I'm creating a data sheet comparing countries tax friendliness to nomads, what's important?

Tax and legal
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As I read :open_book: about tax planning and the options available if you have international income / earnings, I find the information scattered and difficult :upside_down_face: to get a clear overview. A lot of consultants are providing vague text and then try to up sell. For this reason I have started putting together a :bookmark: data sheet with all the countries around the world and their different tax rates and systems with an overall :star: ranking for friendliness to nomads. At first I was just making it for myself but then I thought it could be useful for others.

Could it be useful to you? Which details do you want to see to be able to compare countries :face_with_monocle:? Or decide where to :airplane: travel or how to arrange your finances?

:pray:

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@DaxBernat, sounds very interesting and useful, but it will demand a lot of work, as I’m sure you know. I’ve been working with international taxation for many years so please let me know if I can be of assistance!

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This sounds amazing :heart_eyes: Please share (with me at least) when you finish :raised_hands:t4:

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Yes I’d love a copy!

I’d be interested in knowing the most common ways to consolidate income reporting, for people who have income coming in from different angles from different clients/customers – i.e. paypal, transferwise, and bank deposit, for example.

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Great idea! Would you please let me know when you have something put together? :heart:

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Some information which definitely needs to be in there; overview of tax rate for different forms of set ups (freelance, LLC, etc…), tax benefits if any, ease of online virtual banking, dividend/salary/expense tax, ease of investment… Would be a fantastic resource but, definitely a lot of work to keep up to date. Good luck!

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@guifig, @Dream, @mina I’ll be sure to share here when I think I’ve got something that might be useful.
@TimWenger1 I will need to read up and learn a bit more about consolidating income reporting and see if there is data that can be included in my sheet. Thanks! :+1:
@Philippe_Borremans Thanks for this list, some great data points to include here :handshake: . So far I’ve been sticking to basics such as:

  • corporate tax
  • income tax (low and high marginal rates where applicable)
  • sales tax
  • when income tax liability kicks in
  • How country taxes local and foreign income

I will look to include some of the details you mentioned if I can find clear data.

If anyone else is coming to the thread, don’t be :blush:, which details are useful when you’re evaluating doing business or working and living temporarily in a country?

:beers: :mask: Stay healthy everyone!

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My thoughts as a preferred countries consultant (NOT taxes) - i.e. for the TRUE PT (perpetual traveller) client follow.

I would also focus on the national laws in each case, regarding at what point does the specific country deem residency for tax purposes. As a rule of thumb that is usually 180, 181, 182, or 183 days. AND whether successive years of less than their statutory limit, automatically deems one taxable.

Also we MUST be cognacient of the types of business activities (while in a “pass thru” country) that would cause you to be taxable (withOUT exceeding the limit of stay). Therefore, that would automatically cause you to be deemed taxable.

A true nomad, typically rotates between 2 to 3 countries at minimum during a fiscal year - as such, the level of taxation may NOT be as important, as compared to when is residency and/or domicile deemed to have occurred, and what is that country’s definition of residency or domicile for tax purposes.

These TWO terms are NOT synonymously interpreted, and ARE OFTEN interpreted differently by many countries, from our normal “western” interpretation.

Being a true PT is NO longer relegated to only the wealthy - many with only modest incomes, those who have remote businesses, or pensions CAN & DO participate as PTs.

HINT: as a former manager with Deloitte (MAS division), I can tell you that as a general rule, at least one of the BIG Four audit firms (Arthur, Deloitte, Ernst Young, PWc) has compiled the tax rules for a given country - these publications are FREE of charge and available on the net, and are usually referred to as Country Guides.

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Hi DaxBernat!

I hope the spreadsheet is going well! I was thinking a bit more about this, and I am interested in how countries compare towards taxes of :money_with_wings: capital :chart: gains from the :chart_with_downwards_trend: stock market :chart_with_upwards_trend:

Let me know if you have any thoughts on this

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I’d like to see is a breakdown of:

  • headline/nominal personal tax rate
  • effective personal tax rate
  • capital gains tax rate (if any)
  • inheritance tax rate
  • headline/nominal corporate tax rate
  • effective corporate tax rate

Ideally this can all be built into a calculator somehow. Lots of expat sites have cost of living calculators, but then it’s really difficult to compare a country like Singapore with a country like New Zealand as the tax systems are very different.

I mean, tax is part of the cost of living somewhere, so if I earn $100,000, even if the food is cheap, $60k that goes to tax is going to sting.

I know some countries have effective tax rate data but I imagine it’s not very standardised, so it’s probably an impossible task to do this globally. But if you’re up for the challenge, I imagine a lot of people would find it helpful!

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Yes I agree. This would be great :). How the country of residence taxes is one essential learning curve. Also, to make it even better, ask is the country a complex or simple tax system? What is its ease of doing business ranking? The other side of the coin is how other countries will tax payments being sent to your country. For example, is your country of residence a black listed tax haven or low tax country that can be subject to special taxation by foreign countries? That extra info fills out the full picture in really helpful ways.

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  1. Estate duty or tax on death, exemption amounts, types of assets that will be included in estate duty
  2. Taxation of family trust structures that aim to preserve wealth accumulated
  3. Capital gains tax
  4. Attractive tax rules for real estate investments (e.g. allows depreciation expenses to reduce effective taxes)
  5. Special tax incentives that give tax write offs to encourage investment in the country (usually in redevelopment areas)
  6. Tax of crypto assets
  7. Retirement tax advantages e.g Portugal NHR and Malaysia retirement programs

Good luck!

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I’d suggest that for each value in the spreadsheet, you link out to the source so that other can confirm the accuracy of it and learn more about it.