I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this, but the only thing I came up with is the possibility of distorting local rental prices. But presumably if enough countries offered such a visa, applicants would be spread over those countries, causing less distortion.
This could happen if the host country supplies plentiful public services funded mainly by income taxes rather than consumption taxes. Or simply if you lost your job and turned to begging or crime, and the host country finds it expensive or politically difficult to deport you.
These are pretty niche cases and most countries are happy to take wealthy, self-sufficient immigrants. But there are valid reasons why you might not want too open an immigration policy.
Why would you not pay income taxes in barbados though?
Perhaps there should be something like this: An International Creative or Digital Visa that countries can sign onto.
This proposal is a good start for what it should be: http://artsvisa.org/ireland/
Have something to contribute. Be able to support yourself. Don't compete for an in country job and any country should welcome your residence/citizenship.
There's no reason something like this doesn't exist in a global digital age.
Wouldn't this be tax fraud to claim an address in US as your paycheck address and not actually live there?
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/pm-plenkovic-croatia-w...
I'm trying to see any disadvantages for countries that do this
E.g Spain might think "we'll get Americans to move here and do their U.S jobs" but what they actually get is, for example, Moroccans getting U.S jobs from Spain and more less chances of Spanish citizens getting U.S jobs.
Not... the most inspiring, but maybe the internet is good? That would be my biggest worry. It's an absolute must have.
I think life on a Caribbean island would be enough reason to ditch our usual high bandwidth vices like gaming and streaming for just a year.
If it’s broadband of any kind, it can be used for streaming. Even 3-5Mbps is workable for HD, with a bit of upfront buffering.
These look good on average, though if you click through to "Fastest Cities", some corners of the country look very slow.
Oh well, not the best of times to be travelling anyway, and doesn't seem like it's getting better for... a while anyway.
I do not necessarily personally recommend it but I know Safetywing is a popular choice for nomads and officially covers Covid. Otherwise you can look at either your countries of citizenship or residency that have international health insurance. IMO it makes sense to get an insurance from the country you would like to get repatriate to if you get in a very bad condition.
I would imagine that sours the value proposition quite a bit, at least for U.S. citizens.
[0] https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/foreign-account-...
FACTA is burdensome if you have foreign bank accounts. You can avoid having foreign bank accounts to sidestep those rules.
That depends on the country. Some (I imagine most?) countries have deals with each other when it comes to taxation, to avoid double taxation.
So if you're earning a salary in, say, Israel, then you only have to pay US taxes on money that hasn't already been income-taxed in Israel. Therefore, whether you're paying more taxes than locals depends on whether the tax rate in the country is higher or lower than in the US. If it's higher, then you end up not having to pay anything extra.
That said, these things get tricky and there are lots of individual wrinkles. E.g. freelancers typically have to pay taxes either way here, afaik. Then again, those taxes aren't doing nothing - they're paying for you to have a US social safety net of some sort.
A couple of countries have worldwide / citizen taxation (i.e. the US). A US citizen that lives in Singapore will pay tax to both Singapore and the US. They pay tax to Singapore and can claim a tax credit on their US tax return. They can also claim the foreign earned income exclusion deduction.
I would've thought that the hassle came when the American switched to a non-American employer or ran a business outside the US. I would've thought that if the American is getting all his or her income from an American employer the hassle could be mostly avoided (even if he or she is residing outside the US) especially if the American is merely continuing to work a job he or she had while living in the US.
But maybe I am wrong.
Currently, it's very possible to travel on a 3-6 month basis between countries under tourist visas and to work remotely in a somewhat illegal fashion. These nomad visas are an attempt to capture that market offering legitimacy for a fee.
Unfortunately, Barbados hasn't really hit the sweet spot here. It's possible to exist in Barbados for 6 months purely as a tourist and do the usual remote working gig where you just don't walk up to a tax official and start telling them you're working in an illegal manner. Or, you can now apply for this visa, stay the whole year, be legit, but you have to meet some conditions and hand over 2k USD which is pretty steep.
This removes the possibility of you being a burden on their public health system, which is common amongst not just these new 'nomad' visas but also the working holiday visas that have been around for decades.
However this may have tax consequences in your home country. I'm from the UK and if you spend more than 180(?) days abroad in a tax year you become non-resident which has some implications. You'll need to consult an accountant I guess.
I got my visa and I'm hopefully heading out towards the end of September, it should be fun.
This isn’t quite accurate. There are other tests that come into play, including whether you own a house in the UK, and how long you spent outside the UK for the rest of the year (and the preceding years).
Basically if you live in the UK, then spend 180 days (or even a whole year) outside the UK but then immediately return HMRC is not going to consider you a non-resident for that period.
It is worth paying for tax advice before you leave because the rules are complicated and there are other factors aside from just not being in the country.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-re...
Also remember that tax year counts, not calendar!
It doesn’t mention being only for US citizens, it appears in principle citizens of any country are eligible. (In practice, I imagine some countries’ citizens will find it easier to get approved than others, due to differences in national security risk, likelihood of submitting refugee claims, etc.)
Don't forget Hungary, Myanmar, and Eritrea, too!
For an Australia, you pay income tax if you're a resident for taxation purposes. For an Australian Citizen to answer that they're not a resident for taxation purposes is complicated and depends in part on the type of Visa you have.
Last I looked, for me, as an Australian citizen, to not have to pay tax would mean getting a permanent Visa in another country and being resident in that country. They specifically excluded time-limited visas, even if you can get them renewed automatically.
It means travelling around the world, even for years at a time, I still need to account for my income and lodge tax returns in Australia. The one upside is getting credit for income taxes paid in another country.
I believe a similar situation also applies to Canadian citizens, as a few former Canadian colleagues in Australia had to go through a whole process of getting their Australian taxation recognised in Canada.
If you move to Barbados and just keep doing the same job you were doing in the US, then it almost certainly isn't foreign earned income.
The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion only applies to the first $107,600 you earn in 2020. You still have to pay taxes on the rest.
It brings to mind a future organizational hypothetical of a "modularized citizenship" for work vs residence - unlikely as that may be given the tendency of nations to insist that their rules are the only rules and thus international laws are more like guidelines in practice.
The only thing stopping this is backward legal systems and the bureaucracy around these processes.
I imagine a lot of countries will take advantage of this and reduce bureaucracy in the recovery efforts post covid. Island nations and rapidly developing countries will probably pioneer this and young people from developed countries will probably try to escape their own high cost of living to these nations.
It's an independent contractor's dream, maybe. It's unclear what tax issues exist for W2 people.
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?cou...
https://www.inc.com/magazine/19980101/852.html
I'm shadowbanned, so if anyone who sees it cares to post the link, please do.
I do see the cases of multiple citizenships (and therefore multiple passports) increasing in the future, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to become a common occurrence within our lifespans.