Is individuals tax jurisdiction determined by de facto residence?

[DavidS]

Is it possible to get a second citizenship and / or tax residence in low tax country, but actually not live there?

Or will tax residence always be determined by de facto jurisdiction where the person spends most of their time?

How does it work exactly?

 

[Sols]

You can get a passport from a lot of different places with very little connection to that country. You'll need to acquire real estate and/or deposit money into government funds. No requirement to live there.

Same goes for certain visa/residence programmes.

But without living there (or some other tax haven), you're missing out on the whole point. You're primarily taxed based on residence, so if you keep on living in France or Australia or Canada, it doesn't really matter that you hold a Malta passport or have a house in Barbados. You'd still be subject to tax laws of where you live.

That is unless you want to play with fire and lie to the local tax office, claiming you live somewhere you don't.

 

[DavidS]

You can get a passport from a lot of different places with very little connection to that country. You'll need to acquire real estate and/or deposit money into government funds. No requirement to live there.

Same goes for certain visa/residence programmes.

But without living there (or some other tax haven), you're missing out on the whole point. You're primarily taxed based on residence, so if you keep on living in France or Australia or Canada, it doesn't really matter that you hold a Malta passport or have a house in Barbados. You'd still be subject to tax laws of where you live.

That is unless you want to play with fire and lie to the local tax office, claiming you live somewhere you don't.

Right, but if banks and institutions report CRS to the other country and not the one you live in... will your tax man even get the information?

 

[Sols]

Banks are allowed to report to multiple jurisdictions. Rather safe than sorry, many banks are reporting to multiple countries if there are indications that an account holder has multiple residences.

There are many ways this can be triggered. Frequent IP/device location in another country, phone number or mailing address from that country, incoming wire transfers from other accounts you have where you have a different address, and so on.

Is there a chance you can avoid CRS by having an unused residence in a tax haven and still live in a high-tax aggressive jurisdiction? Yes, there is.

What are the risks of this falling apart? Greater than none, and becoming greater over time.

 

[DavidS]

Banks are allowed to report to multiple jurisdictions. Rather safe than sorry, many banks are reporting to multiple countries if there are indications that an account holder has multiple residences.

There are many ways this can be triggered. Frequent IP/device location in another country, phone number or mailing address from that country, incoming wire transfers from other accounts you have where you have a different address, and so on.

Is there a chance you can avoid CRS by having an unused residence in a tax haven and still live in a high-tax aggressive jurisdiction? Yes, there is.

What are the risks of this falling apart? Greater than none, and becoming greater over time.

Damn, so there is no way to beat this thing?

 

[Sols]

Safely? Only by actually moving to a tax haven and living there.

Everything else is a ticking time bomb.

 

[DavidS]

Safely? Only by actually moving to a tax haven and living there.

Everything else is a ticking time bomb.

Guess so. Getting same info from the Big 4.

Sucks

Ok, guess it's time to find a nice new home base then.

And worst thing is - let's say you do find new residency and register as tax payee there.

Ok, well, CRS docs will still be sent to your old jurisdiction and they will find out you kept something from them.