Liechtenstein.
Your gains and dividends untaxed — your wealth quietly taxed instead.
Price it in your money
Tell me where you live now and what you spend a month, and every cost here becomes your number — the same life, priced country by country, in your own currency.
A guide, not a quote. I move your monthly spend by each country’s official price level (Eurostat and the World Bank, whole-economy, EU-27 = 100) — no exchange rates, so it stays in your own currency. But averages hide rent and the city you pick, and changing country is rarely a straight swap. Read these as the right ballpark, then price the real thing.
Not in the Eurostat price series — read it as Switzerland-adjacent, which is to say the top of the scale.
Where in Europe
Alpine valley — cold winters, mild summers, föhn winds.
The rules that matter for an exit.
Private capital gains on shares and funds are tax-free, and a resident's dividends and interest aren't taxed on receipt either — the Swiss logic. What gets taxed is the wealth behind them.
Instead of a headline wealth-tax rate, Liechtenstein takes your net worth, assumes a 4% yield on it, adds that to your income and taxes it at the ordinary rates. The effect is a wealth tax of roughly a tenth of a percent, rising to about nine-tenths at the top — modest, but real, and it's the tax that actually matters here.
No exit tax on leaving, and no inheritance, estate or gift tax. A very wealthy incomer can instead negotiate a lump-sum deal — tax on spending rather than income — from a floor of about CHF 300,000 a year.
Liechtenstein is in the EEA, so free movement applies in principle — but residence permits are rationed to a tiny quota, and the non-working slots a retiree would need number about sixteen a year, half of them handed out by lottery. The tax is gettable; the permit is the gamble.
No inheritance, estate or gift taxes — wealth is taxed annually instead, through the 4% deemed yield folded into income.
The line 'no wealth tax, no capital-gains tax' is everywhere and it misleads — wealth is taxed, through that 4% deemed yield; gains and income aren't. Rates held for 2026 (a 2024 change only indexed the brackets). Confirm the current commune surcharge, and that your funds don't trip the anti-abuse rule on low-taxed foreign structures.
Can you actually move here?
With your passport, skip the doors — the clocks and the tax-residency rules are what matter for you.
No EU passport means one of the doors on the left — each checked against the authority that issues it.
Even EEA passports enter a lottery — eight non-working permits a year, twice-drawn; for everyone else the category simply doesn't exist.
No investment residence of any kind — money buys nothing here; even EEA citizens queue for the draw.
permanent residency at 5 yrs · dual restricted · German + civics
habitual abode, or domicile with intent to stay
Liechtenstein is the honest extreme: residence without work is rationed by lottery even for EEA citizens — in one recent final draw, 75 applicants chased four permits — and no category exists for anyone else. The passport is Europe's longest clock at thirty years (a communal vote can shorten it to ten), old citizenship surrendered. Most people who 'live' here actually commute from Switzerland or Austria.
The lottery windows are short and twice-yearly — if you're EEA and serious, calendar both draws; the quotas are treaty-fixed and won't loosen.
Check it yourself: liechtenstein.li — the residence-permit lottery · PwC — Liechtenstein tax residence
Getting-in rules checked July 2026. They move faster than tax law — confirm the current rule with the authority before you plan a move around it. Education, not immigration advice.
Swiss-style mandatory insurance from competing funds, per head — every resident must join; the 2026 standard adult premium is about CHF 427 a month, kept below Swiss levels by a state contribution.
Healthcare access checked July 2026. Systems are stable but details shift — confirm before you rely on them. Education, not health-insurance advice.
Common questions
- Are capital gains and dividends taxed in Liechtenstein?
- No — private capital gains on shares and funds are tax-free, and a resident's dividends and interest aren't taxed on receipt either. What gets taxed instead is the wealth behind them.
- Does Liechtenstein have a wealth tax?
- Yes, though not as a headline rate: it takes your net worth, assumes a 4% yield on it, adds that to your income and taxes it at the ordinary rates. The effect is a wealth tax of roughly a tenth of a percent, rising to about nine-tenths at the top — modest, but real, and it's the tax that actually matters here.
- Is there an exit tax or inheritance tax in Liechtenstein?
- No — there's no exit tax on leaving, and no inheritance, estate or gift tax.
- Can I just move to Liechtenstein to get the low taxes?
- The tax is gettable but the permit is the gamble: Liechtenstein is in the EEA, so free movement applies in principle, but residence permits are rationed to a tiny quota — the non-working slots a retiree would need number about sixteen a year, half of them handed out by lottery.
- Can an American or a Brit retire early in Liechtenstein?
- Even EEA passports enter a lottery — eight non-working permits a year, twice-drawn; for everyone else the category simply doesn't exist. Confirm with the immigration authority — routes open and close.
- How long until a Liechtenstein passport?
- 30 years of legal residence is the general naturalisation rule, with German + civics. Dual citizenship is allowed only in limited cases. Permanent residency usually comes at 5 years.
Run your own numbers.
The Exit Calculator
Years to your number, at your savings rate.
OpenWhere You Live
What an annual wealth tax does to the maths — illustrative, deliberately.
OpenThe Geoarbitrage Map
The same life, priced across 58 countries.
OpenThe whole system — wrappers, funds, withdrawal, the blank page — is in the guide: The European FIRE guide
None of this is tax or investment advice — it's education, kept deliberately at the level that survives fact-checking. Rules shift with every budget round; the specifics of your situation belong with a licensed adviser in your country. I'm happily not one.
This page was last verified against official sources on 9 July 2026. What's changed on the map
Know a figure here that’s wrong or out of date? Point me to the line and a source — every correction gets checked, and it’s how the map stays right.
Report a correctionBring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.
Ninety minutes, online, €600 — the Exit Audit included.