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> The number of millionaires -- and billionaires -- residing in Monaco is on the rise

Inflation will do that.



Also it’s becoming increasingly difficult legally avoid tax so people actually have to physically move to the tax havens instead of just sending their money there.


Also keep in mind the Swiss effectively abandoned their 200 year old policy of neutrality over the Ukraine - Russian conflict.

Millionaires and billionaires take note of this sort of thing, and while it may not be an overnight exodus, it certainly does change things. Like most finance text books begin with: "money goes where it is treated best".


> Also keep in mind the Swiss effectively abandoned their 200 year old policy of neutrality over the Ukraine - Russian conflict.

I think this predates the Ukraine - Russian conflicts. Swiss banks have been giving client names when asked to do so by foreign judges. Much harder to get info from banks in Hong Kong or Dubai.


Can you tell us more about Swiss neutrality in the context of Russia/Ukraine? All I've heard is that the Swiss are blocking Germany from supplying Gepard 35mm ammunition to Ukraine. Does this mean that the Swiss favor Russia?


This may be of help (from here [1]):

> Neutral Switzerland has mirrored nearly all the sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine.

Other countries located further East or in the South have decided not to mirror EU's or the West's (more generally) sanctions on Russia, they effectively remained neutral to this conflict. Switzerland has not done that.

On a more general note, Switzerland's "neutrality" is only a marketing thing at this point, the fate of Wegelin & Co [2] and the subsequent changes in how the Swiss banks handle some of their clients (who happen to hold US citizenship) can attest to that. The "most" neutral countries right now most probably can be found in the Gulf, the UAE (and Dubai) first among them. That's why the recent prisoner exchange involving Viktor Bout and that WNBA player took place in there, and not in Geneva or Zurich.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-switzerland...

[2] https://www.france24.com/en/20130104-oldest-swiss-bank-wegel...


I think it’s expected that the prisoner exchange would happen in a place to which both involved countries can fly. AFAIK Russian planes are banned from the European airspace.


That isn't "neutrality" that you're referring to, but banking secrecy.


It turns out that banking secrecy means nothing de facto when you cannot maintain your neutrality, i.e. when you do not have enough levers at your disposal as to not allow foreign entities to directly interfere in your affairs as a country (in your banking industry, in this case).


It is legal tax evasion.


A million (Dollars, Euros, etc) is not that much these days, especially in the context of the real estate prices that the article mentions:

90 Euros per square meter per month - for 100 m^2 (small) that's 9000 Euros/month

70,000 Euros per m^2 to buy - 7 million Euros for a small 100 m^2 condo

It sounds like a person with a net worth of 1 million Euros would be forever unable to buy anything, and spending a small fortune for rent.


9,000 Euros/month would let you avoid what percentage of taxes you would owe?


That's 1080E/y and sqm so it takes a bit less than 70 years to ammortise?

Sounds off...




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