About this blog
This is the personal blog of Vasily Vitalyev. I write here about cross-border tax, personal finance for global citizens, and the practical realities of building a life across borders.
Important: Nothing on this blog is financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. I write from personal experience and public sources. You are responsible for your own decisions and for verifying anything that affects your taxes, your money, or your residency. When stakes are high, talk to a licensed professional in your country.
Who I am
I’m CTO at CelluNous, a mobile company. My day job is technology, not tax. I’ve spent years navigating cross-border situations — work, residency, banking, family logistics across multiple countries — and the lack of clear, honest writing on these topics is what got me writing.
I’m also a business advisor for Taixable, a cross-border tax planning platform. I’m not a licensed tax advisor, lawyer, or accountant. When I mention Taixable on this blog, I’m transparent about the connection.
What I write about
The audience I write for is roughly the audience I think about when I’m working with Taixable: people whose financial situation crosses borders and who can’t get useful answers from generic tax software, generic personal finance content, or one-jurisdiction professionals.
Topics I cover regularly:
- Tax residency rules across jurisdictions
- How tax treaties actually work (and where they don’t)
- FEIE, FTC, and other US-specific cross-border mechanics
- Foreign earned income, foreign tax credit, treaty tie-breakers
- Banking abroad, FATCA, CRS, multi-currency accounts
- Real estate as a non-resident
- Retirement accounts in multiple countries
- The practical operations of moving — healthcare, schools, phone numbers, paperwork
How I write
I write in plain language. I avoid jargon where I can and explain it where I can’t. I try to write the article I would have wanted to find six months before I needed to know the answer.
I cite sources where it matters. When I make a claim about a specific tax rule or a country’s residency requirement, I link to the official source — IRS publications, HMRC guidance, country tax authority pages, or the relevant tax treaty text.
I try to be honest when I don’t know something. Cross-border tax is full of cases that depend on facts I can’t see from a blog post. When that’s the case, I say so and point to where you can get a proper answer.
About Taixable
Some posts mention Taixable. I’m transparent about my advisory role with the company. The platform is one of several tools I think about when the question is “how do I model what my actual tax liability looks like across two or more countries before I make a decision.” It’s not the right tool for every situation. When other tools are better for the job, I link to those instead.
Other writers on this blog
Two collaborators contribute occasional posts under pseudonymous bylines, which is a deliberate choice given how identifying tax writing can be. Both have direct experience with the topics they write about.
- Sarah Chen — offshore real estate and personal finance for non-residents.
- Marcus Holloway — practical mobility, banking abroad, family logistics.
Contact
For questions, post suggestions, or to point out something I got wrong, see the contact page.