XJune 15, 2026
The Bahamas just cut murders 31 percent in a single year, its biggest one-year drop on record.
It still runs about 21 per 100,000, roughly 3.5 times the US rate. And it charges zero income tax, zero capital gains, zero wealth tax.
A tax-freedom score tells you nothing about whether a place is safe.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force logged 83 murders in 2025, down from 120 in 2024, the largest annual fall the force says it has recorded since it began tracking in 1963. On a population near 400,000 that is still about 21 per 100,000, against the most recent confirmed US rate of about 6.
Now line up the places that sit at the very top on tax freedom. Little to no tax on income or investment gains for a typical mobile resident. On that single axis they look interchangeable.
Latest reported homicide rates, per 100,000, 2025 where available:
Turks and Caicos: 57.6, second highest in the Caribbean behind Haiti. Tiny population, so the rate swings hard year to year
Bahamas: about 21, on 83 murders
UAE: under 1
Qatar: close to zero
Monaco: effectively zero, no homicide reported in 2025
Same low-tax promise. Homicide rates that run from 57.6 at one end to effectively zero at the other.
The reason is structural. A government can take its tax rate to zero in one budget. Safety is built over decades, through courts, policing, and not sitting on a cocaine-transit corridor. You cannot legislate it overnight and you cannot import it with a residence permit.
And note what the Bahamas case actually shows. Even after that record fall, it still runs multiples above any rich low-tax base. Improvement does not close the gap.
So if you choose a base on the tax line alone, you optimize the variable that is easiest to change and ignore the one you live inside every day. Zero tax in a place you do not walk at night is not a win, it is a trade most people never price.
Real question for anyone planning a move: how many points of personal safety would you trade to take a 15 percent effective rate down to zero?
Data from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer I build at Lucky Nomads.
Bahamas
Haiti
Monaco
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
United States