I bought a farm on Idle of Mann couple years ago, it is close to Ireland and UK has better medical than USA, but taxes are decent there once you qualify which takes four years there. But I always thought of it of somewhere to go is USA if Clinton got in or other political problems happened in the states. http://www.nomoretax.eu/living/relocation-to-isle-of-man/
I don't read this blog, but as mentioned before there are risks in the UAE , more so outside Dubai, which are at odds with a western lifestyle and justify beeing reluctant moving there - I actually added yesterday some links who support that much more than the unconvincing story about the british couple - even in clubs loaded with hookers and other hot sexily dressed women brushing their butts agains the males around, the security will come over to stop ones from kissing, it's obviously a no no in public, especially in a family place. If the alternative is Bulgaria and its charming tzigane minority, I'll take Dubai... but there are plenty more choices, which for a reason or another you find unsuitable.
BTW I share your worries about putting money in a complicated trust or going through a second nationality just for banking purposes, i've started putting most of my money in personal accounts and still get headaches from compliance about the offshore corporate accounts still open, which is stressful, because sometimes compliance requests end up in frozen accounts - never happened to me so far but it still stressful, and when we speak and write different languages it doesn't help.
Personally I find Estonia a far better option than Bulgaria because they have a 0% tax rate on retained profit within the entity so you can accumulate some tax free money there and the flat 20% tax on your withdrawals seems to be fair too. Yes, nowadays banks tend to ask a lot of documents in general. Even 5 years ago it was completely different. I remember about two years ago I got a totally unexpected email followed by a call from Citi to explain certain transactions. A few weeks later I got the same request from Santander then from Standard Chartered. Why? I still don't know. All the transactions was from reputable brokers but they found it suspicious that I quickly forwarded the entire amount to another company so I had to explain that I had to quickly transfer the incoming funds because I wanted to exchange the money from one currency to another and your bank is expensive as hell. Needless to say I still haven't got a response. Btw presently I think Malta is a good option if you're willing to travel around. If not then Estonia might be a good option. You can buy really nice and spacious apartments for $500k and the 0% tax still rocks. Dubai... well, it's a touchy topic for me because it would be the best, I repeat myself, the best country on the world if religion wouldn't rule the place. Sunshine on 365 days a year, no tax, no compliance, no registry, no paperwork, no audit requirement, no filing requirement, 1st world city, looks amazing and highly developed, world class infrastructure and so on. The only problem is their religion. I can see that they're doing their best to be as tolerant as possible, I really see but it's just not enough. For instance they could say that alcohol is legal in hotels and in a couple of bars and clubs. Why couldn't they say that non local citizens whose religion is not Islam, can have sex with whomever they want in their private apartment as long as they're not throwing huge parties and locals can't see it?! This law, this one law would turn Dubai into the best place on the whole world in a second.
Ah that's too bad.. even if trading via a corporate entity? Ack, is that the same case for dividends and interest too? E.g. dividends from UK shares or interest from HK bonds - both taxed at 0% in their source countries for non-residents - thus both would be taxed at ordinary rates in Portugal under the NHR scheme?
If you're using an LTD then it will be subject to the Portugal corporate income tax because you as the owner and director will make the entity a tax resident company in Portugal. If you're using a flow-through entity, an LLC for instance then it won't change anything because you, the individual owner must pay taxes on your personal tax return. Yes, both the dividends and the bonds you mentioned would be taxed at ordinary rates in Portugal. Portugal NHR is better suited for British pensioners. It's funny that you're asking me about this because I spent my week analyzing this tax regime and asking around both Portuguese and British advisors about my options. In short, it wouldn't work.
Ah damn.. Well there goes my half-day long dream of surfing in Portugal while paying 0% on investment/trading income and 20% on business.. More than willing, already do.. To what extent can you reside in Malta and what are the tax benefits?
Trading income is subject to personal income tax when you're on Malta. So you can use Malta only if you never trade when you're there. They have a typical non domiciled tax scheme which exempts foreign sourced income. If you're trading there, it's taxable. If you take a flight to Italy on Sunday and trade in Rome from Mon to Fri and go back to Malta on Saturday then it was tax-free but you may have to pay income tax up to 35% at the time you remit/spend your foreign income to Malta. Another option is to pay a flat 15,000 EUR tax to Malta (there is a special program), spend only 1 day there and obtain a tax resident but non domiciled status while you rent/own a property in Cyprus. Cyprus is the only country in the EU where you can really spend 180 days a year and you won't become a tax resident even if you have a car and an apartment. Since incomes sourced from Cyprus (ie. trading income) would normally be subject to income tax in Cyprus, you must be able to cover yourself if they were to ask you how do you spend so much time there without working there or without having any locally sourced income. So basically you'd have your Maltese tax residency, you'd pay a flat 15k EUR to Malta and you'd spend up to 6 months in Cyprus and you would travel on the remaining 6 months. Now the only gray area is if Cyprus asks about the nature and source of your income. There are solutions to this as well but those conversations are not suitable for a public forum conversation.
@Trader KGB What I don't see though is how could this worth it for you? Let's do the math here: - 15k EUR tax to Malta - 9.6k EUR (800 EUR / mo) apartment costs in Malta incl. utilities - 9.6K EUR apartment costs in Cyprus incl. utilities + if you wanna play safe: - 9.6k EUR apartment costs incl. utilities in a third country = ~ 43,800 EUR / year just to be tax-free and to play it safe!? The third country thing is the safety layer, I won't explain it here but it's necessary if Cyprus asks you. Let's say you move to Estonia. The apartment cost is the same but only once, so it's 9.6K EUR. You save 34,200 EUR but you'd pay 20% tax on your withdrawals from your company and 0% tax on the retained profits. This means that you can withdraw 171,000 EUR on which the tax bill will be exactly 34,200. Consequently if you're not planning to spend (not earn, spend!) more than 171k EUR per year then Estonia is the cheapest tax-free option.
I totally get you about Dubai. I have a big issue with Islam and any other religion that tries to assert itself. I can't sugar coat it. I don't wish anyone any harm or malice that's just the way it is.