Except for company tax on profit, can you legally get lower tax by working abroad (foreign clients) or having business in another country, without changing global tax residency from your base?
Could be deducting more expenses, pensions, lower social security, allowances, and health plans covering more.
If so, are any countries (not “offshore”) better on these points?
Assume a normal EU country (And counting social security as tax)
(This could be eg if you live in Denmark and get a partially remote contract for 5 months in Germany)
The first issue is that you need to separate COMPANY tax from personal tax
The second issue is that each varies according to country of filing and in addition possibly country of execution
So for example UK corporation tax is payable if the company is registered in the UK but also if it is managed in the UK - you as a director may be non resident but if other directors are resident or the meetings or work are conducted in the UK you are liable
Dividends and pay are dependent on where the shareholder or employee is tax resident. Dividends are quite simple and tax free from the UK but other countries such as the US and Australasia have witholding tax at source
If you pay yourself a salary it will be complicated depending on where you do the work, where you are tax resident but importantly many countries simply will tax you at source and leave you to sort it out so as to avoid issues with the taxman
So bottom line you need to get professional advice from the various jurisdictions involved but overarching legislation aims to stop you avoiding tax unless you really are outside that country’s jurisdiction
If I live in Denmark and go to Germany for 3 months and pay lower taxes, I won’t pay less in the end because I am a tax resident for global income in Denmark (So the difference would have to be paid in Denmark)
But social security is also tax, and is perhaps not counted? Or there are deductions before the official gross salary.
Perhaps you can deduct more expenses, or your company can pay you a pension etc.
(I get a lot of offers for partially remote contracts, so I want to have an idea of what is possible)
I have tax residency in Ireland, but have non-domicile status. I hold most my assets in Ireland through companies located in eastern European countries. This greatly reduces my tax bill in Ireland. Nominally, this means that I only pay tax on the money I spend on groceries or the pub.