buying a passport

[-eli-]

Some talk about economic citizenship @ the moment. Will let u know.

[jburton]

Some talk about economic citizenship @ the moment. Will let u know.

any word on anything?

I haven't seen anything in the papers (i read the Observer, Caribarena, and 365Antigua daily).

we would like to invest in a business in Antigua and move there from Canada.

[jhmax]

As I understand it, there's already the 'high net worth individual' scheme, whereby foreign nationals can elect to buy a house, stay in AG for at least one month a year, then pay US$20K a year to AG government in lieu of all other income taxes, and are accepted (by AG Government) as resident in AG for tax purposes. Does that get the individual an AG passport and full AG residence status, or just the 'temporary residence' stamp given to all foreign resident property owners?

Not that it's particularly relevant to me of course

Max

[jburton]

As I understand it, there's already the 'high net worth individual' scheme, whereby foreign nationals can elect to buy a house, stay in AG for at least one month a year, then pay US$20K a year to AG government in lieu of all other income taxes, and are accepted (by AG Government) as resident in AG for tax purposes.

yeah... high net worth... perhaps a program for "mediocre net worth"...?

i guess my net worth is maybe higher than Stanford's right now (except for money he has stashed god knows where), but...

i was kind of hoping for something that looked more like St. Kitts and Nevis:

"Citizenship for life, for applicant and all eligible family members"

"Requirements
An application requires a non-refundable cash payment of US$35,000 for a single applicant plus US$15,000 for each dependent, plus a US$2,000 fee for a background check on any person included in the application, who is over 18 years of age.

In addition to the above fees are the associated legal fees which will vary depending on the number of persons included in the application, but are usually in the region of US$15,000.

Additionally, the applicant must invest a minimum of US$350,000 in government designated real estate, among which there are some excellent real estate developments. Please note that the investment required was increased by the government from the old level of US$250,000 in late 2006. The total financial cost of economic citizenship for a single person in St. Kitts is therefore approx US$400,000."

http://www.caribbeanlandandproperty.com/articles.php?20

personally i'd be fully hip to "economic permanent resident" rather than demanding citizenship. we would like to share the sun and create a few meaningful and decent paying jobs as ongoing contributions to the island

[jhmax]

Ah, I see - what I don't know about these schemes is whether they're recognised by other governments. For example, as a UK citizen, the UK Revenue will try to assess me on my global income unless I meet THEIR qualifications for no longer being resident. So, say Joe buys a house in AG, pays $20K to AG government for a 'high net worth' deal, and spends more than 1 month in AG but more than 182 days per year in UK. So far as the AG government is concerned, Joe has no income tax to pay them. However, as I understand it the UK Revenue would just ignore that, and will continue to tax him on his UK income, and any other income it can find worldwide, including income of a business in AG if he has one.

If Joe spent less than 91 days in UK per year for 4 years and didn't have a family home there, he would possibly escape the UK tax regime, and then I guess an income of well over US$100K/year, might make it worth Joe considering the current Antigua $20K deal (at 25% income tax top rate after allowances in Antigua, I understand?) - hope that's correct.

It was the case until recently (?) that by the act of buying property in Antigua (for which one requires a foreign national's landowning permit, which for most is a formality), you got a 'temporary residence' stamp in your passport - but again, that means nothing to foreign tax authorities like UK, who just look at the reality of where you spend your time. So far as I can tell, the 'temporary residence' stamp means I can use the 'nationals' line in VC Bird Immigration if the visitor's line is too long, and apply for a permanent AG driving licence, and that's about it.

Does economic citizenship enable a person to have dual nationaility? My cousin has dual UK/Canadian, and the joint aspect has been useful once or twice.

Max

[jburton]

Max, we have the same kind of rules on income in Canada - it is based on where you spend your time.

Canada Revenue Agency says:

"Deemed residents

You are a deemed resident for tax purposes for the entire tax year if you:

stay in Canada for 183 days or more in that tax year;
do not have residential ties with Canada; and
are not considered a resident of another country under the terms of a tax treaty."

Or, at least that's how it works for for plebes like me. I understand there have been some interesting residency/taxation court battles with some ultra-rich types, but not the kind i would ever be able to have...

We actually want to move to Antigua.

Does economic citizenship enable a person to have dual nationaility? My cousin has dual UK/Canadian, and the joint aspect has been useful once or twice.

the St. Kitts rules as stated by the site cited above are:

"Dual Citizenship is permitted, without the requirement to notify the applicants home country, and without any need for the applicant to reside in St. Kitts/Nevis."

Again, we want to be be more straightforward and move to, invest in, help develop, and positively participate in the life of Antigua.

Just to blather on about our interest in this, we mostly want to make sure that if we put the large majority of our investment eggs in the Antigua basket that they are reasonably protected and we can't just be booted out of the country on the capricious whim of someone who wants to screw us over... We hope that some sort of investor residency guarantee, or economic citizenship, or something else like it would allow us to undertake our plans with only the normal sort of business failure, hurricane, robbery, health, personal stupidity, etc reasons to ruin our plan.

As we approach closer to our planned date of departure from Canada (4 years, 7 months, 1.5 weeks [or so] - but who's counting...?) we will be making more formal contacts with the Government of Antigua and their Canadian offices in addition to our existing local contacts and real estate folks to work with the rules as the exist at that time. After all, there are a couple of Antigua and Barbuda elections to go through between now and then.

[jburton]

Stolen in entrety from the Observer. Give them the advertising hit and click on the link to view the page. I just didn't want this information to get missed.

http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=72820

Taskforce commends Citizenship Investment Programme

By Alicia Simon - Thursday, March 22nd, 2012.

St. John;s Antigua- If the taskforce set up to advise on the feasibility of the Citizen Investment Programme (CIP) has its way, government will not only receive US $100 million in investment but US $5.5 million in fees.

The advisory team is urging government to ”move with haste and thoroughness to initiate its Economic Citizenship Programme.”

In the unreleased document obtained by OBSERVER Media, the government and the CIP Taskforce endorsed the programme that would grant citizenship or residency to “qualified” foreign investors.

The intention is to generate revenue to fund income-generating projects in the private and public sector through innovation and entrepreneurship.

There are three ways in which applicants can qualify for citizenship under the CIP. They could acquire at least US $500,000 worth of property on island; contribute no less than US $500,000 to the development fund or make a business investment starting at US $1.5 million.

A service fee would also be required, with the main applicant paying US $40,000 while a spouse and any dependent children must pay US $20,000.

To obtain residency on island, applicants must make a minimum property purchase of US $250,000.

The approved investor would receive an Antiguan & Barbudan passport that would be valid for five years, with an option for renewal thereafter. The right to vote would not “automatically be conferred” with the receipt of the CIP passport.

To become eligible, applicants complete an interview, produce a certificate of good health and cannot have been convicted of certain crimes; including drug-trafficking, sexual offenses and money laundering, to name a few.

The investor must deposit 100 per cent of the contracted sum after due diligence is completed. Additionally, the applicant must reside in Antigua & Barbuda for 30 days out of the year or 150 days over a five-year period.

The taskforce also recommended that special areas in the country be designated for the initiatives that were referred to as “resort districts”. The document alluded to recommended areas, but did not list them.

Only 200 passports would be issued per year; the report noted that this would constitute a 2 per cent population increase over a five-year period.

The CIP Taskforce comprises government personnel, local business associations and private businesspersons.

The taskforce was first convened in June 2011 and was charged with exploring the possibilities of an Economic Citizenship Programme for Antigua & Barbuda.

The initiative was announced in the 2012 Budget Statement report.

If passed, the Citizen by Investment Unit would be placed under Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer’s portfolio.

If implemented, Antigua & Barbuda would join St Kitts/Nevis, Dominica and Austria, who currently have similar economic citizenship programmes.

Currently, the initiative is not before Parliament and a date has not been set for it to be debated.

----

Again, give the observer a clickthrough on this article so they can get the advertising revenue, folks

http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=72820

[jhmax]

Word is the property developers are pushing for economic citizenship in an effort to get some movement into the moribund international property market. However, when any country effectively sells passports with property there must be a danger of attracting a bunch of dodgy individuals with a certain amount of money. These immigrants with US$500K to spend on property won't be economic migrants looking to start at the bottom, work hard and make everything more successful. Some may be retirees looking to pay less tax, and some may come because they're unwelcome elsewhere. I guess one could argue that the 'temporary residence with property' scheme amounted to the same thing without a capital requirement - except temporary residence is/was (it appears to be unclear what's happening currently) quite a different thing to having a full Antiguan passport.

What do Antiguans think about this?

[-eli-]

Max, good point. Many people think that with or without a passport many expats coming here to be full time residents while paying almost no tax at all is kinda lame. However, this happens all over the world. In fact, Canada has a nice system offering passports in a similar way to people coming to invest a few $$.

I agree with you about real estate people pushing for it. The island is covered in desperate real estate people who are hoping for anything that will bring back the glory days.

Very few Antiguans use this forum sadly, but i am sure that most of them would want to know how the trickle down of an economic passport will help them in the long run. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT is something people talk about but is rarely put into proper practice here.

[jburton]

i agree with your scepticism Max and Eli

the element i am looking for in the various arrangements is the ability to work, running my own business if i invest in Antigua

i pay taxes here in Canada, I'll pay taxes in Antigua

it will actually cost me some fair scratch to move because of the various tax penalties associated with becoming an "ex-resident" of Canada

we just really want to live and work in Antigua - and have hopes and dreams about contributing in a meaningful way to the sustainable development of Antigua, and to the social fabric of the island

and that's not just a sop to you in particular or the other Antiguan eco folks, Eli - i am an eco person here in Canada too

i'm also hoping that at least some of the regulations surrounding solar and wind and the APUA will be modified by the time we move so we can plan and build to be green