Best Tax free Countries to Incorporate Your Remote-Based Business (Digital Nomad)

[FixieHartmann]

Well, correct me if I'm wrong...

Those 3 options are overall valid, I'm no expert and I don't dare to doubt, but maybe right choice depends on standards..there's nomad and nomad...
Majority of nomads aren't cryptostars or company owners, but just employees or average freelancers, so to simplify I could assume "that majority" could fall in a 40\50k € yearly\rate more or less.

Given that, those three options are still suitable?
For example, I've heard many people saying that Dubai could be a good fit only for professionals with at least >100k yearly income.

Cyprus scares me because it's EU...and between the 3 is the less convenient (10% taxes...the other 2 none...so far...)

"US LLC and personal tax residency in a tax heaven"...so you should get residency ...let's say... in Saint Kitts and open an US LLC?
Seems quite hard and expensive...Is still doable for a "standard nomad"?

I apologize in advance for any mistake, I'm not an expert...just a curious passenger..

No worries, we are all here to learn.

Like I said, these are not the only options but I think they are the most straightforward ones.

In general I’d say it doesn’t really make sense to move somewhere for tax reasons if you make less than $60k because the savings are negligible and the costs for setting up proper structures quickly add up, but given that I don’t know your personal situation YMMV.

 

[JohnLocke]

In general I’d say it doesn’t really make sense to move somewhere for tax reasons if you make less than $60k because the savings are negligible and the costs for setting up proper structures quickly add up, but given that I don’t know your personal situation YMMV.

I totally agree, with that income you need to make the math. For some it may be a possibility because they plan for the future, but if you do not do more than e.g. these 60K per year, not even in the future, then it will be far too expensive with such a setup and you will pay more in costs than you will pay in taxes where you live now.

 

[mrthit]

If you have clients that require a “proper” company with normal invoices that don’t come from a typical offshore jurisdictions like Seychelles then my impression is that in 2023 you have the following options:
- US LLC and personal tax residency in a zero tax haven
- Cyprus LTD with personal tax residency in Cyprus (not tax free but less than 10% total tax plus good banking, EU company etc.)
- Dubai free zone company with personal residency in UAE (also apparently not completely tax free anymore but very little total tax)

Please feel free to correct me but in my opinion all other options are either
- quite shady and rely on secrecy
- cause problems with clients in EU / US for instance because invoices from your Panama LTD are not recognized
- hard to impossible to get decent banking for
- easy to attack by tax authorities in your home country

So if I were to start my DN journey today I’d either get a residency in a zero tax haven and work with a US LLC or get Cyprus residency and LTD and spend at least 2 months there and not more that 6 months in another country.

Depending on your citizenship and current tax residency you can also try the “Perpetual Traveller” route, but I think this only works in the long-term if you
- are constantly traveling (e.g. max 30 days in a country at a time)
- are comfortable lying on all your visa applications concerning doing “work”
- do not have any investments in high tax / aggressive tax countries
- do not have any substance anywhere

As I don’t think that most people would want to travel all the time they should get a tax residence and proper setup somewhere.

If I understand well the Cyprus tax residence rules, he would still need to rent an apartment for the full year despite he living 2 months or more.
This would sum up to his taxes.
Or am I getting something wrong?

 

[FixieHartmann]

If I understand well the Cyprus tax residence rules, he would still need to rent an apartment for the full year despite he living 2 months or more.
This would sum up to his taxes.
Or am I getting something wrong?

My understanding is that if you want to make use of the 60 day rule you’d indeed need to rent an apartment for the entire year.

However if you spend more than 183 days in Cyprus I don’t think you need an apartment for the entire year as you would be tax resident either way.

I am not a tax advisor - this should be confirmed with an expert.

 

[koohl]

If I understand well the Cyprus tax residence rules, he would still need to rent an apartment for the full year despite he living 2 months or more.

totally correct