Vanuatu — Taxes

No personal income tax — and it is real Unlike the Caribbean programmes, Vanuatu levies no personal income tax whatsoever. There are no progressive bands to read: the rate is zero. For a genuinely relocating individual, that is a materially different proposition from Dominica, which taxes resident income up to 35%.

No corporate income tax Vanuatu also imposes no corporate income tax on company profits, which is why it has long featured in offshore structuring. As always, how a foreign tax authority treats such a structure is a separate question from Vanuatu’s own rules.

Indirect tax (VAT) is where the state raises money With no income tax, revenue rests on a value-added tax of 15% and on import duties. Everyday consumption is therefore taxed regardless of income — the burden sits on spending, not earning.

What is not taxed There is no capital gains tax, no inheritance or estate tax, and no wealth tax. Holding and passing on personal assets is untaxed.

Citizenship is not tax residency — and mobility is the catch A Vanuatu passport does not, by itself, make you tax-resident, and it does not remove obligations to a country that taxes on citizenship, such as the United States. But weigh the real reason most people buy a CBI — travel — against the facts: Vanuatu has lost visa-free access to the Schengen area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. If mobility matters, compare it honestly against alternatives on our comparator, and read how each figure is checked in our methodology.