems that govermental power causes .
the real problems of life are being ignored and are slowly overwhelming every one .
the goverment is richly over funded , and is effective in only areas beyond its scope or mandates ... it seems less and less effective in roles that are clearly its role alone .
and slowly the citizens have more to fear from the goverment as it has the money to enforce at the point of a gun good and bad laws which you can not escape .

today , if you need a road , you wait for the goverment .
if you try to put a road in yourself , you go to prison !