
Paul Carr, Naked In A Hotel Corridor, Embarrases TechCrunch Yet Again - solipsist
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/07/paul-carr-naked-in-a-hotel-corridor-embarrases-techcrunch-yet-again/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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srgseg
I was about to say 'how can he afford this?!' but then I pulled out my
calculator.

If he is a contractor and claims all travel, meals and hotels as business
expenses, then he basically pays no income tax. As Paul says, he also pays no
council taxes/property taxes/etc.

So if he averages one flight a week costing $200 (it's 4x more than this to
fly across the Atlantic, but 4x less than this to fly inside Europe), then
that's only $10,400/year.

If he takes red eye flights long haul, then that saves money too because he
doesn't need a hotel room for that night.

Out of a $100,000 income, that leaves $245 per night for hotel rooms and food
and drink.

Out of a $60,000 income, that leaves $135 per night for hotel rooms and food
and drink.

Life is pretty sweet when you don't pay income tax. I wonder whether the tax
authorities will consider all of his travel as genuine business expenses and
not tax free holidays. This isn't a jibe at him - I hope it's totally
legitimate so I can do it too!

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winestock
So Paul Carr has no fixed address, he only lives in the finest hotel suites.

From the article: Even more impressive is the money Carr saves. He does all
this cheaper than you’ll be shelling out to live in your own gaff. How? Well,
there’s no mortgage, no bills, rates or fees. To put it simply: no worries. If
you look at hotels, you don’t have to worry about maintenance or any of that
stuff, Carr says. You don’t pay council tax, you don’t pay line rental on your
TV, you don’t pay for breakfast... if something breaks in your room you just
phone down to reception and they fix it.

So what's preventing the rest of the population from living only in hotels the
way that Paul Carr does?

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orenmazor
I don't know. nothing?

why don't you live in a hotel, travelling the world.

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winestock
If something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Also, where
would I keep all of my books? Not all of them are digitized. To say nothing of
the non-digitizable belongings.

Hmm. Perhaps Paul Graham's essay on "Stuff" is germane to this.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more you deserve an upvote.

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orenmazor
I'm really not disagreeing with you. I'm about to buy a second project car,
and have an entire library that I like having around. I'm not the hotel guy,
but just saying: technically, anybody COULD do it.

