Five of the region’s island nations – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Lucia – offer such citizenship by investment (CBI) from as little as $200,000 (£145,000).
“as little as”
Fuuuuck off. 🥲
Almost any other citizenship by investment program costs millions. So, it is very cheap.
In my area, houses are like 1 mil USD so in comparison, it is cheap
Haha this is where people go, “Oh you must live in like a expensive city” and like damn bro, every city is god damn expensive now!
Even in cheap cities, burger is $12+, rent is +$1000 per person, and good luck saving for that cheap housing that will be bought by companies to hopefully make a profit out of you when you borrow a 50-year loan.
I mean that house is cheap compared to the ones near me but I wouldn’t be able to afford the air fare to visit it regularly
Visit it regularly? You visit the house once and live there. It’s called moving.
I highly doubt the majority of the people buying are making it their primary residence but it would nice if I’m wrong.
It doesn’t really matter what everyone else is doing if we’re talking about our own individual situations though it would be a good idea to check the local job market before comitting.
The prices elsewhere is irrelevant. If there is 1 thing that is not movable it’s precisely a house. One doesn’t buy a building but rather a location. The price of real estate is about the infrastructure available.
Anyway, even if it wasn’t about location, location, location (the 1 rule in real estate) here the point is about citizenship, not actual houses. FWIW St Lucia is a beautiful place but… step out of a luxury hotel and see what happens. GDP per capita is low ($15K) and Gini coefficient is high.
You do realize that’s a logical fallacy, right?
“cheap” only makes sense in relative terms.
Sorry, but you couldn’t pay me to live in hurricane territory.
Im more concerned with the US conquest of central and South America. Puerto rico is having a buildup of military presence, as are other US outposts around the world. I would love to live in the Caribbean, and it’s surprisingly affordable, but nah. I dont want to be in Europe for similar reasons relating to Russia.
For many folks the possibility of a hurricane will be less terrifying than the consequences of staying in the U.S. if it continues down its current path.
Then there are floridians who have both!
Between the ecological, sociological, ecosystemic, and political dangers, I am quite literally dumbfounded whenever I hear that someone is willingly moving to Florida.
same. some of us are just stuck here though.
The Keys seem chill once you get past the whole hurricane thing, but that may be because I’ve watched the show Bad Monkey one too many times. I’ve never actually been to Florida (or most places in the US for that matter, since I’m not American)
Well, unlike tornados or earthquakes…hurricanes have a 3 to 5 day warning for you to prep.
If there’s no evacuation route, does that matter? Finding a place to stay “uphill” is mighty different from “drive Inland ten hours”
Uphill is fine. In florida, there is no ‘drive inland for 10hours’. All you do is get away from the coastal water. You cant drive upstate because of traffic. Did that 1 time and got stuck on the turnpike for 15 hours just to go from miami to orlando, usuall 2.5 hours.
There are islands with 0-day residency requirements. You buy property, you never have to live there, and you still get a passport. You can AirBnB it.
So all I’d need to do is sell out my morals and exploit my fellow citizens…
Nah I’m good.
Is it the Airbnb part that compromises your morals? If so there are also options to make donations and start businesses
Yeah. A big part of the housing crisis in my area is rich assholes buying up homes and air bnb-ing them.
What if you buy the house and rent it to a local for less than other houses in the area?
Holy shit bro you’re so morally superior. Oh god, I’ve never met anyone as moral as you.
I wouldn’t want to be a part of what investors are doing to home ownership here…somewhere else. No.
Your problems aren’t everyone’s problems.
Feel free to join me over here on team people.
Sorry, I don’t need to get my validation by trying to prove my extreme levels of moral correctness on lemmy.
Extreme?
“I don’t want to be a landlord because I think it’s immoral” isn’t extreme.
“Kill all landlords” is extreme.
You need a perspective realignment.
My friend, have you ever heard of the word “hyperbole”? You should look it up.
Found the landlord
Man, I wish I had that kind of cash. But nah, just someone who’s sick of all the posturing on the fediverse. We get it, your horse is the highest. You win.
Being upset that others have morals they openly express has you triggered.
Your contribution to this discussion is a joke. You are a punchline with everyone laughing at you.
Thank you! There’s the internet I know. I know you’re all assholes who would put someone down as soon as you possibly get the chance, so why do you all act like you’re some sort of saints?
Right now it seems better than living under this administration.
Most people aren’t even living there, they’re just buying into citizenship and a tax haven.
How is it a tax haven? Even when becoming a citizen in another country the US still requires you to pay taxes.
If “capital gains not taxed” didn’t leap off the page at you, you are a poor slob who must actually have w-2 income? Keep up the good work while the wealthy sleep soundly on the tax code they bought and wrote.
The article is referring to Caribbean taxes not US taxes. If you have US citizenship, you have to pay taxes to the federal government regardless of where you live, work, or earn your money, and don’t lose your US citizenship just because you become a citizen of another country.
You can in fact, simply give up US citizenship.
If own the lottery tomorrow, and needed a “no capital gains taxes” state to be a citizen of, this would be sorta tempting.
Also noteworthy, the IRS doesn’t come after international citizens. Sure they can go after you domestically, but if your accounts are not American accounts and your assets are in other nations, you can just live your life not filing taxes without going back to the US as a citizen.
Obtaining a CLN to demonstrate relinquishment of U.S. citizenship has become a lengthy process with high barriers. The total cost of renouncing U.S. citizenship for a person in France, including the cost of preparing the related tax paperwork, has been reported to be € 10 000 – 20 000 on average.[29] Allison Christians of McGill University and Peter Spiro of Temple University have suggested that the complexity and cost of the process, especially the $2350 State Department fee and the potential penalties for failure to file related tax forms, may constitute a breach of the U.S.’ obligation not to impose arbitrary barriers to change of nationality, particularly when applied to accidental Americans who have few genuine links to the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relinquishment_of_United_States_nationality
It’s not simple at all and while you can just not file taxes, that’s no guarantee you’ll get away with it much like someone living in the US not filing taxes.
Also lottery winnings is not capital gains income it’s gambling income and they typically take the taxes out before paying you your winnings. Even casinos do this if you win over $1500 at once on a machine for example.
Lastly, the premise being put forth here is that someone is using the Caribbean citizenship as a “tax haven” while still living and earning money in the US, not someone leaving the country and never looking back.
Wouldn’t that only qualify against a 186 day rule?
Check out the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion…
“Earned income” means W2 wages not capital gains or any of the other avenues rich people make their money.
I don’t see how that would apply to someone not actually living outside the US as this sub-thread suggests.
This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer kept insisting that companies “write it off” and Jerry asks if he even knows what that means.
Sounds great tbh. I am actually tempted at those prices
I do wonder what the point of this is? It says visa free visits to parts of Europe. How long can those visits be? You couldn’t easily relocate anywhere outside the islands on a permanent basis?
The article isn’t helpful for most of the target audience.
Citizens of the Carribbean nations in the article can currently enjoy up to 180 days in the EU visa-free. The same exact visa-free window as citizens of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand are granted.
Citizenship to one of these Carribbean island nations can certainly help you leave North America, but it doesn’t help you get any more access to the EU than you currently have. It just helps you move to…the Carribbean.
Can you do 180 days as a US-ian, and another 180 days as a Caribbean-ian?
Hey…wait a sec now.
Arrive in EU, go through customs with US passport, 180 days later go to the airport, walk straight to customs and go through with your Carribbean passport. Rinse and repeat every 180 days? Hmmm…
Some nationalities can’t enter Europe without a visa, so this would be an upgrade for them. But, for nationalities that already have visa free entry, it isn’t that helpful.
Unless the situation with the US and access for its citizens, which is the main driver being mentioned.
It’s easier to move to italy spain or portugal. a lot of small towns there are becoming ghost towns and they have incentive programs for that. Why move to hurricane land to have an EU visa if you can mode to the EU
Definitely an edge case, but my wife is a legal permanent resident and from the tiny bit of “just out of curiosity” research I’ve done, it seems like she would be eligible for and able to benefit from the expanded travel opportunities these programs offer.
