You may need to be British to really appreciate just how grim Malta is. It is full of slightly grim northern (as in people from the North of England) folk slowly drinking / smoking themselves to death on cheap booze and cigarettes and eating in “Fish and Chips” in weird Maltese style places. It truly is the very worst place i have ever been to in Europe – and i been to plenty of less than salubrious places.

But then again I left Europe and moved to the US much to the likely chagrin of many folks on here. High tax state for sure but still the best country in the world to build worth if not protect it!

Arb

There is a period of time (5-10 years) during which a new arrival can very easily remain below the radar of the local government goons. One way to maintain my sovereignty and to not become a de facto slave therefore, is to move my (formal) residence to a different state every 5 years or so. There are of course other ways to go unnoticed and I employ as many of them as I can.

Malta's tax regime is very favourable to expatriates: residence is easy to acquire (pretty much automatic for EU citizens), and non-Malta source income is only taxed if it is brought into Malta.
To make things even better, non-Malta source income is automatically transformed into “capital” every new year, meaning that you are free to bring in last years offshore income into the country free of tax.

In other words, if you do not have the millstone of worldwide taxation based on citizenship as the US has, Malta is an excellent place for legal residence if you want to live an existence that is almost entirely free of any tax (apart from some minimum tax payment requirements to gain residence).

Debbie, btw I just joined your site.

But the other points are all well made.

So, you can diversify your money, and/or look for a second passport-but not everyone is interested in living in a country other than their own. This doesn't make one scared or ignorant, necessarily.

I've lived and travelled in many areas-including africa and asia…and met people who simply want to stay where they are-i even knew a woman whose children were in the US, but she stayed put as a Somali refugee in kenya, in an urban hood area, b/c she was uninterested in the US lifestyle and culture. She said she preferred being closer to home. Most african refugees I've met, would like to go back home….but they do what the have to given their circumstances. And this is regardless of how 'poor' they are.

Just saying, while I like to travel and have lived abroad, not everyone is of that ilk. And people needn't apologize or feel they are limited, as a result.