Slipping citizenship
While giving his victory interview following the Todos Santos Challenge, Josh Kerr revealed he'd been granted a days leave from US immigration to cross the Mexican border.
Kerr, you see, is in the process of acquiring US citizenship. He upped stumps from Coolangatta three years ago and settled his family in Carlsbad, Califiornia. In that time he's stuck his thumbs in a few different start ups, most notably St Archer Brewing Co. and VNDA boutique undies. Though Josh Kerr is still winning comps he has a weather eye on his retirement.
Over the years plenty of surfers have renounced their citizenship or acquired dual citizenship, and for a variety of reasons. Back in the 70s when Australian surfing was at its peak, Jack McCoy moved from Hawaii to Australia turning his island charm into a delightful blend of ocker aloha. These day Jack resides on Sydney's northern beaches with his Australian wife and he still wears floral shirts with pride.
Martin Potter, on the other hand, had a more pragmatic reason for switching citizenship. Pottz flicked his South African passport so he could compete on the then ASP tour. Pottz' meteoric rise in surfing coincided with South Africa's darkest days of apartheid yet with the Union Jack in his corner he avoided harrassment or sanction. Pottz eventually traded up, switching UK citizenship for Australian.
Heading in the other direction is Glenn Hall from Ireland via Umina. The fella with a leprechaun's falsetto cashed in his grandparents heritage for an Irish passport, giving him the convenience of an EU stamp but a new national anthem to learn.
In the professional ranks most citizenship swaps are for convenience - surfers do a lot of travel and the tyranny of distance is a grim travel reality - however some are purely for financial purposes. Australia has a high tax rate and pro surfers have short shelf lives. A few financially savvy CT surfers - if that's what you call someone who renounces nationality for dollars? - have reportedly swapped anthems too.
This kind of discretionary citizenship is not without precedent in the sports world. Tennis, for example, is rife with players accorded nominal nationality to their country of origin yet who've pledged their allegiance to a tax haven of their choice. Recent investigations by media companies, including a number by ESPN, have shown the extent of this with whole Davis Cup teams residing outside the country they're playing for.
In 2002 Pat Rafter was controversially named Australian of the Year while he wasn't an Australian. At the time, and in fact up to quite recently, Pat was a citizen of Bermuda - a proud Bermudan! He took Kerry Packer's line about tax minimisation literally finding the ultimate tax deduction in an Atlantic paradise free of income taxes. Despite a solemn Australia Day speech that spoke of the 'lucky country', Pat figured his luck was his alone and paid no income tax to Australia for many years.
Bermuda isn't known for its surf, in fact not many tax havens are, not that it would be a worry for a travelling pro. As long as they abide by travel visas - even those in the country they were born - then they can get the best of all worlds: free travel, perfect waves, no tax.
Who wouldn't rejoice?
Comments
Didn't 3 mcnulty brothers compete for Ireland last big todos comp, last big El Niño?
(2 compete, 1 coach)
Isn't Ireland a tax haven also? Maybe Micro knows where the pot of gold is.
There are a few misconceptions there; Ireland WAS a tax haven in as much as it had a low tax rate for MNCs. They could establish headquarters for their global business funnelling profits from different arms through Ireland. It wouldn't work for single entity businesses such as pro athletes, and anyway those days are over, internal pressure (following the GFC) and external pressure (mostly from other EU countries) saw Ireland change it's tax status.
Has Micro ever earnt enough to pay Tax ?
Any person applying for US citizenship would need to already be a permanent US resident and so could freely leave and enter the US without the need of a grant of a day's leave from US immigration.
My guess is Josh Kerr is currently in the process of acquiring a US green card, that grants permanent residency in the US.
what about greenough? and mcgrigor? two more yanks that made the move here. whatever happend to mcgrigor? moved back to the state? or is he hanging around the north coast?
Chuck Corbett gave up his US citizenship in order to live and surf out the rest of his days in Kiribati. Had an article about him in Surfer's Path once.. I reckon that article has accompanied me through scores of toilet stops.
http://www.peathead.com/dispatches/2015/7/27/a-bend-in-the-reef-chuck-co...
Thats an amazing read..jeez that wave must of been incredible to give up his company, wife & kids.
Thankyou fucking fantastic read .
Shit yeah, great read.
Always a Brit and a Kiwi in the middle of nowhere though:)
Can't get enough of reading stories like that..Need a thread of just everyones crazy surf stories good,bad and funny..Theres a video on YouTube about a french family who travelled there and surfed..not a great deal of surf footage but You could get used to hanging there for a while..No gift for Christmas Island or something it's called..
"Pottz eventually traded up, switching UK citizenship for Australian."
Indeed, that is a trade up, well put Stu.
Must've been too much jingoism in the UK for Pottz, eh cobber.
Tax rates are currently higher here in Oz, so not much of a trade up, unless you negatively gear, which is easier here than the UK..:-)
Chuck sounds like he's lived my dreams .
Just something about " London calling " that stops me listening to " the clash " . Because I never took a boat that way .
So much opportunity , so little travel options .
Go there.
It's amazing.
mmm... personally, I think it's fucked that the honor of "Australian of the Year" can go to someone who has turned their back on Australia (for what ever reason). You're either an Aussie and proud of it, or not.
Also, just FYI, 'residency' for Australian Tax Law is different to residency status for immigration purposes. If you're interested, here's a link that explains a little bit about it: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/International-tax-for-individuals/Wor...
Now, also keep in mind, professional athletes earn most of their money from endorsements / sponsorship and not prize money. Their tax advisers will have them set up so their own private company has exclusive management rights for their "talent" and will be charged with securing the sponsorship and endorsements. This company employs their team of support, i.e. managers, PR peeps, etc. and in return takes a hefty % of any endorsement income thereby keeping the majority of the income in the company, and taxed at the company rate (30% at present) rather than the higher personal tax rate ( i.e. 47% including the 2% medicare levy).
The athlete is then only left with their competition winnings as "income" and from that deducts as as an expense all their costs, such as travel costs, coaches, vitamin supplements, competition fees, etc.
I'd like to see the ATO publish a list of athletes taxable income and tax paid, just like they do for large corporate taxpayers (see here: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Large-business/In-detail/Tax-transparenc... and if you're interested, the list is available here: https://data.gov.au/dataset/corporate-transparency ) ... the general public would be shocked to see just how little tax their sporting hero's actually pay.
How's Pat Rafter? I had no idea so went back and checked it. But what's even more amazing is that there was such little uproar when it happened - no bad press except for one or two pieces in non-MSM media. It's another example that shows we really dont care what our sportsmen and women do as long as they "do us proud" on the pitch.
This whole 'citizenship' and flag waving just doesn't make sense in the modern world, I hate having to describe myself as 'belonging' to a certain country, what point does it serve except for pretending to be better than someone else, how much do we cringe when Americans say "USA, the best country in the world"? What a pile of rubbish and the same applies to Australia or ANY other country. I have lived in many many countries and travelled a great deal and have learned that 'citizenship' is just a bureaucratic tool used mostly against you. As for tax avoidance (very different to tax evasion), if the country in question doesn't like it then change the law, the individual can not be blamed if they abide by the laws, avoiding tax is not illegal, nor is moving to another country, I have no issue with any person doing it, they don't 'belong' to Australia anyway, nobody does, it's just a random coincidence of the universe that you were born here at all!
What if people take money from government agencies such as Tennis Australia or Surfing Australia to better themselves then turn their back on the country that helped them achieve their goals? No ethical quandaries there?
Amazing story and link DDD, thanks!!
Not the same Calvin Coolidge that is a great dive site off the beach on Espiritu Santu?
Went to Christmas Island in the 90's, amazing spot.
Boxright: What if people take money from government agencies such as Tennis Australia or Surfing Australia".
Surfing Australia went down the 'pro' road long ago, as evidenced by how it overrules its own system of producing age champions by sometimes relegating 'qualifiers' to also-rans by replacing them with 'better' surfers who either bombed out during the state and or Australian titles or were off being 'pros' somewhere else when the relevant comps (including regional) were being held. The club battle being held at Cronulla this weekend is another example, too. Wildcard clubs, Snapper and North Narra in particular, that failed at the regional level get to compete. It seems to me that this is undermining the whole idea of the grassroots club ideal. So, for a young aspirational surfer who isn't lucky enough to gain sponsorship, but is good enough to compete against those surfers, it's a slap in the face, not to mention the money that the surfer's parents have paid to support them on their competitive journey.
Speaking of adjusting citizenship, anyone keen for a session in SE Norway?
(I obviously made the wrong choice and should be in SW Norway, but I have shit lined up here)
Atleast there is some quality of the female type to get you through those long winters '