29. Eddie's Money
In coming to Japan, Eddie was trying for his Utopia - a life of intelligence and culture. A key is finances. He wished to end salary slavery - the need for one's income to pay one's existence. Simply having ready money is not sufficient but, obviously, important. Eddie achieved that without trying because his parents' deaths, left him $200,000. In the 1970s this could not last a lifetime but it took the edge off financial worry. Also he benefited by being a good reader. For example from the New York Times Book Section in early 1970, he learned of, got, and read How to Profit from the Coming Devaluation by Harry Browne. The devaluation was of the U.S. dollar against gold metal, which in early 1970 sold for U.S.$35 for an avoirdupois ounce. Eddie read Harry Browne's argument - the 1944 backing of the U.S. dollar by 35 ounces of gold is arbitrary and now long out of date and strained to extreme by inflationary spending and must devalue in the coming year. Following Browne's advice, Eddie transferred his inheritance to a stable bank in Switzerland, visiting Zurich to first speak with the bankers. There, Eddie's U.S. dollars bought $200,000 worth of gold at the 1970 $35 an ounce. By 1975 a little before he left for Japan, the gold was sold for $150 an ounce and his original $200,000 became $800,000.
The management of the money is conservative, and in 1975, when Eddie establishes himself with Ryo in Tokyo, he is assured an annual 5% which, based on a $800,000 principal, computes to an income $40,000, enough for his needs in Tokyo without using his principal in the bank.
What about the tax question? Up till his last tax return, which he filed a month before leaving for Japan, he was a salary man at his hospital. This is a few decades before the computer revolution had made everyone vulnerable to being put on a snoop lists if one's tax return suddenly stops being filed.
In Tokyo, Eddie stops filing a tax return and no one notices. As far as is known, Eddie disappears, and, for practical purpose, the authorities have more pressing things to question.
Becoming an expatriate was a way to avoid tax in those years because there was no enforcement overseas so long as the expatriate was not targeted by his fame or stupidity of getting on the radar of the authorities by causing some sort of commotion, like complaining about his government or by becoming famous or rich. And Eddie has no taxable income in Japan so is not liable to Japanese taxes.Thus, his mind is cleared of financial worries as he settles down
his modern shack with all his systems working and most of his needs attended to.
30. Arguments Pro & Con for an Expatriate to Pay or Not to Pay Income Tax
Eddie does not decide on his expatriate tax payment policy lightly.. His practical reason is that as long as he remains expatriate, he thinks he will not be reachable. However that has provisos. One is the need for a U.S. passport which must be renewed every 10 years. Strictly speaking, if the authorities get after him, they could run him to earth by refusing a new passport after the old one expires. But chances are slight as long as he is not an obvious tax evader, and as long as he keeps his financial situation private and does not blab or become famous. Here, the foreign bank account with its, at the time, strict privacy is key to his relaxed state of mind.
So the apparent safety of being off the tax authorities' metaphoric radar lightens the worry about the risk of not paying taxes.
Still, the moral question? Like almost all citizens in the mid 20th century Eddie has been brought up and educated with a vague feeling that civic morality calls for each citizen honestly shouldering his or her share. After all, since he is benefiting by being a citizen in so many ways, it seems immoral not to pay his share.
That is the feeling. But his thoughts give him other feelings, as he is reposing on his futon, with morphine sharpening his brain.
First, he is a reader of H.G. Wells's The Outline of History and from that he has accepted Wells's idea of the illegitimacy of the nation-state. Eddie considers himself a citizen of the world. Particularly so since his father and mother were actually born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became naturalized US citizens - there but for the grace of their immigration to the US - Eddie might be a non U.S. citizen today. So he had no native loyalty as one with a several generational history in USA might. More important, Eddie profoundly and sharply disagreed with the US federal income tax going towards unnecessary military adventurism, most recently in the Vietnam War, which he hated, and in the Cold War in general. Eddie is not very political; but he believes in a future of a Science-Civilization.
By starting this route in his new life in Tokyo, Eddie, unawares, is entering a new pathway with unforeseen consequence.
End of section. To continue next, click 16.(31-32) An Expatriate Life & Status in Tokyo
30. Arguments Pro & Con for an Expatriate to Pay or Not to Pay Income Tax
Eddie does not decide on his expatriate tax payment policy lightly.. His practical reason is that as long as he remains expatriate, he thinks he will not be reachable. However that has provisos. One is the need for a U.S. passport which must be renewed every 10 years. Strictly speaking, if the authorities get after him, they could run him to earth by refusing a new passport after the old one expires. But chances are slight as long as he is not an obvious tax evader, and as long as he keeps his financial situation private and does not blab or become famous. Here, the foreign bank account with its, at the time, strict privacy is key to his relaxed state of mind.
So the apparent safety of being off the tax authorities' metaphoric radar lightens the worry about the risk of not paying taxes.
Still, the moral question? Like almost all citizens in the mid 20th century Eddie has been brought up and educated with a vague feeling that civic morality calls for each citizen honestly shouldering his or her share. After all, since he is benefiting by being a citizen in so many ways, it seems immoral not to pay his share.
That is the feeling. But his thoughts give him other feelings, as he is reposing on his futon, with morphine sharpening his brain.
First, he is a reader of H.G. Wells's The Outline of History and from that he has accepted Wells's idea of the illegitimacy of the nation-state. Eddie considers himself a citizen of the world. Particularly so since his father and mother were actually born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became naturalized US citizens - there but for the grace of their immigration to the US - Eddie might be a non U.S. citizen today. So he had no native loyalty as one with a several generational history in USA might. More important, Eddie profoundly and sharply disagreed with the US federal income tax going towards unnecessary military adventurism, most recently in the Vietnam War, which he hated, and in the Cold War in general. Eddie is not very political; but he believes in a future of a Science-Civilization.
By starting this route in his new life in Tokyo, Eddie, unawares, is entering a new pathway with unforeseen consequence.
End of section. To continue next, click 16.(31-32) An Expatriate Life & Status in Tokyo
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