Turquia estrena 20 anys d’exempció fiscal: què cobreix realment

Europe has a new tax haven, at least almost it does, and it's probably not the country you expected. I have to admit I was kind of shocked to see this country offering one of the best tax incentives in the world because while most people are still obsessing over Portugal, other people are obsessing over Monaco or Thailand or the same tired list of acceptable destinations, Turkey. Yes, Turkey has been building its own tax exemption better than anything you'll see in Greece or Italy or perhaps even Switzerland when it comes to a long-term tax exemption. Today, I'm going to tell you exactly what Turkey is offering and why you might want to consider it. Of course, we know that much of Europe is becoming much, much more aggressive on taxes. They're adding exit taxes, but Turkey, to their credit, they offered citizenship by investment a number of years ago. They continued that program. You buy a piece of real estate or you put money in the bank or you hire people, you get a passport on the spot. You don't have to keep those investments for 3 years, and then you can exit those investments, keep the passport for life. Well, now they're stacking on top of that a potential 20-year tax exemption. You could literally raise your kids there in the entire time this exemption goes on. So, let's talk about it. I'm Andrew Henderson, founder of Nomad Capitalist. We're a boutique consulting firm that helps successful entrepreneurs

and investors legally reduce their taxes in dozens of countries around the world, move their business overseas, protect their assets in offshore bank accounts and trusts, and get second passports, all designed to give you optionality in changing times. You can learn more at nomadcapitalist.com. So, I like Turkey as a tax, soon-to-be tax-exempt country because I see greater flexibility than programs like Italy, which was already more flexible than a country like Switzerland, kind of the original lump sum tax program. But, this isn't even a lump sum program. This is not even pay us X amount of money and we'll leave you alone. This is we're just exempting your income. So, it's more in line with something like a Uruguay, for example, which has a long-term tax exemption, except Uruguay just dramatically raised the stakes in the investment to get in. Why? Well, because people are moving to Uruguay from Argentina and Brazil and places that you might even think about, but like lots of people were going to Uruguay for the tax exemption and they're like, "We can get more money from this." So, they did. So, this is one of the best tax deals you're going to find anywhere in Europe. Now, obviously, part of Turkey is in Asia and part of Turkey is in Europe, but let's go through the program. It's a 20-year tax holiday for people who move to Turkey. And what that means is now these these details are being hammered out. This is not yet in effect, but it's basically going to go into effect is if

you have not lived in or been a tax resident of Turkey, you can come in and you can get this status. And so, what we understand now is you can also come in as a new citizen through the citizenship by investment program because what it is is you have not been a tax resident before. This is similar to how some of the programs in Europe work where you know, in Greece, for example, you you can't have been a tax resident for X number of years. And so, once you sign up to the Greek program, for example, you can't exit it and then come back later because you won't meet the conditions of not being tax resident recently. Basically, if you have not lived and paid taxes in Turkey, you are eligible. President Erdoğan has announced a new tax incentive package. They want to attract foreign investors, high-net-worth individuals to Turkey. Whatever you want to say about Turkey, here's my view. And I I give Italy and Greece and other European countries who have done tax incentives the same credit, which is yeah, Italy and Greece were like, "Hey, things aren't looking good over here. We got to get some money in this joint." So, good for them for doing what like the legacy brand English-speaking Western countries would never do, like the US or the UK, where they're where they're getting rid of tax incentives. They got rid of the non-dom program. Good for any country that says, "You know what? We've got to be competitive." That tells you something about where that country is right now. And so, Turkey is saying, "We'll offer our citizenship to want to bring in some money. We want to bring in dollars." And

now we're going to let you come and live here because it's more important for us to have rich people coming and living here and bringing their wealth from all around the world than it is for us to like get nothing from them. So, that tells you something about what this country is thinking about. The program, individuals have not been Turkish tax residents for at least 3 years, so that's more flexible than other European countries will be eligible to relocate to Turkey and benefit from 20 years of exemption on foreign source income and capital gains. Now, of course with these programs, if you go and buy up a bunch of rental real estate in Turkey for example, or likely, you know, Turkish stocks that pay dividends, you know, Turkish source income will still be taxed. What they're basically creating is some version of a territorial tax system, except for people who haven't lived there before. I would argue this is a a relatively fair system of tax because, you know, if you're born in Turkey, you have the option of going living somewhere else and going where you're treated best. But if you choose to live in your own country, you're going to pay money for the services that you use as someone who's always lived there. Whereas, if I go to Turkey, I I'm not going to use the the, you know, the public hospitals or any of that. But I am going to bring money into the country. I'm going to spend money. I'm going to go to restaurants. I'm going to rent out my house. I'm going to, you know, buy throw pillows, whatever I'm going to do. So, for 20 years, income generated outside of the country will not be subject to Turkish tax. After 20 years, all bets are off, but I'm sure 20 years from now, who knows what's

happening. The package also includes significant reductions in inheritance and gift tax for qualifying individuals, including a flat rate of 1%, which is against the the current progressive system that can reach up to 30%. So, 1% tax on inheritance and gift tax, that's not the zero. There are countries that are zero, but what you're basically getting is the ability to live in a serious country. That's one thing that clients have asked is, you know, all these Caribbean islands that offer citizenship by investment, you know, that's nice. That's part of the stack of of second passports. But, you know, am I going to go and live in some little island? Well, people have asked, where can I get a country with more heft? And the answer was, hey, Turkey. Great citizenship for the global south. I think it's one of the best passports, by the way, that any Westerner can get because as the West is increasingly at odds with the global south, or or most of the global South is tired being dictated to by the West. If you want the ability to travel to and be well accepted in global South countries, Turkey's got that for the most part. I mean, look at Turkey's passport, you can pretty much go everywhere except for the West. You have easy to go to the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, and the Schengen area. Everything else, please come right in. All the small countries that that other second passports miss like a Paraguay for example, you can go and you're well welcome there. I mean, most countries

want a domestic population of 80 million people to be able to come to their country. And so this is a country with heft. It's a country that's increasingly marketing itself as a place to come. I think that you know, what we've seen with Americans going to Mexico City, you should be seeing in Istanbul. And you are to some extent seeing in areas like you know, Nishantashi and and Besiktas and that. You're seeing people but not just from the US, people from all over the world. The issue is always, yeah, but the taxes are bad. And so people would live the trifecta lifestyle. Yeah, but it didn't work for families. What you're seeing now is kind of the the perfect storm in a good way where you can get a citizenship without really having to jump through any hoops. If you have a clean background, you file, you make an investment, you don't even have to make a donation. You get your money back in the future and then you can go and you can live in Turkey for 20 years. In addition, export-oriented businesses would benefit from reduced corporate tax rates. If you're in that business, that's that's worth something. So if you're basically going and moving some kind of export business. They've really What have I been telling you for a long time? You know, when I go to Montenegro or Serbia, I see Turkish brands. I go to Georgia. Hey, we have this middle quality. It's not Italian, but it's you know, it's better than some of the Asian stuff. Turkish, you know, faucets and furniture and stuff like that. They've really gotten this century into a position where they're really, you know, trying to push that those exports. And

it's not as much a global export in some cases as it is regional exports. They're a regional player. It's a regional power in a world which I believe increasingly is is to revolve not around superpowers but regional powers. So, if you want to be in the export business, there's going to be deals for that. Manufacturing exporters at 9%, other exporters at 14%. So, if you're in that business, I mean, that's not maybe a huge benefit, but they are lowering taxes. So, it shows you more about their mindset more than you're going to go and start exporting a furniture. You get the passport, and that way you're not relying on residence permits. I mean, when you can go and make an investment that can be recouped, I wonder if you're a successful entrepreneur or investor, why bother with residence permits when you can get something permanent? Unless you have something where, you know, your Swiss bank isn't going to like it like it if you're Turkish or some, you know, intelligence profile or something like that. You know, listen, I I suppose Turkey, you know, it has a bit of an edge. Obviously, you know, Erdogan has been vocal against Israel, for example, so it's not like you're welcome absolutely everywhere. But, I think by and large, I mean, Turkey's in NATO. Turkey is, you know, pretty much gets along with everybody that if you want freedom, you want to get along with. So, the summary is 0% tax on foreign source income for 20 years. So, again, Uruguay, you know, historically done that for about 11 years. So, you're you're doubling up a

pretty good comp. 1% of the inheritance gift tax, and then an optional 2 to 3% tax one-time if you want to repatriate certain offshore assets, cash, or gold, or securities. And so, let's say you have gold in a vault somewhere in some free port, you can bring that in. That is one thing people don't understand is, you know, there often is some kind of tax on bringing in stuff like that. So, they're basically going to say, "Hey, it's a repatriation thing." Same thing Trump did in 2017, 2 to 3% one-time tax on that. How do you become a tax resident in Turkey? Well, there's two ways you can do it. Number one is you simply pass the days test, which is 183 days. If you spend that time in Turkey, you'll be a tax resident, and you just you just file for the program. Or, you can establish tax domicile. This is the more, you know, kind of complex way where there's different factors you've got to consider, but it's basically where's your permanent home, where are your family ties, where's your center of vital interest, where are your social connections. This is interesting because this is often the kind of stuff that you're trying to avoid when either leaving your home country like you live in Canada or Australia and it's like yeah family ties right? You can't just like I'm going to move to like you know somewhere tax friendly but my wife and kids are going to stay it doesn't really work that well. You're often looking to avoid those things in a country that's high tax or let's say somebody moves to Mexico for example and they're like they've crazy taxes in Mexico but if I

can thread the needle of not making it my permanent home or owning real estate or family ties or Okay maybe I can stay out of the tax net for a while. Here the deal is if you don't want to spend the full 6 months you need to establish those things in Turkey in order to get the 20 year incentive and basically you could in some cases lower your taxes to like zero in this case or very very low. And so those are the two ways that you can actually move in and then again you compare that with citizenship $400,000 in real estate you can sell the property after 3 years because you could have bought property in some areas for $1,000 a meter I paid more than that but in dollar terms I think my property is about double at this point. You could have made more money in other assets if you're someone who wants to get a citizenship buying something that goes up in value I don't know to what extent property in Turkey is going to go up in value now. I still think it's pretty affordable at a time when that's valuable. I still think it's geopolitical neutrality will be important particularly with the Gulf and you know what's happening there I think you'll see more money from Russians for example which is what you know helped prices go up in the first place like I say in the 2022-2023. You have the potential for a profitable investment or at least break even by selling your property or you can just keep that property make the place that you live and you know one thing I I tell people is don't always get the cheapest property possible. If if you have a family and $400,000 doesn't get what get

you what you need buy a million dollar property if that's what you want to live in that will equally qualify for citizenship by investment. You're allowed to spend more than 400,000 and so if it's a place that you want to live this is what I've been telling you for for some time have places that you want to go because they're all options. They're all lottery tickets of a sort in that, you know, now that Turkey has this deal, you want a house that you'd actually go and live in. It It's not as international as maybe London. They like eating their own food. You know, you go to Istanbul, but they got great food. You know, English is not as widely spoken, but there's parts of Istanbul and Bodrum and all that where you can or whatever language you may speak might be spoken in one of those places. It is not the most international place in the world, but it is a crossroads of the world and it is a place where I think you know, you could feel welcome and there's different vibes, you know, so Istanbul, not the capital but the primary city, big city, lots to do. Ankara, not as exciting, but other smaller towns. There's agricultural property which you can now buy if you're a citizen. So, you could open some kind of agricultural land. I've I've talked about, you know, buying agricultural land in Turkey. It's on my list places that I'm looking for for great deals. You can also go to the seaside. And so, there's everything from affordable seaside to really high-end seaside. I mean, the Edition Hotel in Bodrum is like $2,000 a night plus in the summer.

So, there is some really high-class stuff in Turkey. I see this as a stack. Citizenship with real estate for most people. You could either rent it out if you don't want to live there and you keep the option of saying, "Okay, this this tax deal might be around for a little while and I'll just get the rental income and I'll sell the property later at a profit, hopefully." Or I'm going to buy a property and use it either as a plan A or I'm going to move there immediately and get this tax deal or as a plan B where I'm going to start visiting and getting accustomed to if I'm happy and make it the place that I want to move. I think with some people being afraid to go to the Gulf right now. Plenty of people aren't, by the way. There's plenty of people who are going back to Dubai and everywhere else. But if you thought you were looking at the Gulf for its tax benefits and lifestyle, I think Turkey offers more culture, equally good, you know, connectivity to wherever you want to go in the world, and now it has the tax deal. But on top of that, you have the permanent status. Now, obviously, you know, you can get a UAE golden visa for 10 years. I don't see those options going away anytime soon. They want people to be there. But you still have permanence to where you're living. And I see this as something that's really really uh interesting. I also think it's a, by the way, a great thing if you're building a passport stack, you could I've always said pair Turkey with some kind of Caribbean citizenship and maybe now you add a third citizenship. This is for someone who wants a merging Europe. I'm in that category. You know, I just see as much as I as I wish the West were in better shape, it's not. It's getting worse. I don't deal in what I wish was, I deal in what is. And so if you want a

merging Europe, I mean Turkey's building its own Tuscany. It has its own so many places in Europe. If you want certainty around your immigration status in a low-tax country, some people feel uncomfortable like hey, what if they kick me out one day? What if my residence permit doesn't get renewed? What if they don't want me to stay long-term? Well, if you're a citizen, you're in. People who want access to global south can benefit from this. You know, I really just think that Westerners should take a serious look at this. I'm not saying you have to sign up for the tax deal right away, but putting yourself in a position to sign up for the tax deal, not only having a passport that gets you the immigration privilege and a sense of permanence, but also getting you a place where you're going to live. You know, you're not making a donation. You can buy a home. Buy the home that you would actually want to live in. And then you have the option to rent it out, keep it empty and spend part-time, or move there full-time and take advantage of this tax deal. There will also be some flexibility, it seems like, about people who are somewhat nomadic using this as a tax base, having a home there, not to spend one day a year, but if you move a lot of your stuff there, this could be a place where it could be a good nomadic base. So rather than just going and making a donation somewhere every year in a Caribbean country to get tax residence as a nomad, this could be interesting for someone who wants to be a bit more mobile as well. So, if you'd like help in deciding all your options for both passports and tax residences, you go to nomadcapitalist.com and the team will be happy to talk to you.