Ugh, there are a lot of countries, including big ones like china.

> Ugh, there are a lot of countries, including big ones like china.

The table in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Individu... states "no" for "taxes foreign income of nonresident citizens" for China. Is that incorrect?

Yep, it is a commonly misunderstood and ignored aspect of the Chinese tax system. I have to stay out for one month every five years to avoid it.

I'm confused. Are you a Chinese tax resident? Are you a legally non-tax-resident Chinese citizen? My question was about taxation of non-Chinese income of non-resident Chinese citizens. (Forming an analogy to taxation of British income of British-resident American in the opinion.)

I am a Chinese tax resident but an American citizen. China taxes worldwide income for citizens as well as long term residents (they don't really do green cards), I have to do the one month thing every five years to avoid it. The gov is also not aggressive in enforcement.

Even austrailia taxes worldwide income, America is not that unique here.

I think you are confused about foreign residence and foreign taxation. Most countries will tax all foreign income if you are a tax resident of their country. But not many tax foreign income of citizens who are resident in a foreign country, and Australia definitely does not do this. If you are a resident of another country then Australia doesn't make any demands on you at all. The only catch is that a temporary residence overseas might mean they still consider you to be an Australian resident for a time.

Yes but the issue is about taxing worldwide income of non-resident citizens. Do Chinese laws provide for taxing U.S. income of Chinese citizens who permanently live and work in the U.S.? (Leaving aside enforceability.)

Taxing foreign income of tax-residents is, as you said, common, most first-world countries do it.

Not sure, even then usa and Chinese taxes are about the same and would cancel out. But this is an issue when a PRC resident goes to work in in a low tax country like Hong Kong or Singapore (just like for us, actually). The government was talking about cracking down on PRC citizens working in Hong Kong.

This should apply the same to any country, so, Singapore.

Do Chinese laws provide for taxing Singapore income of Chinese citizens who permanently live and work in Singapore?

If so, is it a matter of not recognizing the citizen is non-resident in China (e.g. claiming it is a "temporary" non-residency)?

I understand what you are saying now. No, China just taxes residents on worldwide income, citizens who aren't residents are not.

If you can avoid it by spending a certain amount of time out of the country then surely it is not what is meant by non-resident taxation in the context of this article?

Yes, you are right. I was misunderstanding the context.

America isn't every other country. In most cases America offers more opportunity than anywhere else.

In this case, more opportunity to do paperwork and apply for special interest tax breaks :)

From my perspective it offers less. For instance, holding a passport from nearly any other country is effectively like holding a form of health insurance - if you get diagnosed with a long-term disease like cancer, you can repatriate and get free treatment. Not so with US citizenship.

Yet other countries don't charge for this much more tangible privilege.

The US passport also isn't even in the top 10 most valuable ones to hold for travel https://www.henleyglobal.com/international-visa-restrictions...

That's why it shouldn't need to tax its citizen abroad...

Please cite sources. While we're trading unsubstantiated opinions; I disagree. I moved to a country everyone said had a crap economy and it has offered far more opportunity.

Of course, you're probably right. The real lesson here is to including supporting evidence and not just your feelings.