Idea:
There are several countries across the world that offer "retirement visas" with some fairly generous terms. It depends on the country, but they often let you import a vehicle and all sorts of goods without import tax as a one time deal of making your move to that country easier.
Now imagine if you filled your allowance with things that you plan to resell instead of keeping.
For example, MB SLS AMG costs under $200,000 in the USA. In Thailand, it costs almost $800,000. (
MB prices in Thailand)
Virtually all luxury goods are ridiculously overpriced in developing countries because of crazy high import duties. The above is an extreme high end example but everything else is very overpriced as well because of import duties. Retirement visa exemption - that only works for one time shipment - would be a way to possibly circumvent these rules. There is no need to start at the top end importing SLS AMG. It can be started importing cars that retail for 20-30K in the USA or electronics, etc.
The logistical nightmare would be finding willing participants, but this may not be as difficult as it seems. Most of these countries have expat forums where potential expats/tourists/visitors go and that would be one way to target these people. On the other end, you still need to find a local buyer in that country, but my guess is that it would be easy to find a buyer if you are selling a $100K car (local price) for $80K and still making $20K because it costs 50K in the USA...
Sidenote:
When I was growing up, this was fairly popular for people to make money in my native country. (the country allowed people to import a certain very limited about of things for themselves... 1 car, XX amount of alcohol, things like that... every X amount of years.)
Sidenote 2:
This is why it's hard to live in developing countries if you like your toys/have expensive hobbies.
Last edited by dc_publius; 08-05-2012 at 03:38 AM.