Well as someone who is NOT a US Citizen (this doesn't work for US citizens) I'm able to base my tax residency in Thailand, which has no CFC Laws and enables me to remotely manage and control my offshore corporations and not pay tax on income abroad unless its remitted to Thailand within 12 months of earning it. In other words, I only pay tax on what I spend on Thailand. As for my local Thai company it exists mainly to issue work permits and pay a small amount of taxes to justify our existence. The profits from our creations are generated in overseas corps.

As for CoL costs it totally varies. Some of the local people I hire can live off their salary of $700 a month. A comfortable western lifestyle would be about $3k a month, imo. I spend a lot more due to travel.

You could be on the low end of "comfortable western lifestyle" in the Bay Area for $3k/month, renting at $2200 in the East Bay, spending $300 on groceries and $500 on entertainment. Something doesn't seem right.

So the equivalent of that in Thailand would be about $1300 a month. My estimate of $3k includes a spacious 2 bedroom western style condo with a pool, gym, a nice motorbike, uber, eating out almost every meal, drinking, vacations to the beaches/islands every few months and entertainment.

What doesn't seem right is that, if you're in the Bay Area, it probably feels like you're just barely scraping by with $3k.

He's running his businesses in a tax efficient way so he's keeping a lot more of his money than when living in CA.

Also not a US citizen. Interesting -- very nice that there are no CFC laws! That said, I honestly don't understand why not every country has them. Not having CFC laws generally makes it super easy to avoid tax, leading to a massive loss of tax revenue.

Some would argue just because you live somewhere doesn't entitle the government to profits generated in another country that has nothing to do with them. Also in Thailands case they seem to just be happy as long as we are living there and spending money in their economy due to its appetite for tourism.

That's a valid argument. But if you're sitting in Thailand controlling an entity (i.e. making payments, etc) on say Jersey, does that argument make sense? It's an artificial arrangement for the most part. (Not that I'm against the practise since it's legally possible in some jurisdictions; just an observation)

As someone who spends less than $3k a month and lives a comfortable western lifestyle in a first world country, that seems rather high.

Now I haven't been to Thailand, but in Vietnam you could live very, very comfortably for half that.

It depends on your idea of comfortable.

Some western foods for example are highly priced compared to local options: imported au/us beef is similar cost to Australia ($20-$30 a serve) but local "steak" is maybe $3 to $4 a serve. It also has the consistency of a finely barbecued shoe.

It also depends on the area. A lot of expats want to live in areas surrounded by other expats, so things are priced higher in general.

If you go live "in the sticks" ie you will stand out as one of few/only foreigners in the district, things can be cheaper (once people know you're a "local")

I would qualify spending $20 per serve on steak as bourgeois, rather than comfortable, at least if you're making a habit of it.

You can definitely live a very comfortable life in Thailand at about $1300. This includes swimming pool, gym, to-the-door food delivery, etc. I'm locals, though, so it might be a bit more expensive for expats.