#residencyplanning

13 posts on this theme.

LinkedInJuly 17, 2026

Costa Rica just ended a five-year residency incentive. The routes stay open, the temporary perks do not. The durable advantage was never in that package. Law 9996, the post-COVID incentive layered on top of the existing Investor, Rentista and Pensionado routes, reached the end of its five-year window on 14 July 2026. The law does not vanish, and anyone already granted the incentives keeps them for ten years. What closes is the right of new applicants to elect the package. Among the perks, a one-time duty-free import of household goods and up to two vehicles, an income-tax exemption for the amounts declared as income to qualify, and a reduction in the property transfer tax. Those perks are relocation sweeteners. The structural advantage sits elsewhere, and it did not move. The country taxes individuals on a territorial basis, so genuinely foreign-source pensions, dividends, rents and capital gains generally remain outside the Costa Rican tax base. No net wealth tax, no inheritance tax. On the index I maintain, that lands Costa Rica 25th of 233, tax freedom 8.61 out of 10, geopolitical stability 8.55, among the highest in Latin America. None of it was built on Law 9996, and none of it carries a scheduled sunset. One honest caveat. The 150,000 dollar investor floor is the one now in limbo. The statutory basis for the 150,000 reduction was time-limited, the prior general threshold was 200,000, but the current regulation still states 150,000 and no official post-expiry clarification has been identified. Treat the operative floor as unsettled, not as a done increase. So the temporary perks closed to every new applicant. The residency routes and the territorial base did not. When a five-year incentive lapses but the territorial tax base is untouched, does the expiry change where Costa Rica sits for you, or was the incentive never the point? As of this week. 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. #globalmobility #residencyplanning #costarica

Costa RicaUnited States

LinkedInJuly 10, 2026

Mauritius left its 375,000 USD threshold for residency by property unchanged. On 1 July it doubled the tax to register the deed, from 5 to 10 percent. The Finance Act 2025 is in force. From 1 July 2026, non-citizens buying residential property under the EDB property schemes, or through the separate ground plus two route, pay 10 percent registration duty instead of 5. What sets the rate is the registration date of the transfer, not the date the sale was agreed. A reservation signed earlier does not lock in the old 5 percent. Run it on the residence threshold. Buy at the 375,000 USD level that unlocks a residence permit, and the duty moves from 18,750 to 37,500 USD. That is an extra 18,750 USD in transaction tax, on top of the purchase price. And the reason people come is untouched. No capital gains tax, no wealth tax, no inheritance tax, foreign income taxed on a remittance basis. On the index I maintain Mauritius still ranks 34th of 233, with some of the highest political stability scores in Africa. So the destination did not get worse. The toll at the gate did. The number that gets quoted, 375,000 USD, is the one that did not move. The cost that rose is the one it leaves out. On a 375,000 USD entry, does an extra 18,750 USD of duty shift where Mauritius sits against Dubai or Portugal for you, or is it noise at that level? Tracked through GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #globalmobility #residencyplanning #mauritius

MauritiusPortugal

LinkedInJuly 6, 2026

Andorra scores 8.5 out of 10 on tax freedom and 2.0 on air connectivity. The second number is blunt. The country has no airport. Relocation advice sells the tax headline. It rarely prices how hard a base is to physically reach, month after month, for years. Andorra is where that gap runs close to its widest. On the jurisdiction index I maintain, it ranks 13th of 233. Two dimensions pull hard against each other. Tax freedom, 8.5. A personal income tax capped at 10 percent, the first 24,000 euros exempt. Corporate tax at 10 percent. No wealth tax, no inheritance tax, no gift tax. A 4.5 percent VAT, the lowest standard rate in Europe. Air connectivity, 2.0. The lowest score among the 50 highest-ranked jurisdictions I track. Andorra has no airport of its own. The nearest, across the Spanish border in La Seu d'Urgell, is about a 30 minute drive but runs only a handful of commercial flights to Spanish cities such as Madrid and Palma. The real international hubs, Barcelona and Toulouse, sit around 200 kilometres away. That is roughly a 2.5 to 3.5 hour road transfer, each way, every time you fly. For a single tax residence you rarely leave, that friction is trivial. For one node in a multi-base life, where you fly in and out constantly, it is a standing cost that never shows up on a tax table. For a base you would fly in and out of every month, how many hours of ground transfer would cancel a 10 percent tax rate for you? Air connectivity is one of 23 dimensions in GeoCompass, the intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. I built a free 6 minute diagnostic that scores your own profile across the full set, link in the first comment. #globalmobility #residencyplanning #andorra

Andorra

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

View the full PDF9 pages

BelgiumFranceItalyNetherlandsNorwaySpainSwitzerland

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

GreeceItaly

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

View the full PDF9 pages

Germany

LinkedInJune 26, 2026

Spain closed its golden visa to new investors in 2025. Others are tightening too. Vietnam is moving the other way, building a residence track that runs up to 10 years inside its financial centre. From 1 July 2026, Vietnam's UD1 and UD2 visa categories enter its immigration law under Law 118/2025. For people tied to its International Financial Centre in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, Decree 327/2025 sets a UD1 visa or temporary residence card valid up to 10 years. This is enacted law, not a proposal. Here is what most coverage skips. It is not a passive golden visa and not a digital nomad permit. It is a sponsored, IFC-anchored track for key investors, experts and senior managers. Permanent residence is possible but discretionary, not a right. It needs at least three years of continuous work at an IFC organisation, an official nomination, and a decision issued within two months, extendable by one. The tax angle is specific too. Outside the centre, Vietnam taxes residents on worldwide income, with a top personal rate of 35 percent and a standard 20 percent corporate rate. Inside it, qualifying IFC managers, experts and skilled professionals are exempt from personal income tax on salaries through the end of 2030. On the jurisdiction index I maintain, Vietnam scores 6.35 out of 10 and ranks joint 128th of 232. Its weakest dimensions are climate resilience at 3.7 and open society at 4.4. A 10-year card and a tax holiday do not move those. If a jurisdiction opens a 10-year IFC track but ranks 128th of 232 on structural quality, what pulls you in, the tax exemption or access to the centre? Tracked through GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #globalmobility #residencyplanning #vietnam

SpainVietnam

LinkedInJune 22, 2026

Estonia currently ranks 2nd of 233 on the index I maintain, ahead of the UAE, Switzerland and Monaco. Its tax rates are ordinary. That is not what puts it there. The HNWI conversation runs on zero rates and lump sums. Dubai, Monaco, the Swiss lump-sum cantons. Estonia almost never enters it. Yet it outranks all three. Its personal tax is ordinary by EU standards: • Flat income tax of 22 percent, raised from 20 in 2025. • Standard VAT of 24 percent since July 2025. • Personal capital gains generally taxed at the standard 22 percent. None of that resembles the zero-tax regimes marketed to HNWIs. What lifts it to 2nd is structural, not fiscal: • Among the most digital governments on earth, with low friction on everyday administration. • A well-capitalised, EU-supervised banking sector. • Strong rule of law and institutions, inside both the EU and NATO. Its defining corporate-tax feature is a deferral, not an exemption. Profits are taxed at 0 percent while reinvested, and at 22 percent on distribution. You postpone the bill, you do not erase it. Even its emblem is misread. e-Residency, more than 140,000 e-residents and over 41,800 companies since 2014, is officially neither a residence permit nor a tax residency. Manage that company from Paris or Berlin and it may become taxable there, through corporate-residence or permanent-establishment rules. So Estonia is not a zero-tax base, and it runs no special regime for the wealthy. It is a base for cutting friction and institutional risk, within the EU. Two very different reasons to relocate, constantly confused for one another. When you rank a second base, what weighs more, a lower headline rate, or minimal administrative friction inside EU-grade institutions? Sourced from GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #globalmobility #estonia #residencyplanning

EstoniaMonacoSwitzerlandUnited Arab Emirates

LinkedInJune 19, 2026

Gibraltar is set to end routine land-border controls with Spain on 15 July. With treaty-driven interest surging, the Government just moved to raise the entry bar for its flagship tax regime from 2 million pounds to 5. The UK-EU Agreement in respect of Gibraltar is expected to enter provisional application on 15 July 2026, according to the Council of the EU. Routine immigration checks at the land border with Spain are set to end and move to the airport and, where needed, the port, while Gibraltar remains outside both the EU and Schengen. Full ratification is still pending. The treaty has made Gibraltar more attractive, and the policy response has been to narrow the door. After more than 3,000 arrivals between 2022 and 2024 into a territory of 37,936 residents at the 2022 census, the Government suspended new long-term EEA and UK residency registrations in October 2025 and tightened its framework. It has published a Bill, not yet in force, to double the qualifying period for permanent residence from 5 to 10 years for new arrivals, those protected under the post-Brexit citizens-rights agreements exempt, and to lengthen the discretionary route to Gibraltarian status from 10 to 20 years. On 18 June 2026, Gibraltar announced that Category 2, its flagship high-net-worth tax status, will require 5 million pounds of net worth for new applicants instead of 2, with existing holders grandfathered. The cap itself did not move. Category 2 still limits tax to the first 118,000 pounds of assessable income, with a maximum charge of 42,380 pounds a year, roughly 48,700 euros or 56,800 dollars. On the index I maintain, Gibraltar ranks 3rd of 233. So the lifestyle gets easier and the entry harder. The tax ceiling stays elite, but the bar to get in is moving on two fronts, a longer residence clock and a higher wealth floor. If you were eyeing Gibraltar as a low-tax base next to Schengen, does a 5 million pound floor change the calculus? Tracked through GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #globalmobility #residencyplanning #gibraltar

GibraltarSpainUnited Kingdom

LinkedInJune 17, 2026

Dominica sells the cheapest Caribbean passport, 200,000 dollars. St Kitts, which invented the category in 1984, costs 25 percent more and is still not the best value per destination it opens. The five Eastern Caribbean programs look interchangeable from outside. Under EU pressure they harmonised their minimum investment threshold at 200,000 dollars in 2024, so the headline prices now sit in a tight band. The real gap appears only when you divide the entry price by what the passport actually opens. Cost per destination reachable without a prior visa, minimum contribution before fees, single applicant, 2026: - Dominica, 200,000 dollars, 145 destinations, about 1,380 each - Antigua and Barbuda, 230,000 dollars, 154 destinations, about 1,490 - Grenada, 235,000 dollars, 147 destinations, about 1,600 - Saint Kitts and Nevis, 250,000 dollars, 155 destinations, about 1,610 - Saint Lucia, 240,000 dollars, 144 destinations, about 1,670 The cheapest program is the most efficient per destination. The oldest and most expensive one sits mid pack. But the ratio hides what matters most, which destinations you are counting. The high-value ones are leaving. The UK removed visa-free access from Dominica in 2023 and Saint Lucia in March 2026, citing risks tied to the citizenship-by-investment programs in both cases, alongside asylum and migration-control concerns in the Saint Lucia decision. On 15 June 2026 Ireland imposed the same requirement on Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia, aligning with the UK and Schengen, so even the 250,000 dollar flagship is now down a European market. A flat cost per destination valued those seats like any other, right up until they disappeared. The largest block is still in play. The European Commission eighth visa suspension report, December 2025, says operating an investor citizenship scheme may, in itself, constitute a ground for suspending Schengen visa-free access. For most buyers, Schengen is the highest-value block in every count above. So the 2026 question is not which passport is cheapest per destination today. It is which program keeps its Schengen and UK access the longest, because the count you buy is not the count you keep. Since 2023, two of these five have lost the UK and two have lost Ireland, with Saint Lucia hit by both. Which loses the next market? Built on GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #globalmobility #citizenshipbyinvestment #residencyplanning

Antigua and BarbudaDominicaGrenadaIrelandSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaUnited Kingdom

LinkedInJune 12, 2026

Portugal just doubled its citizenship wait from 5 to 10 years. The number that moved is the one most globally mobile residents never actually needed. Lei Organica 1/2026 entered into force on 19 May 2026, the day after publication in the Diario da Republica. Naturalisation now requires 10 years of legal residence for most applicants, 7 years for EU and CPLP nationals, counted from legal residence, not from the application date. This is in force, not a proposal. Here is what did not change, and it carries the value. Permanent residency can still be requested after 5 years of temporary residence, subject to the usual conditions. The Golden Visa still asks an average of 7 days per year, 7 in the first year and 14 per subsequent two-year period. The IFICI incentive still offers a flat 20% rate on qualifying Portuguese employment and self-employment income for up to 10 years, for eligible high-skill profiles. On the jurisdiction index I maintain, Portugal scores 7.28 out of 10. The dimensions that anchor that score are residency-quality, not passport-speed. SafetyShield 8.7, Wealth Protection 8.8, Geopolitical Stability 8.8, Healthcare 8.6. None of them moved on 19 May. So the reform bites one profile. The person who treated a year-5 passport as a citizenship-by-investment substitute. For anyone whose objective was an EU residence base with Schengen mobility and a preferential tax regime, almost nothing material changed. If your plan leaned on the 5-year passport timeline rather than the residency itself, what was the passport actually for? Implementing regulations are still pending, expected within 90 days of publication. Tracked through GeoCompass, the jurisdiction intelligence layer behind Lucky Nomads. #portugal #globalmobility #residencyplanning

Portugal

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

Antigua and Barbuda

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

AustraliaCanadaGeorgiaSingaporeUnited KingdomUnited States