Company claims to offer bitcoin, crypto tax relief through passport
Plan B Passport founder explains one must 'become a non-tax resident of the country you are currently a citizen of'
Company offers passport to avoid tax on cryptocurrencies
Plan B Passport founder Katie Ananina explains how her company can help people avoid paying taxes on cryptocurrencies.
Plan B Passport founder Katie Ananina explained on "Varney & Co." on Wednesday how her company could potentially help people avoid paying taxes on cryptocurrencies.
Plan B Passport is a business that works primarily with owners of Bitcoin to obtain legal residency status in their choice of tax-haven nations, CoinDesk reported, noting that the "open approach to tax avoidance is perfectly legal."
The company claims to be "helping the free market evolve to make governments compete for your wealth and fruits of your labor, while incentivizing them to provide you with better services at better prices," according to its website.
Host Stuart Varney pointed out on Wednesday that for about $200,000 Ananina will sell investors a passport to one of seven nations that do not impose capital gains taxes on cryptocurrency gains.
Ananina told Varney that in order for people to avoid paying taxes on cryptocurrencies using her company "you would have to become a non-tax resident of the country you are currently a citizen of," which she acknowledged is "really hard" to do in the United States.
"The United States has a unique feature to its passport called ‘citizenship-based taxation,’ which means if a United States citizen resides in a foreign country, it will still be necessary to file taxes in the United States," she explained.
Ananina clarified that whoever buys a passport from her must live in one of the seven nations or "maintain a nontax residency status" in order to "take advantage of the tax regime those nations provide."
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Ananina would not disclose how many people paid $200,000 for the passports, but told Varney, "You will be surprised how much interest there is regarding obtaining a second citizenship."
She added that "taxation is not the only reason people relocate or obtain a second passport."
"For many people it’s a simple plan B, a second option as a hedge against their government for other country’s citizenships,"Ananina continued.
She told Varney she primarily sells her passports to people in English-speaking countries, including the U.S., Australia and Canada.
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"I want this to become a global trend so we could incentivize those governments to get better," she said. "So I’m willing to work with anybody all around the world, not limited to U.S. citizens."
Ananina explained how her company works on the same day a digital version of the Euro got the green light.
The digital euro will likely be a digital wallet that citizens of the euro zone can keep at the European Central Bank and would be the electronic equivalent of banknotes and coins, Reuters reported.
The price of Bitcoin was trading slightly higher on Wednesday afternoon around $32,800 per coin, while rivals Ethereum and Dogecoin were trading around $2000 and 20 cents per coin, respectively, according to Coindesk.
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FOX Business’ Ken Martin contributed to this report.