I am told this report is true:

Self-proclaimed 'space nation' Asgardia will launch a satellite later this year to test the concept of long-term data storage in orbit around the Earth. This potentially opens the door to off-planet data and tax havens, according to filings obtained by Motherboard, and represents an important step towards the group's proclaimed goal of starting a private nation in space.

Many will think this whole notion absurd - and also based on tax illiteracy. Someone will, after all, have to tell the servers in space what to do.

But I treat the whole thing with a little more concern. On 1st April 2016 I wrote:

News has leaked that as a consequence of plans to block tax haven abuse a consortium of international firms is, quite literally, launching an alternative. It's the space haven.

The consortium is planning to set up a tax haven on a satellite orbiting the earth. As they are reported to have said:

             This creates opportunities for tax planning that are out of this world.

And, they stress, it's wholly legal as well, and they think entirely beyond challenge.

In truth, that was not the first April Fool's Day I'd done it on either. I first wrote it in 2008. 

The moral is clear: be careful what you jest about.

Hat tip: Naomi Fowler

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