Heaven ! Where the income tax is exactly 0 %

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin are usually credited as authors of the US ‘Declaration of Independence’ in 1776 which announced that the 13 American colonies (at that time at war with Britain) regarded themselves as independent.

The young United States then got their own constitution and Benjamin Franklin wrote about this in a letter: ‘Our new constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’

Well, even those certainties mentioned by Franklin are not so sure anymore. Regarding ‘death’ we currently observe many undertakings to achieve life extension or even eternal life. Google, for instance, wants you to live forever.

“If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,” said Bill Maris, president and managing partner of Google Ventures, in a interview with the magazine ‘Bloomberg Markets’.

For sure, this is a very, very long shot, but only 60 years ago, it seemed completely impossible and crazy only to think about sending men to the moon….

Regarding the second certainty – taxes – you don’t have to fly to the moon to avoid it. If you want to pay exactly 0% income tax without cheating your government, all you have to do, is settling in one of several tax havens, that according to a new survey published this week by ‘howmuch.net‘ don’t ask for a single bani in income tax: Here is the list:

Top 10 Tax Havens Around The World

• Bermuda– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $91,479.
• Qatar– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $60,796.
• The Cayman Islands– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $54,827.
• Kuwait– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $30,147.
• United Arab Emirates– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $25,773.
• Brunei– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $25,140.
• Bahamas– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $20,690.
• Bahrain– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $18,128.
• Saudi Arabia– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $17,820.
• Oman– Personal Income Tax Rate 0% – GDP per capita of $12,472.

Let’s have a closer look at the top three.

The island of Bermuda (65000 inhabitants, about 1200 km off the US-East Coast). Bermuda is one of the richest countries in the world, but comes with a very high cost of living. Further, the government still does charge other types of taxes. Employers pay a 14% payroll tax. And Bermuda charges a custom tax of up to 35%.

How about Qatar? The organizer of the Football World Cup in 2022 has the world’s largest natural gas reserves. Although the country has no personal income tax, oil and gas businesses have a tax rate of 35%. Business that are owned by foreigners and are not in the oil and gas sector are taxed at a flat rate of 10%. The government is able to generate significant revenue from business taxes that enables it to avoid other types of taxation.

Finally, the Cayman Islands in the caribbean (about 50’000 inhabitants, and as Bermuda a british overseas territory). The place has become a major offshore financial center due to the low personal income, corporate and capital gains taxes. The country also has no mandatory social security contributions. Still, companies are required to provide pensions for its employees.

Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda