What Are the Tax and Residency Consequences of Buying a Home Abroad?

“Just” is the most expensive word in international planning. We’ll just buy the house. We’ll just spend a few months there. We’ll just get residency.

I understand why it sounds simple. At the start, it is.

Then the kids start school there.

Your spouse stays a little longer.

Somebody’s there half the year.

And then the business follows, because it always follows.

Now you’ve got questions you never planned on. Where do you pay tax. Where do you bank. Whose law decides who inherits what. And that’s a different conversation than the one you thought you were having.

I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years, so I don’t only look at the decision in front of me. I look at what it sets off.

The better question isn’t “can we just buy it.” It’s “what happens after the just.”

Related

• What Is Residency by Investment?
• Does Owning Property in Another Country Give Me the Right to Enter It?
• What Should I Decide Before Choosing a Residency by Investment Program?