Considering setting up an offshore company to legally optimize taxes

[JackAlabama]

Do you think the Norwegian authorities would conduct any kind of research if someone moved away and never returned, completely disappearing, for example, to Paraguay?

When deregistering in Norway, you can simply provide a different address and country than where you're actually moving to. Would they even check it?

A good idea is to convert all fiat into crypto so you can move it easily and seamlessly without leaving any traces.

if you have many millions or billions yeah, if youre a poor schmuck drawing social benefits, then they are happy you just left.

 

[cameleon]

I’m probably somewhere in between.

I don’t have billions, not even many millions, but a few or maybe a little more.

I don’t believe they would specifically go after me like that, it would be strange if they did. However, I hadn’t thought about setting up some proxy addresses and providing those in case I leave Norway permanently. Thanks for that.

 

[JackAlabama]

I’m probably somewhere in between.

I don’t have billions, not even many millions, but a few or maybe a little more.

I don’t believe they would specifically go after me like that, it would be strange if they did. However, I hadn’t thought about setting up some proxy addresses and providing those in case I leave Norway permanently. Thanks for that.

a reason to figure this out is looking into average wealth and average income, median wealth and income and if youre much above that (didnt you mention like revenue around 300k usd / yearly while average nominal gdp / capita is 100k in norway according to wikipedia). So yeah at a 3x average, hard to say but it could well already classify for this.
A safer bet would be going with like a yearly revenue of 60k or so (below average).

 

[Propeller]

Basically anything that does not care whe you are not there. I even know people running around on US visa. EU on the other hand is not an option as they tax as soon as you are registered. Thailand, Philippines, Paraguay (@NewHorizonsParaguay), Uruguay, etc. have been widely discussed.

are there any countries in Europe at all ?

 

[daniels27]

are there any countries in Europe at all ?

Belgium not habitual resident, Portugal NHR, Cyprus 5k tax would be an option. But I personally would recommend to take some non European ones to avoid too much data sharing with your old home. That's why I recommended the other ones.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Norway is a very special case, you shouldn't just blindly follow advice here and definitely don't believe random service providers.
You will be tax resident in Norway for three years after you left under Norway's domestic law.
Tax treaties can overrule this, so you'll want to move to a country that has a tax treaty with Norway.
Switzerland is a popular choice because it has a treaty that also covers the wealth tax.
(People who just randomly say "You have to move to a country with wealth tax" have no idea how taxes work. There is no such rule, what matters is what's in the treaty.)

I believe the countdown cannot be overridden by a treaty.
So you have to be nonresident under Norway's domestic law for three years, otherwise the countdown will never reset.

What does this mean?
You cannot own a home (vacation home should be fine) in Norway, you cannot spend more than.. I think it's 60 days per year in Norway. Parts of a day count, so if you land 10 minutes before midnight, it would count as an additional full day.

Note that Norway has a tax treaty with Qatar (a zero-tax country), but I would expect that it doesn't cover the wealth tax. So not sure if you can avoid the wealth tax this way. Would be an interesting question, because it should make you tax resident in Qatar only - not sure how they could then still demand that you pay wealth tax in Norway.

But your real problem will be the exit tax. As far as I know, they just drastically changed the rules. Why didn't you get out before, like everyone else did?
I would expect the next government to reverse those changes, but that will take time. They will also increase the corporate taxes.

Can you maybe sell your existing businesses in Norway to a family member? Or, alternatively, sell them to a family member who lives abroad? That way, you could also avoid the exit tax.
There were some Norwegian billionaires who didn't want to move and who instead transferred their shares to their child who was already living in Switzerland to avoid the wealth tax (and also exit tax further down the line, should they decide to move after all).

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Do you think the Norwegian authorities would conduct any kind of research if someone moved away and never returned, completely disappearing, for example, to Paraguay?

They don't have to conduct any kind of research. You are tax resident in Norway for three more years.
They'll be happy you tell them you moved to Paraguay because there is no tax treaty, so you definitely 100% have to pay all the taxes as if you were still living in Norway.
Besides, they will simply say you are still tax resident in Norway and it will up to you to prove the opposite.