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#internationaltax

16 posts on this theme.

LinkedInJuly 24, 2026
Leaving Australia does not end Australian capital gains tax. Part of your portfolio stays taxable there, and a Bill introduced on 2 July 2026 would widen that part. Under CGT event I1, ceasing Australian tax residence generally triggers a deemed disposal at market value. Direct Australian real property is not taxed on the way out. It stays in the Australian net, and the gain is taxed on eventual sale. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and Other Measures) Bill 2026 is before Parliament, not law. If it passes in the August sittings, the capital gains measures could commence on 1 October. Two changes matter. A statutory definition of real property brings in rights over land, related contractual rights, and things fixed or installed on it. And the principal asset test, one of two conditions that put a 10 percent stake in an Australian entity inside the net, moves from a single reading just before the sale to any point in the preceding 365 days. The 12 December 2006 retrospective start date was dropped. Assets newly caught get no cost base reset, so pre-commencement growth can still be taxed on a later sale. Australia ranks 33rd of 233 on the index I maintain. Tax freedom, at 2.73 out of 10, is its weakest dimension. If you left Australia and kept a stake in an Australian entity, could you show what share of its value was land-linked on any day of the preceding 365 days? Want to see where your own profile actually fits, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Tracked through GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #australia
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LinkedInJuly 23, 2026
16 days in the UK can make you tax resident again. Not 183. The sufficient ties test does it. If you were UK resident in any of the three preceding tax years and you hold four UK ties, residence can return above 15 days in the year. That number is not an outlier. Switzerland attaches unlimited liability at 30 days if you work while you are there. Guernsey at 35 days, once you have spent 365 days on the island over the four preceding years. South Africa runs a three part count stretched across six years. Germany can skip the count entirely, a dwelling you keep and use is enough. Cyprus and India both run on 60 days, in opposite directions. One is a door you walk through on purpose. The other catches people who never intended to be resident anywhere near it. I lined up seven jurisdictions in the carousel, one day count per slide, with the statutory basis for each. The count is the floor. A home, a job, a directorship or a multi year history decides the rest. Which one would reach you first, the country you left or the one you still keep a flat in? Want to see where your own profile actually fits, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #taxresidency #globalmobility
LinkedInJuly 16, 2026
Seven European countries market a flat tax for newcomers. Underneath the label, five completely different machines. Cyprus exempts your dividends. Portugal and Spain flat-rate your salary and largely free your foreign income. Greece and Italy charge one fixed sum a year on covered foreign income, whatever the amount. Malta taxes your foreign income only when you remit it. Switzerland taxes what you spend, not what you make. Same label, five different mechanisms. I lined all seven up side by side in the carousel, with the 2026 numbers and what each one actually covers. The trap is reading the headline rate as the deal. A 0 percent, a fixed EUR 300,000 and a CHF 435,000 minimum taxable base are not comparable until you know the base each one sits on. Lowest rate, or the most predictable fixed cost, which would you optimise for? Want to see which base actually fits your own profile, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #wealthplanning
LinkedInJuly 14, 2026
A US citizen can move to Puerto Rico, keep the passport, and pay 0 percent on island-sourced interest and dividends, and on gains from securities bought after residency begins. Act 38-2026 rewrote the clock. File the Chapter 2 application on or before 31 December 2026 and the rate is 0 percent. File from 1 January 2027 and it is 4 percent, with six years of prior non-residency to prove. The exemption tracks appreciation, not realisation. Gains that accrued before the move get neither rate. They are taxed at 5 percent only if recognised more than ten years after residency begins and inside the decree window. Recognised at any other time, they fall back to ordinary Puerto Rico rates, which are higher. The ordinary rates are the point. Corporate tops out at 37.5 percent, personal at 33 percent, plus a capped 5 percent gradual adjustment tax above USD 500,000. Tax Freedom scores 4.9 out of 10 here, the second weakest of the 23 dimensions GeoCompass scores. The 0 percent does not exist outside the decree. The decree has a price. USD 15,000 per year, fixed, regardless of income, for its entire life. A principal residence bought, not leased, within two years, from a wholly unrelated seller, and held throughout. Puerto Rico scores 67.93 out of 100 overall. Rank 80. Full profile in the carousel. Want to see where you actually rank, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. #internationaltax #hnwi #relocation
LinkedInJuly 13, 2026
Monaco's corporate tax is 25 percent, exactly France's rate, with no permanent reduced band for small profits. And it is the internationally facing trading business, the one a founder brings, that pays it. Sovereign Ordinance 3.152 of 19 March 1964 runs the opposite way round from every offshore assumption. A business carrying on an industrial or commercial activity in Monaco, whatever its legal form, sole traders included, is taxed once 25 percent or more of its turnover comes from operations made outside the territory. Stay below that line and no profits tax is due. Reach it and you are in. Two carve-outs worth knowing. Foreign turnover is not about where the client sits, Article 3 tests where the goods are destined and where a service is used or exploited. And a company whose activity is receiving patent, trademark or copyright income is taxed whatever the split. Take a company over that line, 200,000 euros of taxable profit, distributed in full. • France. A qualifying SAS pays 15 percent on the first 42,500 euros, then 25 percent. Corporate bill, 45,750 euros. • Monaco. No such band. For an established company, corporate bill, 50,000 euros. Higher. • The distribution. France applies the 31.4 percent flat tax on the dividend by default in 2026. Monaco applies no withholding and no personal income tax. • Net to the founder, about 105,800 euros in France. And 150,000 in Monaco. That 150,000 assumes what most coverage leaves out. A genuinely resident shareholder with no personal tax elsewhere. French nationals who moved to Monaco after 13 October 1957 are generally taxed in France under the 1963 convention, and a US citizen still files with the IRS. Every euro of the advantage is created the moment the money leaves the company. None of it inside. On the index I maintain, Monaco scores 9.61 out of 10 on tax freedom. That score is earned on the personal layer. The internationally facing business pays 25 percent. So for a founder still running the company, the question is timing more than geography. Would you move before the exit, or only after it? Want to see where your own profile actually fits, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #monaco #corporatetax
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LinkedInJuly 9, 2026
The United States holds about half the world's stock market value. As a base to actually live in, my index ranks it 72nd of 233. For a globally mobile person, the US is the default. The best place to build capital, the assumed top of any list. On livability and on the cost of the passport itself, the data pulls the other way. Where it dominates is capital. US listed companies make up roughly half of all global equity value, and the US market itself passed 75 trillion dollars in 2026. The deepest, most valuable public markets on earth. Then the drag. • Safety. 128th of 163 on the 2025 Global Peace Index, homicide rates around six times the Western European average. • Affordability. Low for a developed economy on the cost measure I track. • Tax. The one that catches HNWIs. The US is one of only two countries on earth, alongside Eritrea, that taxes its citizens on worldwide income no matter where they live. Move to Lisbon or Dubai and you still file with the IRS every year. Leaving is not free either. Renounce with 2 million dollars or more in net worth and Section 877A treats your worldwide assets as sold the day before you go, taxing the gain above about 910,000 dollars. So the US is unmatched for building a fortune and unusually expensive as a citizenship to hold once that fortune exists. For a US person, at what net worth does the passport flip from an asset to a liability you would actually plan an exit around, 2 million, 10, or 50? Want to see where your own profile fits across the full set, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #usexpat
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LinkedInJuly 7, 2026
Belgium ranks 65th worldwide on the Lucky Nomads World Index, and the split inside that number is the real story. It scores 8.9 on city comfort, 8.8 on banking and open society, 8.7 on healthcare and admin ease. Institutions, infrastructure and daily life sit near the top of Europe. Then tax freedom lands at 3.0. Top personal rate 50%, around 53.5% with the average communal surcharge, and a new 10% tax on realised financial capital gains from January 2026. The workaround is regime access. The inbound taxpayer regime lets up to 35% of gross salary be paid tax-free as an employer cost allowance. Qualifying IP and software income drops to a 3.75% effective rate. Belgium rewards the profiles who qualify and taxes the ones who do not. Full 22 dimension profile in the carousel. #Belgium #InternationalTax #WealthPlanning #GlobalMobility
LinkedInJuly 2, 2026
Everyone argues about the wealth tax as if it were one tax. It is not. In 1990, 12 OECD countries taxed net wealth. The name survived. What it means splintered into 5 different taxes. France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands all show up on lists of countries with a wealth tax. None of them taxes the same thing. One taxes only real estate. One aims two taxes at what you hold abroad. One taxes a single brokerage account, not the person. One taxes a return you may never have earned. Only a handful still tax your full net worth the way most people imagine. I mapped the 5 machines in the carousel, one archetype per slide, each with the rate and the base that actually apply in 2026. The lesson for anyone weighing a move. The headline rate tells you almost nothing. What decides your bill is which machine you are standing in, and what you happen to own. Which of the 5 surprised you most, the one that taxes almost nothing you hold, or the one that taxes a profit you never made? Want to see where your own profile actually fits, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #wealthtax #residencyplanning
LinkedInJuly 1, 2026
Italy just tripled its HNWI flat tax to 300,000 euros a year. Same regime, three times the entry price of 2017. Article 24-bis lets a new resident pay one fixed annual tax on qualifying foreign-source income, whatever the amount, for up to 15 years. It launched at 100,000 euros in 2017, doubled to 200,000 for residence transfers after 10 August 2024, and reached 300,000 for anyone moving their residence to Italy from 1 January 2026. Family members went from 25,000 to 50,000 each. Two caveats most coverage skips. Italian-source income stays taxed under ordinary rules, and capital gains on qualified foreign shareholdings sold in the first five years fall outside the flat tax. It is not a blanket exemption on everything abroad. The grandfathering is the quiet part, and it hinges on when you moved your residence, not when you filed. Those who transferred before the 2024 increase stay on 100,000, the post-August 2024 cohort stays on 200,000, for the full run under current law. The date you moved fixes your price. Greece runs a similar lump-sum regime on foreign income at 100,000 euros and has not raised it. The mechanisms are close but not identical, Greece attaches a 500,000 euro investment condition and charges 20,000 per family member against Italy at 50,000. So the comparable structure now costs three times more in Rome than in Athens, before you weigh lifestyle, Schengen access or estate treatment. For a globally mobile HNWI, the flat tax is a bet on predictability. The open question is how much that predictability is worth once the fixed price triples in under two years. At what fixed annual cost does a flat tax stop being a deal and start being just another high tax? Want to see where your own profile actually fits, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #residencyplanning #italy
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LinkedInJune 30, 2026
Germany ranks 40th of 233 on the index I maintain, and the number hides a split personality. City Comfort 9.5, Admin Ease 9.1, Banking 8.9, Healthcare 8.6. On the things that make a base actually work, few countries score higher. Then Tax Freedom 2.5, worldwide taxation, a top personal rate near 47.5 percent and no non-dom regime. The corporate side is moving. The combined burden of around 30 percent falls toward 25 percent by 2032 as the federal rate steps from 15 to 10 percent. The mechanisms that exist, the partnership corporate option at 15.825 percent, the 25 to 35 percent R and D credit, reward retained business profit, not personal income. So Germany is a base you choose for institutional quality, not for keeping more of your salary. Swipe through for the snapshot, the full tax system, 4 special regimes and 4 residence routes. Where would you draw the line, a base that works at 47.5 percent, or a lighter rate somewhere that works less well? Want to see where you actually rank, the free 6 minute diagnostic is in the first comment. Built with GeoCompass, the jurisdiction scoring engine by Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #residencyplanning #globalmobility
LinkedInJune 24, 2026
Denmark's top marginal tax rate on labour income hit 60.5% in 2026. For a qualifying researcher or high earner, it can be 32.84%. The reform taking effect in 2026 added a new top-top tax of 5 percent on personal income above roughly DKK 2.82 million of gross salary, about 377,000 euros or 430,000 dollars, before the 8 percent labour-market contribution. Stacked on the existing brackets and that contribution, it lifts the estimated top marginal rate on labour income from about 55.9 percent to 60.5, on the average municipal rate and excluding church tax. It only bites at the very top. The Danish Ministry of Taxation tentatively estimates around 10,000 people, about 0.2 percent of taxpayers, will pay it in 2026. For an internationally mobile professional, the headline is a distraction. The number that actually moves is the special scheme for qualifying researchers and highly paid employees recruited to Denmark. Covered employment income is taxed at a gross 32.84 percent, the 8 percent contribution plus 27 percent on the rest, for up to seven years. Other income stays on the ordinary rules. The minimum monthly salary for the high-earner track fell from DKK 78,000 (about 10,400 euros or 11,900 dollars) in 2025 to DKK 65,400 (about 8,750 euros or 10,000 dollars) in 2026, about a 16 percent cut that broadens the eligible salary range. One more moving part. The government formed in June 2026 has pledged in its programme to abolish both the top-top tax and the middle tax. Nothing is enacted yet, so 60.5 percent stays the law for now, but it may not last. If you were weighing a Nordic base, would a 60.5 percent headline stop you, or would the 32.84 percent scheme change the maths entirely? Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #denmark
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LinkedInJune 23, 2026
The Netherlands scores 7.16 on the Lucky Nomads World Index, ranking 33rd out of 232 jurisdictions. The number hides a split most relocation advice gets wrong. For the individual, it reads harsh. A top 2026 Box 1 rate of 49.5%, the foreign-investor residence route closed on 17 April 2024, the partial non-resident status for box 2 and box 3 abolished from 2025 but grandfathered through the end of 2026 for pre-2024 users, and the expat allowance moving to 27% from 2027 for scheme periods beginning in 2024 or later. For mobile high earners outside the expat regime, several European peers can be more competitive depending on income and asset mix. For the corporate layer, it is a different country. A well-established holding and treaty platform, a 9% effective Innovation Box rate on qualifying profits, and a participation exemption on qualifying dividends and disposal gains. The split is the point. For cross-border structures, genuine activity, treaty entitlement and anti-abuse compliance are decisive. With them, the Netherlands delivers. Without them, it can be an expensive place to be taxed. Swipe through the full profile, scored across 18 dimensions. GeoCompass by Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #holdingstructures
LinkedInJune 18, 2026
Canada is known for a 53 percent exit tax. In Ontario the effective top charge is half that, 26.76. The headline is almost never the bill. In several developed economies, leaving tax residence can trigger a tax on gains you have not even cashed in. Across six major regimes, the rate everyone repeats is rarely the one that drives the bill. Four of the six overstate. An inclusion rate, a holding discount, a partial taxation rule or an exclusion quietly cuts the taxable base, sometimes in half. One understates. France looks light at 12.8 percent, but that is only the income tax part, and 18.6 percent social levies take the standard charge to 31.4 percent. And one, Norway, is the control case where the quoted 37.84 percent is broadly the real rate on taxable gains above the NOK 3 million floor. The United Kingdom sits outside the six entirely, with no general exit tax on latent gains. The pattern is simple. The percentage on the table tells you almost nothing. What decides the bill is the base it sits on, and the thresholds, deferrals and treaties around it. I broke all six down, headline against the effective top rate in the standard case, in the carousel. Which one surprised you most, the four that are softer than they look, or the one that is harsher? GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind @null. #internationaltax #globalmobility #exittax
LinkedInJune 15, 2026
Mauritius taxes capital gains at zero. No wealth tax, no inheritance tax, and it ranks among the most peaceful countries on earth. Almost no European wealth plan ever mentions it. The reputation says small African island. The fiscal reality says something closer to a wealth hub. - 0% capital gains tax. Gains on shares and most capital assets sit outside income tax under the Income Tax Act 1995. Property transfers carry separate duties, and trading-type transactions can be taxed as ordinary income. - No net wealth tax. No inheritance, estate or gift tax. - For resident individuals, foreign income is generally taxed only when it is received in, remitted to, or dealt with in Mauritius. Held offshore, it stays outside the local net. - A top personal income tax rate of 20%, on a tax year running July to June. - Mauritius ranks 18th on the 2026 Global Peace Index, the most peaceful country in Africa. The United Kingdom, by contrast, just fell to 39th. On the jurisdiction index I maintain, Mauritius scores 7.20 out of 10, the same band as the UK and Spain. That mix of zero CGT, a remittance basis and no wealth or succession tax sits closer to the UK non-dom regime Britain scrapped in 2025 than to anything left in Western Europe. The catch the brochures skip. The Finance Act 2025 added a temporary 15% Fair Share Contribution on leviable income above MUR 12 million (roughly USD 255,000 or EUR 220,000) running through the tax year ending June 2028. On income above that line, the marginal rate climbs to 35%. If most of your wealth sits in unrealised gains, does a 0% capital gains base outweigh a surcharge that only bites on income above 255k? Where does the maths flip for you? Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #wealthplanning #mauritius
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XJune 10, 2026
Your tax bill on worldwide income in Antigua and Barbuda: 20,000 USD a year. Flat. 30 days on the ground. The Permanent Residency Programme is one of the simplest tax residency products on the market. Keep a home on the island, spend 30 days a year there, pay the flat 20,000 USD, and you receive a residency certificate plus a Tax Identification Number. On worldwide income, that flat payment is the whole bill. Antigua abolished personal income tax in 2016 and levies no capital gains, wealth or inheritance tax. Local taxes still apply if you consume, own or operate there: 17% ABST on goods and services, property tax, stamp duty on transfers, and an unincorporated business tax of 0, 8 or 25% on local business income. Here is what most websites selling this programme will not tell you. The 2021 amendment to the Immigration and Passport Act raised the minimum annual income from 100,000 to 500,000 USD. Five years later, the majority of agency pages still advertise the old threshold. We read the gazetted text. The other catch is in the OECD. The Permanent Residence Certificate sits on the OECD list of high risk residency schemes for CRS purposes, so banks apply enhanced due diligence to holders. And a 20,000 USD certificate does nothing against your home country residency tests. If your centre of vital interests never moved, neither did your tax residency. For a genuinely mobile profile with clean substance and a 500,000 USD income, this is one of the cheapest full tax residencies in the world. For everyone else, it is an expensive piece of paper. Would a 30 day a year residency survive a centre of vital interests challenge from your current tax authority? Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #residencyplanning #antiguaandbarbuda
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LinkedInJune 8, 2026
Singapore's GDP per capita is nearly 10 times Georgia's. On the jurisdiction index I maintain, the two sit 0.0005 points apart. Same tier. Wildly different countries. Here is what pulls a small post-Soviet republic up to a Singapore-grade score. - 1% personal tax on business turnover up to 500,000 GEL, roughly 185,000 USD, for registered sole entrepreneurs. The standard rate is 20%. - A territorial system. Resident individuals are not taxed on foreign-source income. No wealth tax. No inheritance tax. - 365 days visa-free for citizens of more than 90 countries, including the US, UK, EU, Canada and Australia. No advance visa, only proof of health and accident insurance for the stay, required since January 2026. - Tax residency reachable by high-net-worth applicants without the usual 183-day presence rule. The catch the agencies skip: a work permit regime landed on 1 March 2026, though April amendments carve out purely remote work billed to clients outside Georgia. And 183 days on the ground makes you a tax resident. Visa-free is not tax-free. And the index prices the real cost. Georgia scores 5.4 / 10 on geopolitical stability against 8.8 / 10 for Singapore. Around 20% of its internationally recognised territory has been under Russian occupation since 2008. So the money cost of getting in stays low. The standing cost is geopolitical, and it never shows up on a tax table. If you were choosing a second base purely on after-tax yield, how many points of geopolitical risk would you trade for a 1% turnover regime? Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #internationaltax #globalmobility #residencyplanning