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Tax residency for expats: day-count tests, worldwide income and wealth taxes, nomad visas and country rules in Spain, Colombia, Peru and the Philippines.
12 articles tagged Tax Residency
Choosing a relocation country comes down to language and mindset, a limited-time tax holiday for new residents (4-5 years), and how fast you can get a passport (5-10 years).
A guide to Italy's residence permits for self-employed workers, digital nomads, families, and students, with the banking and tax mistakes that cause denials.
No: EU naturalization requires 183 days of residence and tax residency there, which rules out Dubai's zero-tax status. Here are the real alternatives.
FBAR is required once foreign accounts total $10,000; Form 8938 starts at $50,000. Penalties can reach $16,000 a year. Here's what new US tax residents must file.
Invest €30,000, apply from Abu Dhabi with no Schengen visa, and switch a D visa into French residency. Timelines for each stage, plus crypto and property tax rules.
Spanish tax residency isn't just the 183-day rule. Worldwide income, double taxation, and Form 720's €50,000 threshold per asset class — 6 costly expat mistakes explained.
Tax residency decides which country may tax a person's worldwide income, and it is separate from immigration status: a residence permit does not automatically make someone a tax resident, and a person can become tax resident without one. Many countries apply a physical presence test, commonly 183 days in a tax year or a rolling period. Most also look at where a person keeps a permanent home or has their centre of vital interests.
When two countries both claim the same person, a double tax treaty usually settles it through tie-breaker rules. Treaties modelled on Article 4 of the OECD Model Tax Convention check the permanent home first, then the centre of vital interests, habitual abode and finally nationality. The United States is an exception to residence-based logic, taxing its citizens and green card holders on worldwide income wherever they live, while other foreigners are tested under the substantial presence test.
To claim treaty benefits such as reduced withholding abroad, a taxpayer typically needs a tax residency certificate from the tax authority of their home country. In the United States this document is Form 6166, the Certification of U.S. Tax Residency, which the IRS issues after an application on Form 8802.