Lawrence King is a tax-avoiding, Latina-loving, tweet-posting, pioneer of the wifi-money lifestyle.
He’s an all round good chap who has spent the last decade travelling the world whilst earning money from his laptop.
Lawrence has very kindly joined us today to explain three things:
- How to avoid tax
- How he escaped the system
- Some of the lessons he learned along the way.
This information is exceptionally important because nation states are becoming increasingly tyrannical.
And this means that over the next decade, those who are well versed in the art of international citizenry, will become proportionally more powerful.
It’s a pleasure to welcome him to the blog to share the secrets of how to avoid tax.
How To Avoid Tax For 10 years – An Interview with Lawrence King
The Great British Bloke: Lawrence hey, tell us a bit about your early life and what inspired you to leave the UK?
Lawrence: Well I always knew something was wrong with the UK. How is it possible to have such bad food, weather, not a lot of attractive women, a lot of misery and depression all in one place.
I was raised in London so I had a lot of friends with foreign mums.
When I would visit their house, their mother would look beautiful in a sundress, and be cooking something that was actually nice to eat.
So I clocked on at around 8 years old that there must be more to life than this (there was).
I left the UK to go to Italy with a backpack, with no real clue what I was doing, there was no youtube then, only books you had to buy to read up on things.
I arrived in Milan and never looked back…
The Great British Bloke: And what’s your living situation now?
Lawrence: I am a Uruguayan tax resident, with a UK passport (for now).
I am currently paying 0% tax and I earn my money from lead generation and social media mostly.
The Great British Bloke: Right, that’s how to avoid tax. So you’re a rootless cosmopolitan – Are you going to try and give me a high interest loan?
Lawrence: Haha, I would only sell you on freedom from the UK but knowing you, you would turn right around and sell me the UK back, I respect your love for it.
The Great British Bloke: Were you making money online already when you made the move to South America? How did you start making wi-fi cash?
Lawrence: When I first initially made the move at 18 I had no wifi money, it wasn’t even really a thing, I just had £1000 in the bank, a big set of balls and youthful ignorance.
When I moved to South America I was doing quite well on Amazon which is why I moved to the tax haven.
Well that and the Latinas.
The Great British Bloke: Are you generating income on Amazon now?
Lawrence: No. Sadly I was banned multiple times and I think I am on some blacklist.
I do agency stuff now, lead generation mostly and a social media agency.
The Great British Bloke: Cool, how’s your coffee company Raging Bull doing?
Lawrence: It is doing ok, I wanted to get it on Amazon but I am having difficulty.
I will be putting more into social media campaigns for it this year. To be honest my only experience in e-commerce is through Amazon so it’s been a bit of a challenge.
The Great British Bloke: Is it possible to launch a business anonymously?
Lawrence: Yes, especially in the USA, very easy.
The Great British Bloke: What advice would you give to someone was stuck in the 9 to 5, how do you recommend they plan & execute an escape?
Lawrence: Pick a sellable skill e.g. email marketing, ghostwriting, short form video content, lead generation
Sell that skill for $2-5k a month
Sign 2 clients
Quit your job
The Great British Bloke: How do people identify & learn the valuable skills they need to start their own business?
Lawrence: This is a great question
The best thing you can do in all honesty is copy what is working for other people.
You see a friend making $50k a month?
Copy him as best as you can and you might not hit $50k but you could hit $30k.
Don’t let people meme you into thinking “that thing is saturated”.
Nothing is saturated because most people suck at what they do.
I am a mildly wealthy man and I have never had an original idea in my LIFE.
The Great British Bloke: The major skill people need to learn in my opinion is sales. Are there any key things people can do right now to start becoming a better salesperson right now?
Lawrence: I couldn’t agree more.
Sales is life changing.
I would suggest purchasing the book by Sandler titled “Don’t teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar”.
For $10 you will learn conversational skills.
The Great British Bloke: What are the best tax free countries you can choose to reside in and what are the conditions you have to fulfil in order to qualify for 0% tax residency?
Lawrence: For me, I have to give a shoutout to Uruguay, they have saved me millions in tax over the last 10 years
Every Tax haven has its charms and its difficulties.
I think Paraguay is a good shout for the future, Singapore is amazing if you have the money, Qatar for a family life and Dubai for a bit more fun.
The USA is also the worlds biggest tax haven (as long as you are not from there)
Most people aren’t ready for that convo though!
The Great British Bloke: We saw from the lockdown nonsense that you need a second & third passport to operate in the world now. What’s the best way to go about getting a second passport?
Lawrence: The best way is to buy it.
You can get passports from anywhere from $20k to $2 million.
It all depends on your budget.
No point waiting for 5 years for nationalisation, get in there and put your money up.
The Great British Bloke: What are the best things about moving to South America?
Lawrence: The freedom mostly, people here don’t really care.
Very rarely do you see some political nonsense affecting you personally.
During the scamdemic, people didn’t try and police you for example, stuff like this makes a massive difference in your quality of life.
Also the non stop sun and beautiful women, it makes life more pleasant.
The Great British Bloke: Dare I ask… Is there anything you miss about God’s green and pleasant land?
Lawrence: Yes, UK comedy, we have some of the best comedy in the World.
Fuck American comedy where there needs to be a laugh track inserted because its so pathetic
Give me UK comedy, which is uncomfortable and hilarious every day of the week.
I miss roast dinners, the productivity levels and customer service.
I also miss Crunchie bars and monster munch and maybe, if I am feeling adventurous a salt and vinegar McCoys
The Great British Bloke: When I head down to Paraguay to see you, I’ll be sure to bring some Crunchie bars with me brother.
The UK has a weird saving culture. Where people who make no money, somehow think that they’re going to get rich by saving 20% of nothing every month. How did you escape this scarcity mindset?
Lawrence: To be honest I only escaped this recently. When Amazon took off I was spending no more than 2-3k a month in Uruguay and trying to save every penny (embarrassing).
I realised around 4 years ago, that the money I have tucked away in Uruguay comes from selling a lot of products, not me being a tight bastard.
Then inflation over the last few years just cemented it for me, you will lose your money whether you save or spend it, so don’t be afraid to live and invest a bit.
You can’t save your way to being F U Rich.
The Great British Bloke: Amen. Everyone has big dreams, but only a tiny percentage of people turn them into their reality. What’s the main thing holding people back?
Lawrence: Not being around people doing big stuff.
They hang around their loser friends that work a job they hate and say stupid shit like “selling is sleezy” and “9 out of 10 businesses fail”.
I don’t think you should cut your friends of for being losers but also understand water always finds its level.
You need to be around winners to see what winning looks like.
Otherwise it’s just you trying your luck, most people who do this quit two months in.
The Great British Bloke: One of the big problems in the UK is the drinking culture. Alcohol has culturally become a major part of single event and the centrepiece of most ‘friendships’. I think you mentioned that you gave up drinking? What benefits have you noticed?
Lawrence: Well I look 5 – 10 years younger than my age which is nice.
I also noticed that I don’t have the need for it when out at a social event, which is a game changer.
I could always talk to beautiful women or have fun without it and thats impossible for most.
The Great British Bloke: You said you’re “mildly wealthy” which is hilarious. Tell us, does money buy happiness?
Lawrence: It doesn’t buy happiness as such, if you are a miserable bastard you will still be miserable with money, you will be complaining about the clams rather than the Toby Cavery.
However, it does solve 99% of problems which means you will be more comfortable, meaning you could be happier yes.
The Great British Bloke: Parents have started kicking their kids out at 18. Why do you think that’s wrong?
Lawrence: I was kicked out at 16.
It is absolutely mental.
All you are doing is putting someone out to work a minimum wage job to go pay rent to somebody else’s parents.
Why not keep them at home and let them invest their wages into a business instead?
Build them up like the wealthiest families do.
Don’t sent them to work a minimum wage job for 10 years and spend 70% of their salary on rent FFS.
The Great British Bloke: What have you learned about building a personal brand? Key benefits? Should everyone just start?
Lawrence: I learned that you need thick skin, people will criticise you, the better you can deal with that the happier you will be.
I also learnt that follower count means nothing.
There are guys with 10k followers banking 60k a month from twitter.
I also know guys with 100k followers that can’t sell a Bic Mac to a hungry person.
Another pointer would be to not take yourself to seriously, I often make fun of myself and I think people appreciate that.
The Great British Bloke: I’ve found that it definitely opens doors. We met on Twitter, one of the first things I saw you post was an awesome story about meeting an 84 year old Brazilian runner with abs. How did that happen?
Lawrence: I was running some 5km races in Brazil and I heard about this man called “Lightning”.
He was 84 years old, but could run 20km everyday without any problems.
I met him and asked him if we could run together.
I met him the following day and we did 14km together.
He didn’t sweat and he told me that the mind needs to be controlled, once it is, you can be unstoppable.
He was so fast, he would beat everybody from sometimes 40 and always 50+ even though he was 84.
Incredible Man.
The Great British Bloke: Since leaving the UK, I assume you must have become very unhealthy… How are you surviving after all this time without free healthcare?
Lawrence: Haha, this is my favourite one the UK copers hit me with.
“See you when you are sick and need healthcare”
I pay $70 here and get 5 star everything with no wait times.
Way cheaper than the 50 percent tax I’d pay in the UK.
The Great British Bloke: One of my favourite things about you is that you managed to get your dad to join you in Uruguay. Tell us how you managed to make that happen.
Lawrence: As soon as I had any money, I retired my Dad.
To be honest it was too early as it put me in financial hardship at the beginning (I didn’t tell him that of course).
He was in a miserable TV dinner relationship with a Woman called Big Susan, a giant Irish Woman that could wrestle a bear.
He was dominated and miserable.
It took me two years of persuasion to get him to listen.
Sometimes he would get so upset with me hammering him about coming out he would hang up on me.
But eventually he accepted.
It has been 7 years now and he has not been back once (lol).
I can do anything in business but that is the proudest moment of my life, saving my Dad from the UK and his toxic/abusive relationship.
One massive bonus of sharing his story (it can be uncomfortable) is that lots of 40+ year old men in the UK are in a very similar situation, and they DM me, thanking me for sharing the story.
Had a few take the plunge and break up or move abroad and that also means the world to me as I know they won’t regret it.
The UK is best starting point as long as you are leaving.
The Great British Bloke: That’s glorious man. Congratulations and thanks for sharing the story with us.