@maria4028 Did you find a workarount?
What I hear from many experts is that the days of staying out of trouble with no tax residency are numbered or maybe over.
Go online, find a territorial-tax or low-tax country in which you can easily obtain tax residency (e.g. Paraguay, etc.) with minimal presence, and do what is needed to obtain it. Especially if you’re coming from or spending time in high-tax EU countries, it’ll be worth the cost.
The tax net only gets tighter every year, and people without any tax residency are being hunted.
BTW, if you are a US-citizen nomad, you are always a US tax resident due to citizenship-based taxation, so no need to worry about this unless/until you plan to renounce.
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I wouldn’t agree that renunciation is US citizens’ only option for freedom from obligations & disclosures. The nomads I meet would be able to live comfortably around Asia with annual incomes less than the USA IRS’s standard deduction (in 2025) of US $15K per year… so US citizens in this category wouldn’t even be obligated to file US Income tax returns.
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You won’t find any kind of financial institution worth placing any funds with that won’t request an address. Either use the address of family or friends, or set up residence somewhere.
If you don’t have any other TIN, just use your existing German one. Just be sure that you meet every single requirement to no longer be considered tax resident in Germany. Even having a key to the house of a friend or family member is sufficient to pull you back in.
Though, there are definitely plenty of benefits of being tax resident somewhere which may not be immediately obvious. Say you want to apply for a mortgage at some point, depending on jurisdiction the bank may ask for several years of tax returns. Whether you actually end up paying taxes is less important, so if you’re location-independent you have your pick of tax-friendly jurisdictions.
Renunciation may not be the only option, but the costs of the “live on very little” option are pretty high too, in terms of lifestyle choices. At least for some of us. 
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Even without income, if you have assets outside the US totaling more than US$10,000 on any day of the year, you are required to disclose those assets to the US government or face penalties including passport revocation and prison time.
FBAR penalties in 2025: Complete guide to foreign account reporting | US Expat Tax Service
You also have to file a PFIC form for any foreign investment fund (including all the Portugal Golden Visa funds), or pay penalties of US$10k to US$50k per incidence. Plus, the tax treatment of PFICs is punitively disadvantageous, so as a US citizen (unless you’re doing it to get a passport), investing in foreign funds is generally a bad idea, no matter how potentially lucrative.
The Top 10 Form 8621 Problems – Late Form 8621
If you have a solution to free US citizens abroad from the FBAR / FATCA and PFIC nightmare short of renunciation, let’s hear it!
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You have already heard it, as I posted above. It’s just not acceptable to you because you think that “US Citizens” must have a lot of fiat currency in the bank somewhere and/or maintain traditional savings and investment funds.
It also doesn’t sound like tangible gold or property ownership would be interesting to you either… neither of which are required to include on the FBAR form or any other foreign asset disclosures.
Ah, now I see what you were getting at, and it rhymes with “shelf custardly”. 
Which can work if you’re highly disciplined and security-conscious, though most people probably aren’t. Especially in the parts of emerging SE Asia where you can live on $15k/year, all it takes is one person who knows about your stash to blab to the wrong person and you’ve got a machete on your neck and an empty vault.
If the physical gold is in the registered custody of a foreign institution, it still counts under FBAR.
To avoid that, would need to be stored in a regular safe deposit box or some other place. Which carries some additional risk.
Owning property will have cash flow needs for maintenance and bills. So even if you’re careful, it can still be challenging not to cross the $10k cumulative threshold, especially in countries that use local bank transfers for nearly all commerce.
But perhaps combining all of these with some US financial accounts in the right proportions could work. Something to think about for post-Portugal Golden Visa life…
It isn’t going to be for most people, because it’s complicated. As Hippo says, physical gold involves risk. Of course everything has risks, including bank accounts, but perceptions matter, and fungibility is an issue too - there’s a reason we went from marks on sticks and clay tablets to bank accounts. Only in Bond movies are diamonds useful currency, and your transaction costs can be pretty damn high.
Even property ownership can be complicated. You have to take the time to understand the property ownership laws of the jurisdiction you’re in. There are jurisdictions where ‘ownership’ is a pretty vague concept. And some where foreigners aren’t allowed to own except through corporate structures - which, oops, runs afoul of the Controlled Foreign Corporation tax laws and reporting requirements, and from personal experience I can say those are even less fun. "
In other words, it’s doable, but it’s a mine field. I respect anyone who wants to walk that mine field, but it’s not going to be to the taste of a lot of people. For a lot of people, it’s just easier to pay the taxes and complain.
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