The Best Tax-Friendly Countries Near You

Summary

The video by Nomad Capitalist explores tax-friendly countries that are closer to home, without needing to relocate to distant places like Dubai. It discusses various locations in North America, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia, detailing their tax benefits and lifestyle options. The video emphasizes the importance of personalized planning for individuals based on their specific financial situations, with a focus on avoiding the pitfalls of generic solutions. Nomad Capitalist offers tailored strategies for individuals looking for tax reduction opportunities.

Highlights

• Discover hidden tax-friendly countries near you, perfect for reducing taxes without moving far. 🌍
• Mexico offers complex tax options; ideal for those seeking transient living setups. 🇲🇽
• Costa Rica remains tax-friendly but comes with higher living costs compared to Nicaragua. 🇨🇷
• Explore the Caribbean for tax-free living with residence permits in islands like Bahamas & Cayman. 🏝️
• Uruguay offers an almost tax-free experience for over a decade with residence permits. 🇺🇾
• Europe offers alternatives too - Malta, Gibraltar, and more offer tax advantages. 🇪🇺
• Asia's favorites: Malaysia and Philippines with territorial tax systems are budget-friendly. 🌏
• Tailored tax strategies can make all the difference; customize according to personal needs. 🧩

Key Takeaways

• Stay close and save on taxes! You don't need to go far to find tax-friendly havens. 🌍
• Consider time zones; it’s not just about taxes, but also managing your business smoothly. ⏰
• Mexico, while popular, comes with complexities - be mindful of its tax system. 🇲🇽
• Latin America is budget-friendly for new business owners, offering numerous residency options. 🌎
• Caribbean islands like the Bahamas and Cayman Islands offer no individual tax - paradise found! 🏝️
• Europe has hidden gems like Gibraltar and Malta, offering attractive tax programs. 🇪🇺
• Singapore is pricey but offers benefits; Malaysia and Philippines are more economical tax havens in Asia. 🌏
• Uruaguay and Chile in South America emerge as stable, tax-friendly options amidst others. 🇺🇾
• Individual financial scenarios demand bespoke solutions; one size does not fit all. 🧩

Overview

Looking to dodge hefty taxes without feeling like you’ve moved to the moon? Nomad Capitalist has the inside scoop on tax-friendly gems closer than you think. 🛤️ North America, Central and South America, and even the Caribbean and Europe offer delightful escapes from the taxman's grasp. Whether you're a retiree or an entrepreneur, you’ll find options that align with your lifestyle and financial standing.

Take Mexico, for example. While it's a hot pick among North Americans, its tax labyrinth requires careful navigation unless you’re there temporarily. Meanwhile, Central America's Costa Rica remains a pricier but friendly tax haven, and the Caribbean? It’s a no-brainer for tax secrecy with islands like the Bahamas and Cayman attracting those seeking sunny, tax-free living. 🏖️

Asia doesn’t lag behind! Malaysia and the Philippines offer fabulous territorial tax systems, perfect for the budget-conscious who still wish to explore exotic living. And hey, Europe’s not just about espresso and croissants – Gibraltar and Malta provide intriguing tax advantages, especially for crypto aficionados. Each country has its charm and legal loopholes but remember, these decisions are as personal as your financial fingerprint! 🌟

The Best Tax-Friendly Countries Near You Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 you don't have to move to Dubai or a farflung island to legally reduce or even eliminate your taxes and yes even for Americans today we're going to talk about some of the Hidden tax friendly gems that are very close to where you [Music] live as our clients have become more successful over the years we actually hear more requests for these closer to home tax Havens because people are worried about time zones they may have an on the ground business that they're able to leave and reduce their personal tax burden but they still have to call
• 00:30 - 01:00 the manager and so one of the downsides of a place in Asia for example if you're coming from North America is you might be 12 or 13 or 14 hours ahead and that's something that folks don't always want I can tell you when I spend time in qual andore and I want to check on the stock market in the US or in Mexico you're sipping prco on your balcony and it's dark when the Market opens and that's some not something that a lot of people want to deal with So today we're going to run through for North Americans for Europeans and for Australians and folks from New Zealand where you can go it's
• 01:00 - 01:30 not that far from home where you can go back and visit where the time zones work and you may be surprised which of these countries are tax friendly so let's start with folks from North America and one country that a lot of folks have been moving to is Mexico and what I've told you is Mexico has a more complicated tax system it's not a tax system that you necessarily want to get into if your goal at some point is to leave Mexico if your goal is to become a citizen even if you want to buy a property there are some ways for folks who are more transient to live in Mexico and not be in the tax system if you're
• 01:30 - 02:00 in the tax system you're going to pay and so if you want to go to Mexico the answer is how do I not get in that tax system it's something that we've talked to people about it doesn't work for everybody but obviously Mexico is a big country with lots of different options lots of places to live for whatever your taste may be that's one place you can look one place a lot of people look because it's English speaking is bise this is certainly a more sleepy place I think it is often overhyped by folks in the industry because people have certain business interest there and they want to
• 02:00 - 02:30 kind of shoehorn you into B we don't do that at Nomad capitalist we have dozens of options we have our own backend system called manura we've got a whole strategy and research team where we're building so many options that we don't have to force people into one place but there are people who like the idea of living in bise it is more targeted at people who are retirees certainly people who are older and by the way you can get residence permits in all these countries that we're going to talk about today if not citizenship so these are places that you can actually move not just Theory
• 02:30 - 03:00 elsewhere in Central America Nicaragua more of a niche play not some of the best news recently San Juan Del s in the south is a nice place people who like to Surf enjoy spending time in Nicaragua this may not be your full-time home but if you're willing to spend a decent chunk of your time there you could be a tax resident and they have a favorable tax system Central America is not a place where you want to be in the capital city so if you're me and you like cities you might end up as I did with a gun in your face in managa this
• 03:00 - 03:30 is a place where you want to be a little bit further a field in one of the colonial towns one of the beach towns Nicaragua we've had clients with Millions who wanted to move there just to be left alone from the tax perspective and the freedom perspective that's a bit more Niche Costa Rica next door obviously more open they've waffled over the years are we going to have the tax friendly are we going to stay tax friendly are we going to not stay tax friendly it can still be tax friendly in Costa Rica it's more expensive that's going to come with all the benefits of more development it's a pretty well-run
• 03:30 - 04:00 country eco-friendly country obviously more expensive than a place like Nicaragua there's parts of Southern Nicaragua they say could be as nice as Costa Rica at some point in the future that it's you know a generation behind but Costa Rica is the more developed one and of course Panama is the one big city in Central America outside of whatever you might consider in Mexico that is livable but also you've got places outside of Panama City tax friendly numerous different residence permits you can get what's great about Latin America
• 04:00 - 04:30 is you don't have to have a lot of money to get a residence permit so if you're just starting your business and you're from the US you're from Canada you want to find somewhere to move and reduce your taxes from the start reduce your cost of living so you have more money to put back into the business have better weather in the winter be more productive Latin America is a region that's pretty open you don't have to you know invest a million dollars in a lot of these countries you can just move in by saying hey here's some income I have or here's some minimal amount of savings I can put in a bank account uh for example example
• 04:30 - 05:00 in the Caribbean you have the Bahamas my perspective is the best approach is buying real estate they want big players there so that's not going to be one of the more affordable places that is going to be a more expensive place to get into and live in but obviously very tax friendly place you've got the Cayman Islands the same situation there you can start a company and that's an interesting thing in some ways it could function as a sort of Dubai of the Caribbean where you can bring team members in from around the world if that's the kind of environment you want to have you have you know that special
• 05:00 - 05:30 economic zone that free zone as you know the UAE now has the 9% tax on companies the cam islands is going to cost you a lot to live in hey cost of real estate in Dubai is more than doubled uh in the last couple years so the cay Islands could be an interesting option you've got on the much cheaper side Dominican Republic has a number of tax advantages that is becoming more and more interesting for a number of nomad capitalists you have some of the countries that have citizenship by investment Antiga and Barbuda is taxfree
• 05:30 - 06:00 for individuals if you have a business there's ways you can work with that St kit anas is entirely tax-free you can get a Caribbean citizenship by investment in any of the five countries that offer it and then you can move around the Eastern Caribbean region so you don't have to be a citizen of St kits to go and live in St kits you could find a more affordable Caribbean passport and then go and set up shop in St kits in South America a lot of people looking for tax friendly plus get me away from the chaos when it all hits the fan you're UI sleepy country tax
• 06:00 - 06:30 friendly for essentially 11 years you can essentially reduce your tax to basically zero if you're moving in they're very friendly you get a residence permit citizenship does require you to spend a significant chunk of time there but one of the best most neutral passports in the world not so far away in Chile a shorter term tax exemption now that government's gone taking a step in the wrong direction but Chile the most developed country in South America I was parts of sant feels
• 06:30 - 07:00 like you're walking around Vancouver that could be a good thing could be a bad thing but it feels like Vancouver of yester year and so you've got some options down there we'll see what's going to happen in Argentina with the president down there but right now not tax friendly let's see there part- time Al Salvador in Central America is one where the president's always talking about you know special exceptions and taxes and residence and citizenship and I never really see that much of that come to fruition so I don't mention Argentina and El Salvador as much but as you can see lots of different options and what I think it's great about a
• 07:00 - 07:30 place like Uruguay or even maybe more so Brazil which is not going to be tax friendly the time zone there positions you very well between the US and uh Europe and so even for us hiring people around the world we like that GMT minus three time zone because they can pivot in both directions and if you have a global team that could be worth considering if you live in Europe where can you go generally you're looking at the smaller places in Europe I'll I'll come back with an exception or two in a minute jalter for example good for crypto basically lumps some tax more
• 07:30 - 08:00 affordable than some of the other you know British related options so jalter working out you know their relationship with the shenen area in Europe we've had people who've moved from places like Ireland uh to jalter for just the better weather it is not a big place but people do go into Spain they do travel around Europe uh jersey in the Channel Islands they have a lumpsum deal as well that's more expensive than jalter people say oh the weather who wants UK weather well
• 08:00 - 08:30 the weather there is different than the mainland UK there it is as they say a part of France in some ways the Channel Islands Malta in uh the Mediterranean has a non-dom tax program as does Cyprus further east in the Mediterranean so the money that you bring in is taxable but those are some of the more friendly non-dom programs compared to Ireland which has a program if you are a British citizen you have the right to live in Ireland
• 08:30 - 09:00 uh you do not have to get a residence permit now Malta will happily you know give you a residence permit Jersey Gibralter uh you can you know easily get those residence permits and obviously you know Jersey and jalter British citizens are welcome uh as well Switzerland everybody knows Switzerland more expensive not the place where you're building your business a bit more laid-back and maybe for retirement anybody can move to Switzerland if you're a European passport holder and so the trick we've told you in the past we've had clients who've said I'm going to get Malta citizenship through their
• 09:00 - 09:30 basically investment program it's going to take me 18 months I'm going to spend close to a million dollars to get that passport but then I'm going to go to Switzerland and because I have the right as an EU citizen even though Switzerland's not part of the EU I'm going to pay half the tax rate because I don't need to get a residence permit in exchange and so being European and going to Switzerland has more tax advantages than being American or Canadian or Australian and going to Switzerland but if you're going to move to somewhere like Geneva or lucern and you're looking
• 09:30 - 10:00 at paying something you know3 four $500,000 in taxes every year and you could cut that in half the ROI that million dollar passport which then allows you to have all the other benefits of European citizenship potentially you get rid of your first citizenship at some point um you know that's beneficial other European countries even thought about Greece has numerous tax incentives uh from lump suum for Real Estate Investors to retirees Italy recently doubled their lumpsum program it was €100,000 a year for a single now it's €2 200,000 a year but a lot of people want to live in
• 10:00 - 10:30 Italy the question you have to ask yourself is if I'm a seven or eight fig entrepreneur where am I going to live in a place like Italy where I can be efficient and stuff can get done and I'm not going to drive myself crazy now part of the benefits of dramatically reducing your taxes you can go and hire a household staff you can go out and hire someone who lives in you can go out and hire a personal business manager you can go out and hire a great assistant I can tell you it's hard to find very internationally minded versions of those people than you might think but you can find those people I have done it over the years but you're probably going to need some of that to help you manage in
• 10:30 - 11:00 some of these More Southern locations because stuff is not going to be as efficient as you might find it in Germany for example for all their crazy high taxes uh so Italy has that Bulgaria also has just low taxes out of the box Serbia has a very flexible tax system you could potentially exclude most of on all of your income from the system Montenegro has made some changes but they're still semi flexible so you've got a lot of options in Europe in fact almost as many tax friendly countries as non-tax friendly countries in Europe the
• 11:00 - 11:30 question is do you want to be in an island do you want to be in the Mediterranean do you want to be in the Atlantic do you want to be in Eastern Europe uh what is it you're looking for and what's that quality of life so lots of options for Europe and then you will stay in that European Time Zone you've also got places in Africa that are on that time zone so maius is relatively tax friendly for example uh in Africa uh and that could work if you're from Australia if you're from New Zealand if you're from somewhere else in Asia you've got Malaysia is still tax friendly the Philippines is very tax
• 11:30 - 12:00 friendly with our territorial system Singapore is very expensive place to get into these days even if you're starting a Singaporean company that's going to cost you a lot more in the long run by moving your company to Singapore when you could live in a Malaysia for example and have your company in Laban or in Hong Kong or the British Virgin Islands or any number of tax friendly countries we host our annual event Nomad capitalist live it's coming up again in Malaysia it's a 4-day event we have the best information the best networking with this year was about 800 people people from all around the world and
• 12:00 - 12:30 some of the best entertainment it's a real show we put it on in koal lumur cuz I think it's a place that you want to see go to nomad.com make sure you get on the waiting list for that again because we did sell out in 14 days this is the event you want to come to and you learn about all this kind of stuff in detail you learn from other people where are they living you talk to people you get strategies that's the kind of the benefit of coming to an event but Malaysia Philippines I think Singapore for a lot of folks it's not going to work but hey we have clients that they can afford to to make some very serious
• 12:30 - 13:00 Investments Thailand is less tax friendly I we've talked about this a little over a year ago there are still ways to make Thailand tax friendly if you're at the seven or eight figure income level you've got decent tax friendly countries uh in Asia as well so whether you're coming from the US or Canada whether you're coming from Europe whether you're coming from Australia or New Zealand or anywhere else the bottom line is there's a lot of tax friendly countries there including many that are in your backyard obviously you can add in the South Pacific places like van watu if you're living in Australia that
• 13:00 - 13:30 could work they've got residents they've got citizenship by investment but here's the thing what citizenship do you have how does it impact where you travel how does it impact your relationships how does it impact uh your reputation where do you live what kind of income do you have the UAE for example was never the best place as are some of these places on this list was never the best place if you have dividend income or if you have royalty income from a source in let's say the United States so the best tax-friendly places for you are going to
• 13:30 - 14:00 be different based on do you run a business are you an investor are you in crypto do you have capital gains do you have royalty income do you have YouTube advertising income that could change where you go and that's what we help people with at Nomad capist if you go to nomad.com apply we will provide you with a bespoke holistic solution now you can see there's dozens of folks out there who they've hopped on the YouTube bandwagon they're they're doing everything they copy us word for word I also have holistic plans no one else out
• 14:00 - 14:30 there has the research and development team that we do all around the world that researches every option I was sitting next to um our chief knowledge office her on a flight not too long ago and she got an email alert pop up uh urgent tax rate changed uh corporate tax rate changed in stini I don't know too many companies out there that literally have developed their own internal system to have you know to troll the internet and uh deliver alerts to the level of corporate tax rate changes in eswatini so when you come to Know M capist you
• 14:30 - 15:00 will not get shoehorned into a particular program that one company wants to sell you a lot of people will tell you they're holistic and somehow 90% of the clients all end up going to Dubai or all end up going to you know the Bahamas or all end up going to wherever all of our clients plans are bespoke they're holistic and they're unique because you're unique your wants your needs your desires your family situation your fears uh and your financials are all different going a nomad C
• 15:00 - 15:30 l.com we work with seven eight and nine and 10 figure entrepreneurs and investors from all around the world not just the US not just Australia not just Europe but we have clients from Brazil Vietnam all over the place who have benefited from this approach we'd love to help you it's nomad.com apply tap into dozens of options built by a staff that I've trained myself over years to deliver more options than anyone else