https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliver...as-greece-passes-new-tax-law/?sh=e6815034dcfc "On Wednesday (2 December) Greece's parliament passed a new law allowing digital nomads to half their income tax. This makes Greece the latest European country to try and woo the new work-from-home workforce, and puts southern Europe against the North in a new talent race. "If you can work from anywhere, why not work from Greece?" asks a promotional document seen by Greece's parliament this week. Amid dreamy images of whitewashed farmhouses and deep-blue seascapes, it sets out a new law that allows newly settled foreigners to pay half their income tax over the next seven years. From January 2021, the scheme will be open to both employed and self-employed workers as long as they have not previously been a tax resident of Greece, or replace an existing job in the country." ----------------------------- "In March, Italy's 'Lavoratori impatriati' law was changed to allow new tax residents earn 70% of their salary tax free for their first five years in the country. A non-domicile scheme was introduced in 2017 and tax amnesties since then have encouraged some wealth to return to the country. Croatia and Estonia have also rushed digital nomad visas through their parliaments this year and a host of other such schemes are already on offer in the Caribbean."
Not competitive when Cyprus is nearby offering nearly 0% taxation for traders. But it's a good trend, government vying for easy tax revenue.
And the USVI. Problem for most people is you actually have to physically live there and both are "love it or hate it" kind of places.
The above mentioned Italian tax relief of 70% https://www.hlb.global/italy-introduces-new-tax-incentives-to-attract-foreign-talent/ sounded quite attractive to me, until I read that self-employed are apparently liable to ~34% mandatory social security contributions (max ~34k). Do I read that correctly, 34%!? https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/italy/individual/other-taxes
Get a VAT number and it drops to 25.7%, and it's only on your first 103,000 Euro where as you pay medicare on your entire income no matter how high in the U.S. Obviously the Italian tax relief offer is a moot point for Americans as we pay U.S. tax no matter what, but assuming it wasn't the math isn't all that different for the Italian system vs the U.S. Let's assume you make 103,000 Euro which is about $125,000. In Italy you pay in about 25,000 Euro which gets you medical, unemployment, disability, sick leave, and pension. In the U.S. you would have paid about $19,000 in FICA taxes. Depending on history and state, you'd need to pay around $500 to the state UI fund to get unemployment and around $500 to get disability insurance. Your medical insurance cost will vary, for me without my family it would be about $10,000 per year for a low deductible, low catastrophic cap plan which is still inferior to the Italian costs. So I'm paying a total of $30,000 to get the same thing the Italian contribution is getting me, assuming the SS retirement and Italian retirement payouts are roughly equivalent upon retirement which they are pretty close. Which comes out to just under 25,000 Euro. In reality, the total cost to you at the end of the day is very similar across most first world countries. Similar enough that it really makes sense to see money as a means to an end of making yourself happy rather than as an end unto itself. If you want to live in Italy, live in Italy. Don't make yourself miserable living in Kansas just because the tax rates are low there so you'll have more money to.....?