Let me share my experiences. I’ve been a PT for the past 10 years at least. I am European but have lived and worked all the world. From a European perspective it is quite easy to be a PT. First I renounced my official residence in my home country linked to my passport. They have a rule that if you leave the country for more than 6 months you HAVE to renounce your residence. You can still keep a postal address for example at your parents home. I did this after I graduated from university and left the country. So that was step 1 - disconnect fiscal ties with your home country. In my case if I didn’t renounce my residency in my home country I would have to continue to pay for monthly healthcare which is mandatory and very expensive 150/200 EUR a month plus if I were be working abroad I would have to see if my home country has a double agreement with the country I at the time was working otherwise I end up paying double taxes. Now within Europe I have lived/worked in the UK & Spain and lived only in France and Portugal most recently. Abroad I have lived in Asian countries a lot. Tax wise I declare only if I have earned an income and often I leave the country to stay below the 183 days threshold. There is nothing illegal about that. It does makes declaring taxes more complicated if you do not know what you are doing and often times the tax offices have no clue themselves how to deal with PT/digital nomads or freelance expats like me. Besides you really think they would go after someone who doesn’t earn a lot. They want the big millionairs the super rich. Also I believe I am free to go where I want to be. If at that time I will be working in a country then I declare taxes where I am treated the best which means receiving discount or other benefits like in Hong Kong. If you have high savings I would recommend choosing a residency that is stable. I became a Non Habitual Resident in Portugal and bought and sold me main property. The scheme comes with a reasonable tax benefit for 10 years. However, Portugal is extremely bureaucratic and often they do not know what they are doing. It takes uber long to get things done. But within Europe they are quite in unique and many wealthy investors have moved their income to Portugal.
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