Hi all, shout out to Freebit for the EU perspective, his thread was v useful. So glad to have found a good forum where people talk about this stuff, getting tired of asking anything on reddit and 80% of the responses being "pay your taxes".
I'm a long term btc/crypto investor, bought in early 2013 and haven't touched a satoshi, now at 8 figures. Living like I'm broke in the UK because I've never rationalised this money is real to stay sane during the uber bull/bear cyles. Now want to move somewhere to partially cash out without paying 20% then travel around for the 5 years before I can return to the UK for more than <90 days a year. I also started staking/lending crypto and make about 100k a year as income so looking for somewhere to reside that's low if not 0 income tax on that.
The contenders so far:
1. Channel islands. These all have 0 CGT, are very politically stable and I can move there no questions asked as a UK citizen. I would book a flight there, rent somewhere, register with the tax dept, then sell all my crypto on an OTC desk (probably kraken, then rebuy maybe 50%), then send a GBP transfer to my existing UK bank account and most probaly go through source of funds (could potentially open and go through a bank there instead as this keeps more of a clean line of separation between the UK/HMRC and the new place where I have realised the gain).
a) Jersey
Pros:
- Can stay theoretically only 1 day a year while still being tax resident as long as I have an "abode" (rent somewhere). In practice I'd probably spend 3 months there (and more than the <90 days I'd spend in the UK which I can do without becoming tax resident again)
Cons:
- Movers to the island who don't get "entitled" status which to get you need an "essential" job for can only stay in crappy shared "lodges" which would suck
- weather not great, kind of a boring place
b)Gibraltar
Pros:
- Nice weather
- can set up as self employed very easily and pay 23% ish on staking/lending income
Cons:
- Need to spend 183 days there to get tax residency
- It's tiny
2. Georgia. 0 tax on crypto gains as it is seen as non georgian income. I would fly there, register with the tax dept, sell on exchange and xfer to my existing UK bank account. Would probably do the HNWI program so i don't have to be there 183 days each year to remain tax resident. I would then probably stomach the 20% tax on staking/lending income that tax year rather than trying to be smart with the 1% small business tax thing (as per
Cryptocurrency in Georgia & Tbilisi | 0% Tax | Easy Exchange | Buy Real Estate | ExpatHub.GE (Tbilisi / Batumi, Georgia))
3. Dubai with company. I've seen this discussed a bunch and it seems a good option for people who can't provide source of funds which I can so I don't think it's the best option.
4. Portugal. 0 CGT on crypto but the golden visa seems long and stressful to get, apparently there's a huge backlog of people waiting to get approved - not gonna touch this with a barge pole. If I want EU residency at some point I'll go to Bulgaria I think.
Couple things I'm mulling over:
- Does anyone know much about split year treatment for leaving mid-UK tax year to somewhere else? The easiest thing to do is to wait until the end of the UK tax year (April) then "leave", let HMRC know I'm leaving, and "arrive" at the place I'm selling in. But crypto is volatile and much can happen in these months so if i wanted to do this stuff sooner I'd have to leave "mid-UK tax year" and it becomes messier to make HMRC accept you are not tax resident for the latter portion of the tax year.
- Thoughts on remaining with my UK bank vs setting one up in wherever I choose to go to? Georgian banks seem dodgy compared to UK so this would only be an option in the channel islands.
- should I tell the crypto exchanges I'm with I'm moving to a new jurisdiction or leave it as the UK?
