Can I avoid tax on my crypto by moving to a low-tax country?
Only for what happens after you genuinely leave. The country you are leaving will usually tax the gain accrued up to the departure, or retain a claim over it, so the move changes the tax on future growth rather than on the gain you already have. Two conditions do the work: the departure has to be real in fact and not merely on paper, and the departure-year liability has to be computed and settled. Move first and plan afterwards and you generally get the charge without the benefit.
How do I prove I actually stopped being a resident?
With a record of what changed, built at the time. Residence is decided on facts, and the facts that matter are ordinary ones: where your home is, where your family lives, where your bank accounts and memberships and health cover sit, and where you spend your days. A plan that consists of a flight booking and a new address is thin. Assemble the evidence as each tie is cut, date it, and keep it together, because the question is usually asked years later by someone with an interest in the other answer.
Does the exit charge apply to gains I made before I moved?
That is exactly what it reaches. The charge normally falls on the gain accrued to the date of departure, which is the portion attributable to the years you were resident — the growth the former country considers its own. Growth after a genuine departure is a matter for the new country. This is why the departure date is the variable that matters, and why the value of the portfolio on that date has to be established and documented rather than estimated after the fact.
Should I sell my coins before or after the move?
It depends on which side of the departure date the gain falls and what each country does with it, and the answer is specific enough that a general rule is worth nothing here. What is general is the sequence: establish when residence ends and on what evidence, work out how the accrued gain is dealt with at that point, and only then decide on disposals. Selling on the strength of an assumed departure date that the facts do not support is the common and expensive mistake.
What ties do I have to cut before the move counts?
There is no checklist that settles it, because the test weighs the whole picture rather than scoring items off a list. In practice the heaviest are a home kept available for you, a spouse or dependent children remaining behind, and continuing to spend a substantial part of the year in the old country. Lighter ties still matter cumulatively. Work out which ties you are keeping and why, document the ones you cut and when you cut them, and be honest about the picture they add up to.
What if I move back a year or two later?
Then the original departure gets looked at again in the light of what you did next, and a short absence with ties left intact reads very differently from a genuine relocation that later changed. Returning does not automatically undo anything, but it invites the question of whether residence ever really ended. If a return is possible, the contemporaneous evidence of the departure matters more rather than less. It is what distinguishes a real move that changed from a departure that was never real.
What is a double tax treaty and what does it actually do?
It is an agreement between two countries that divides up the right to tax. Article by article it decides which country taxes employment income, dividends, interest, royalties, pensions, property and business profits — and where both may tax, it caps what the source country can withhold and tells the other to give credit. It also breaks residence ties and opens a government-to-government channel for disputes. What it never does is apply itself: a treaty position is claimed. See our treaty work.
I work remotely from another country for a company back home — who taxes me?
Usually the country you are physically in, because employment income is generally sourced where the work is done, with your residence country taxing it as well if you are resident there and giving credit. Three things follow: your employer may acquire withholding and social security obligations where you sit, a treaty tie-breaker may be needed if both countries call you resident, and a short trip that becomes a long stay can cross a residence threshold nobody was watching. See remote workers and digital nomads.
