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Where do I pay tax if I don't live 183 days in any country in a calendar year?

But how about the tax rule, if you are not living in the same country more then 183 days you don't need to pay tax there. That would mean, I would need to be tax resident for instant in Switzerland or some Banana republic to get the lowest possible tax rate and pay the tax rate there?


An individual is deemed to be a tax-resident under Swiss domestic tax law, if:

  • the individual has the intention to permanently establish his/her usual abode in Switzerland, which is usually where the individual has his/her centre of vital interest, and is registered with the municipal authorities, or if
  • the individual stays in Switzerland with the intention to exercise gainful activities for a consecutive period (ignoring short absences) of at least 30 days, or if
  • the individual stays in Switzerland with no intention to exercise gainful activities for a consecutive period (ignoring short absences) of at least 90 days.

Forget 183 days.
 
M-13 art.4 par. 2.c,d
And plenty of other sources.
This provision is dictated by common sense, which is the first (necessary but not sufficient) tool you need for understanding taxation.
You refer to the model convention for bilateral tax treaties. It has a absolutely nothing to do with what I mentioned in post #17.
As a matter of fact, it only applies between two contracting states.
That said, your findings can be dismissed for the purpose of this discussion.
 
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You refer to the model convention for bilateral tax treaties. It has a absolutely nothing to do with what I mentioned in post #17.
As a matter of fact, it only applies between two contracting states.
That said, your findings can be dismissed for the purpose of this discussion.
Hey you cracked international taxation! All what it takes to avoid taxes is claiming to be resident nowhere thu&¤# Exactly the type of smartass attitude that courts love smi(&%
 
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Well.... as far as I know you really are always obligated to pay tax to a country you are a citizen of if you don't spend in any country more than 183 days and you aren't tax resident anywhere else. That's it for most of EU Countries. If you do spend somewhere more than 183 days, then you'll have to prove to a country that you are a citizen of, that you truly been somewhere 183 days (Utility bills, phone bills) or your new tax residence. And your new tax residence will be where you handle things. If you travel frequently, you either choose the one with low income tax or one with territorial tax. On top of that, you can probably get LLC somewhere and handle taxes from there. Generally that's how it's done afaik. Unless you of course only use cash or banks in countries without CRS, then I guess you live under the radar, you declare nothing, you own nothing. :')
 
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Hello, but the income is not local as the income is online and also it is fully paid in crypto, I have no bank in spain only some emi, also i will be living in spain only for a little over 4 months in this calendar year, if I will start sending money to my bank in thailand and later go bck to that country after completing the job already later this year, wouldnt that save me from taxas in spain and portugal?
I was referring to your income, not your company income. It is local in a sense that all earned income is local to where the person is physically located while doing the work. Method of payment, country where the bank account is located, etc. is irrelevant. Just to reiterate, if you spend time in Portugal while working, the salary you receive for your work during that time is technically local to Portugal. Same thing with Spain. Again, whether this is enforceable in practice is a very different story.

another PT dreamer.
If you don't have a residence or domicile, you are taxed based on nationality. Even stateless persons that don't have a residence or domicile are liable to taxation, in their country of birth.
Then you have to check the rules of that specific country to understand whether the tax liability translates into any actual tax.
It is not such an uncommon situation, for example for those who live on a boat at sea.
By the way, there is at least one country that I know of where this is indeed the case: Ukraine - Individual - Residence

However, as you will find from the PwC summaries this is actually not a very typical case. As most countries do not define tax residency the way Ukraine does.
 
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Brief summary for the nomads: if you make little money, most probably nobody will give you a s..t.
If you make enough money to be worth an investigation, be assured that you will be harassed by your country of citizenship and by whatever countries you have visited. So it’s better that you have a formal (and as much real as possible) residence somewhere appropriate.
 
This is really a country-by-country proposition as each country has its own tax laws. So I would suggest you consider your obligations in each of the countries you mentioned.

Firstly, in your country of citizenship (Czech), what does the law say about your obligation to file a tax return/report earnings etc? Are you obliged to do so each year, or is it dependent upon your presence or domicile in the jurisdiction for that particular tax year.

Does the obligation to file fall away if you made no taxable income in that year, or if you owe no tax for that year?

Once you are clear on that reporting obligation, then you can move to figuring out whether you have an obligation to pay Czech tax for that year, noting that these two are separate questions.

On the taxes owing question, countries use varying methods to assess income tax. It could be based on presence in the jurisdiction, money earned in the jurisdiction, or something else (like citizenship alone).

So you would need to do this process for each of the countries where you spent time or earned money during the year. Then, if more than one can get their hooks into you, look at tax treaties to see if they contain double tax agreements.
 
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Brief summary for the nomads: if you make little money, most probably nobody will give you a s..t.
If you make enough money to be worth an investigation, be assured that you will be harassed by your country of citizenship and by whatever countries you have visited. So it’s better that you have a formal (and as much real as possible) residence somewhere appropriate.
Basically this: it depends a lot on your level of income and your country of citizenship.

If you are from a country with low tax enforcement and you barely visit it you will probably get away with it as long as you live under the radar.

When you have a certain level of income it is simply NOT worth it to do it, it's better to get a tax residency somewhere where you don't have to spend much time (say Cyprus etc) then travel the rest of the year.

I see a lot of people saying they're doing the perpetual traveler thing and I think they're simply getting away with it but it's simply not legal for many countries..

Just read the tax code from your country, in my case, I'm spanish and in the tax code it says that if you don't have any tax residency you will pay based on citizenship.
 
Brief summary for the nomads: if you make little money, most probably nobody will give you a s..t.
If you make enough money to be worth an investigation, be assured that you will be harassed by your country of citizenship and by whatever countries you have visited. So it’s better that you have a formal (and as much real as possible) residence somewhere appropriate.
High tax western European countries typically have quite clear rules for if you are a tax resident or not. If you claim to not be a tax resident, and make a lot of money, they might put more effort into checking that you really are not a tax resident - i.e. "harassment". But if you clearly are not a tax resident (and not like Boris Becker stay a lot in Germany while claiming to live in Monaco) you should be fine.

Also you have to tell them where you live, you can't you put nowhere. Most European countries (with exceptions like Italy) don't check that you actually live in the country you told them though, that's not really their problem, they just check whether you meet their criteria for tax residency in their country or not.

Each country just applies their own rules, there is no general international catch all check. The OECD model convention mentioned earlier just cover what happens when more than one country claim the same person as tax resident, assuming the countries in question have adopted the OECD convention into law.
 

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