The exit, country by country.
The arithmetic of leaving is universal — 30× your spending is 30× in Lisbon, London or Ljubljana. The tax code you retire inside is not, and it can quietly raise your number. 31 countries so far: only the ones I can back with sources.
Why these and not the whole map? Because every figure on these pages is re-checked against official sources on a schedule, and I only publish what survives that. More countries as they clear the same bar.
Three patterns keep repeating. A few countries pay you for patience — hold long enough and the tax on gains is simply gone. A few tax the pot itself, every year, gains or no gains — those quietly raise your number. And a few are landing spots, built to attract you — deals worth having in writing before you move.
Not sure where to start? Five answers, a shortlist
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.
Tap a country to open its page — the faintest shapes aren't on the ledger yet.
Iceland
A flat 22% on capital, clean and simple — on the dearest ground here.
Switzerland
Zero on gains — you pay for the ground instead.
Denmark
Your ETF's paper gains are taxed every year — sold or not.
Ireland
Your fund is taxed even if you never sell.
Luxembourg
Hold six months, sell tax-free — on some of the priciest ground in the set.
Norway
The wealth tax starts early — and follows you out.
United Kingdom
£20,000 a year, tax-free for life — the ISA.
Sweden
One small flat tax on the pot — and gains stop mattering.
Finland
A clean 30–34% on gains — and a three-year shadow when you leave.
Belgium
The old haven, gently closed.
Netherlands
Taxed on gains you may never see.
Austria
Paper income taxed yearly — and paper gains billed at the border.
France
A flat ~31% on gains — and wrappers that reward patience.
Germany
Accumulating funds don't hide here.
Estonia
A flat 22% you can defer for decades — an account, not a loophole.
Italy
Nothing till you sell — but a 0.2% skim on the pot, every year.
Malta
Listed gains untaxed — and non-doms keep foreign gains out of reach entirely.
Spain
Cheap to live — but it taxes having.
Czechia
Hold three years, pay nothing.
Slovenia
Fifteen years' patience, then nothing — gains tax tapers to zero.
Cyprus
Securities gains simply untaxed — and a rewritten code since January.
Greece
EU fund gains tax-free — and a 7% deal for arriving pensioners.
Portugal
The exit's favourite doorstep — the old tax deal is gone.
Slovakia
Listed ETFs, held one year: tax-free — health levy included.
Latvia
A flat 25.5% on capital — softened by an account that defers it.
Lithuania
A flat 15% for long holds and the account — quick sales now climb.
Croatia
Two years' patience, then nothing — flat 12% if you can't wait.
Hungary
Flat 15% — and a five-year account that pays no tax at all.
Poland
A flat 19% on everything — and an exit tax with a real threshold.
Romania
Cheap ground — but 2026 marked the investing taxes up.
Bulgaria
A flat 10% — and gains on EU-listed funds sit outside it.
The number is each country’s cost of living (EU-27 = 100 · 2025). Eurostat (prc_ppp_ind) / World Bank, 2025, CC BY 4.0. Whole-economy price level — country averages hide big regional and rent spread.
Three places people ask about — set apart from the ledger for two honest reasons: there's no Eurostat cost figure for any of them, and, unlike the rest of the map, you can't simply move in. Each page is blunt about what entry actually takes.
Prefer the whole thing on one screen — every country and the patterns it carries, in a single grid.
See it all in one gridHousing is the line that moves most across a border — and the one the cost average hides. Priced on its own, country by country: to buy, to rent, and how fast it’s moved.
The roof over it — housing across the mapWant the whole world priced? The geoarbitrage tool walks the same life across 58 countries.
Open the toolNone 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.
Every figure on this page was verified against official sources in July 2026. What's changed on the map · The state of FIRE in Europe — the 2026 report · The dataset, open
Bring 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.