23 nomad visas come with a special tax rate. Here is what each one actually is.
Of the 49 open programmes we track across 46 countries, 23 carry a nomad- or new-resident-specific rate, exemption or holiday, 20 apply ordinary resident rates, and for 6 we could find nothing published either way. The regimes differ too much to rank, so each is stated in words, from the government's own terms, with the date we last read it.
What this does and doesn't say
"Special regime" means the government publishes a nomad- or new-resident-specific rate, exemption or holiday for this programme. Read the note before counting on it: in several rows the published exemption is the country's ordinary territorial rule restated for the programme, and the note says so. A country with no personal income tax at all is on the no-tax-on-foreign-income page instead. Two regimes people still get recommended are gone or narrower than advertised: Portugal's NHR closed to new entrants in 2024, and Spain's Beckham Law generally excludes freelancers.
Closed and never-opened programmes are excluded from every count.
The 23 with a special regime
Read the note, not just the row. Several of these are time-limited, several are conditional on staying under the ordinary day count, and one or two are exemptions that apply only to income from a specific source.
| Programme | The regime, as published | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Barbados | Unusually explicit, and in your favour: Welcome Stamp holders are deemed NOT tax resident in Barbados and pay no Barbadian income tax on foreign earnings — and that holds even if you spend more than 182 days in the country during the tax year, which is normally the exact line that catches people. The programme's own end date (currently 31 December 2026) is the thing to watch, not the tax treatment. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica taxes territorially, so income earned from foreign clients or employers is outside the Costa Rican income tax net, and the Estancia is written as a non-resident stay category. The trade-off is that this arrangement builds nothing: the routes that do lead to residency (Rentista, Pensionado, investor) come with their own tax posture. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Croatia | Croatia's is one of the cleanest arrangements in Europe: holders of the digital nomad permit are exempt from Croatian income tax on foreign-sourced income, and unusually that exemption holds even past the 183-day mark that would normally make you tax resident. The catch is the permit itself — 18 months, non-renewable — so the tax benefit has a hard expiry. Your home country still taxes you on its own terms. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Curaçao | @HOME holders owe no Curaçao income tax on foreign-earned income for the duration of the permit. Since the permit itself caps at a year, this is a clean twelve months rather than a long-term arrangement — and the Dutch Caribbean tax position changes entirely if you later move onto an ordinary residence permit. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Cyprus | Cyprus is unusual twice over. First, the 60-day rule: spend just 60 days here, spend under 183 in any other single country, and keep a permanent home and business ties, and you can be tax resident — and since 1 January 2026 that route no longer requires you to be non-resident elsewhere. Second, non-dom status gives 0% on dividends and interest (and, from 1 January 2026, rental income) for up to 17 years. Read the limit carefully though: non-dom exempts passive income, NOT employment or self-employment earnings, which is what most nomads actually live on. The visa and tax residency are separate applications. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Ecuador | Ecuador taxes territorially: foreign-sourced income is fully exempt, and only Ecuador-source income (local work, local business, rent on Ecuadorian property) is taxed at 0–35%. Combined with the residency route this is the strongest pairing in our dataset — few countries offer both a real path to settlement and no tax on foreign earnings. Document your foreign sourcing properly for the SRI, and remember the flip side of residency: no more than 90 days outside Ecuador per calendar year. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| El Salvador | El Salvador taxes territorially, so a salary or client income paid from outside the country is not subject to Salvadoran income tax. That is the clearest thing about this programme — as noted above, the renewal and residency rules are considerably less settled. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Greece | Greece halves it: nomads who move their tax residency here get a 50% exemption on qualifying income for up to seven years. On €60,000 that works out around a 9.83% effective rate. You become tax resident on passing 183 days in a calendar year, at which point Greece taxes worldwide income — the exemption reduces the bill, it doesn't remove the obligation to file. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Indonesia | The common belief that Bali is tax-free on a nomad visa is wrong. Indonesia taxes residents on worldwide income, and holding an E33G KITAS is treated as intent to reside — which can make you a tax resident regardless of your day count. There is a territorial option (PMK-18/2021) covering only Indonesian-sourced income for your first four fiscal years, but it is limited to foreigners with 'particular expertise' in science, technology or mathematics, and it must be formally applied for. It is not automatic and most remote workers won't qualify. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Italy | Italy's impatriati regime exempts 50% of employment or professional income for five years (60% with a dependent child under 18), capped at €600,000 — but read the eligibility before counting on it. You must have been non-resident for the previous three years, hold a degree or qualify as highly skilled, and work mainly in Italy. Crucially it covers employment and professional income and EXCLUDES business and freelance income, which rules out a large share of nomads. A dedicated digital-nomad incentive has been proposed in the 2026 budget process but is not law. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Japan | The visa's six-month cap and the tax line are designed to agree: stay 183 days or fewer, be paid by a foreign employer with no Japanese branch, and Japan treats you as non-resident and does not tax that foreign income. Because the visa cannot be extended past six months, you are structurally unlikely to cross into residency — which is arguably the programme's main appeal, given how heavily Japan taxes residents on worldwide income. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Malaysia | Malaysia taxes territorially and foreign-sourced income received by individuals is generally exempt — the reason DE Rantau looks so attractive on tax. Watch the expiry date, because it has moved: the individual exemption was previously running out on 31 December 2026, and Budget 2026 extended it to 31 December 2036. Confirm the current position with LHDN before relying on it, since this is precisely the kind of provision that gets revisited. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Malta | Nomad Residence Permit holders get a 12-month exemption from Maltese income tax on authorised work income, then a flat 10% from year two — against standard rates reaching 35%. The Malta Tax & Customs Administration formally clarified this in January 2026. Note the mechanism: the 10% applies to income remitted to Malta, so how and when you bring money in matters as much as what you earn. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Mauritius | Mauritius does have a personal income tax, but it works on a remittance basis for foreign income: only what you actually bring into Mauritius is taxable there. In practice that produces a near-zero outcome for many Premium Visa holders — but it is an outcome you have to manage, not an automatic exemption, so how and when you remit money is the whole question. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Panama | Panama taxes territorially — income earned outside Panama is not subject to Panamanian income tax — and the remote-worker visa is explicitly a non-resident permit that does not establish tax residency at all. That combination is why the 18-month cap stings: the tax treatment is about as clean as it gets, and it expires. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Philippines | PRA publishes a specific set of exemptions and we record only those: SRRV holders are exempt from tax on pensions and annuities, from travel tax, and from customs duties on a one-time importation of household goods up to USD 7,000. ⚠ We have NOT verified how the Philippines taxes other foreign income for a resident alien, nor the day threshold at which residency attaches, so both fields are left blank rather than guessed. The pension exemption is not a general foreign-income exemption and must not be read as one. | Verified Aug 2026 |
| Portugal | Ignore any guide still selling you NHR: the Non-Habitual Resident regime closed to new entrants in 2024 and was replaced by IFICI (often marketed as 'NHR 2.0'), which is much narrower. IFICI gives a flat 20% on qualifying income for ten years, but eligibility is restricted to specific activities — scientific research, technology, qualified roles in strategic sectors, startup work. A remote worker serving foreign clients generally does not qualify simply by holding a D8. Assume ordinary Portuguese rates on worldwide income unless a tax adviser confirms you fit IFICI. Note also that the habitual-residence test can make you resident below 183 days. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Romania | One of the strongest deals in Europe and not widely known: Law No. 69/2023 exempts digital nomad visa holders from Romanian income tax and social contributions on foreign-earned income. It pairs oddly with the visa's own 24-month ceiling — the tax treatment is excellent, the runway is short. Standard residency rules (183 days) still frame everything, and your home country taxes you on its own terms regardless. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Seychelles | Workcation Retreat holders are not subject to Seychelles tax on income earned from outside the country — the exemption is one of the programme's main selling points. As always it exempts you locally and does nothing about your home country's claim on the same income. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Spain | The Beckham Law caps tax at a flat 24% (on income up to €600,000) for six years instead of progressive rates reaching 47%, and DNV holders were explicitly made eligible by the Startups Act. The distinction that decides your bill: if you are EMPLOYED by a foreign company you can opt in — if you are a FREELANCER invoicing clients, you generally cannot, and you face progressive rates of 19–47% on worldwide income plus compulsory autónomos social security. Same visa, very different outcome. You also must not have been a Spanish tax resident in the previous five years. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Taiwan | Past 183 days you may be deemed tax resident, bringing worldwide income into scope at progressive rates. Taiwan does offer a first-time foreign professional incentive — a 50% exemption on salary above roughly US$102,000 for up to five years — but note the shape of it: it only helps above a high threshold, so it does nothing for most nomads. Taiwan extended the visa itself from six months to two years in January 2026, which makes crossing the residency line far more likely than it used to be. | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Thailand — Long-Term Resident Visa (LTR) | SOURCE: Royal Decree No. 743 (English text hosted on ltr.boi.go.th), read 2026-09-07. §5 exempts a Wealthy Global Citizen, Wealthy Pensioner or Work-from-Thailand Professional from income tax on assessable income "derived in the previous tax year from an employment, or from business carried on abroad, or from a property situated abroad, and brought into Thailand". §3 charges a Highly-Skilled Professional 17 percent on employment income from a targeted-industry employer; that track is not in the §5 exemption. Notification of Income Tax No. 427 conditions both on holding the visa and filing. The 180-day rule is the general Revenue Code test and still decides whether you are resident; the exemption is what stops the remittance rule from biting. foreign_income_taxed is recorded as false for the three exempt tracks — a Highly-Skilled Professional should read it as "not on foreign income, 17% on Thai salary". | Verified Sep 2026 |
| Uruguay | Uruguay taxes territorially: foreign-earned income is not taxed here, and that has held despite OECD pressure to move to worldwide taxation. New tax residents also get an 11-year holiday on foreign dividends and interest, after which those are taxed at a flat 12% — note that is passive income, not your remote salary, which is a distinction several guides get wrong. Holding the nomad permit does not by itself make you tax resident, but passing 183 days in a calendar year can. The DGI has been scrutinising foreign-source claims harder lately, so keep contracts, client records and bank statements. | Verified Jul 2026 |
The 20 where ordinary rates apply
No nomad-specific break is published for the programme. Some of these still don't tax foreign income, because the country taxes territorially or not at all — the column says which.
| Programme | Foreign income taxed | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Antigua and Barbuda | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Argentina | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Bahamas | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Brazil | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Colombia | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Czechia | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Estonia | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Hungary | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Aug 2026 |
| Mexico | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Philippines — Digital Nomad Visa | Not published | Verified Aug 2026 |
| South Africa | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| South Korea | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Sri Lanka | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Thailand — Digital Nomad Visa (DTV) | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Jul 2026 |
| Thailand — Education Visa (ED) | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Aug 2026 |
| Thailand — Privilege Visa (ex-Elite) | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Sep 2026 |
| Thailand — Retirement Visa (O-A) | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Aug 2026 |
| Thailand — Work Visa (Non-B) | yes — taxed once you become tax resident | Verified Aug 2026 |
| United Arab Emirates | no — foreign-earned income is not taxed locally | Verified Jul 2026 |
Where we don't know, we say we don't know
For 6 open programmes — Albania, Cape Verde, Latvia, Montenegro, Namibia, Serbia — we could not find a published nomad-specific tax treatment, and we are not going to assume one exists. Unpublished is not "no", and it is not "yes" either.
How we counted
One record per programme, each carrying the government's published position and the date we last checked it. A weekly job re-reads every source page we can reach and flags changes; a dozen or so block automated requests and are checked by hand. Our method and its limits are at how we verify, and the full dataset is public under CC BY 4.0.
Some of these regimes switch on only once you are tax resident and others exist precisely to keep you non-resident, so the day count matters as much as the rate — see when you become a tax resident.
Tax regimes change, often yearly, and eligibility depends on your circumstances — confirm the current position on the official source linked from each country's page before relying on it. This page is informational, and is not tax, legal or immigration advice. See how we verify this data, and tell us if something here is out of date.
Frequently asked questions
23 of the 49 open programmes we track carry a nomad- or expat-specific tax rate, exemption or holiday: Barbados, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Seychelles, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand — Long-Term Resident Visa (LTR) and Uruguay. They differ too much to compare as one number — a flat rate, a 50% exemption, a full exemption for the permit's duration, a remittance basis — so this page states each one in words rather than ranking them.
No. The Non-Habitual Resident regime closed to new entrants in 2024, and its replacement mostly excludes remote workers. Guides still recommending NHR are out of date. Portugal's record on this page carries the current position.
Generally not. Digital nomad visa holders were made eligible by the Startups Act, but the regime is for people EMPLOYED by a company — a remote employee of a foreign firm can opt in to the flat 24% for six years, while the self-employed are mostly excluded, which is exactly who it tends to be recommended to. Spain's record states the distinction as published.
A rate, exemption or holiday that a nomad or new resident gets and an ordinary resident does not, published by the government. A country with no personal income tax at all is listed as not taxing foreign income, not as a special regime. Where we found nothing published we say so rather than assume one exists. The full dataset is public under CC BY 4.0.