Where you can legally pay less tax, and what each place really costs
Twenty six places people ask about, with the published rates, the residence conditions, who each one genuinely suits, and the catch that stops most people saving anything.
Read this before the tables: there is no hiding place left
Every country on this page reports your accounts back to your own tax office automatically. Names, balances and income, once a year, without you being asked. So this page is not about hiding money, which is a crime and carries penalties far bigger than the tax. It is about the legal version, which is often worth more: choosing where you live, where your company is genuinely run, and where you bank, then paying the correct lower amount out in the open.
- More than 100 countries automatically exchange account holder names, balances and income each year under the Common Reporting Standard.
- The United States receives the same data through FATCA agreements with banks worldwide.
- Beneficial ownership registers in the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are open to law enforcement and tax authorities.
- Economic substance rules mean a company with no people and no decisions in a zero tax place can be denied its benefits.
- Failure to correct an offshore matter in the UK can carry a penalty of up to 200 percent of the tax due.
Places researched
26
Rates as published for 2025 and 2026
Countries swapping account data
100+
Common Reporting Standard and FATCA
UK penalty for an uncorrected offshore matter
Up to 200%
Of the tax due, on top of the tax
What your own country still charges you
This is the part that decides whether any of the above saves you a penny. Until you have properly left, your home country taxes your worldwide income whatever your company's address says.
United Kingdom
- The statutory residence test decides whether HMRC taxes your worldwide income. Days, homes, work and family ties all count.
- Split year treatment can apply in the year you leave, but only if you meet one of the specific cases.
- Temporary non residence rules claw back dividends and gains if you return within five full tax years.
- A company controlled from the UK can be UK tax resident wherever it is registered, through central management and control.
- Transfer of assets abroad and controlled foreign company rules tax offshore profit back to a UK owner.
- Inheritance tax follows long term residence, so it can still apply after you leave.
United States
- US citizens and green card holders file on worldwide income wherever they live.
- The foreign earned income exclusion and foreign tax credits reduce double tax but do not end filing.
- FBAR and Form 8938 report foreign accounts, with heavy penalties for missing them.
- Giving up citizenship or a long held green card can trigger the expatriation tax on unrealised gains.
- Controlled foreign corporation and GILTI rules tax a US owner on a foreign company's profit.
- Puerto Rico is the one route that reduces federal tax without renouncing.
Australia
- The residency tests look at where you ordinarily live, your domicile and the 183 day rule.
- Leaving Australia triggers a deemed disposal of most assets other than Australian property, unless you elect otherwise.
- Non residents lose the tax free threshold and pay a higher first rate on Australian income.
- Controlled foreign company rules attribute offshore company profit to Australian owners.
- The Australian Taxation Office receives foreign account data automatically under the Common Reporting Standard.