Last month, the co-founder of crypto start-up Dune Analytics, Frederik Haga, posted on X about his experiences of trying to build a tech company in his home country, Norway.
Haga spent two years trying to get things off the ground with little money and almost a year without drawing a salary.
Finally, things began to turn around.
He secured millions in venture capital and his company became one of Norway’s first unicorns.
Then along came the government…
Looking at the impressive amount of money raised, they presented him with an unrealized capital gains wealth tax bill of “many times” his annual net salary. The fact that the company was loss-making and that all the investors held preference shares—meaning Haga wasn’t in a position to take any money out—was apparently irrelevant.
The Norwegian government wanted more than their due, as governments invariably do.
When Haga called out the situation publicly he found himself plastered on a “wall of shame” in the offices of Kirsti Bergstø, leader of Norway’s Socialist Left Party (whose support the Labouré Party and Centre Party rely upon for a majority).
According to Bergstø, this public display of alleged tax avoiders “gives her strength” in her political mission… which appears to be getting blood from a stone.
His post went viral with over 100 million views and even Elon Musk chiming in to label the situation “crazy.”
Crazy maybe, but governments looking for money they didn’t earn is nothing new. It’s one of the reasons I stress the importance of a Plan B as often as I do. When things get too crazy, too expensive, too unfair, too taxing, too toxic, the smart people have somewhere else to go…
Ideally a place where the government keep their hand out of your pocket (as much as any government ever will), their nose out of your business, and their boot off your neck.
Haga, for his part, declared the whole affair “a real life Atlas Shrugged” and followed the scores of rich Norwegians who have left their homeland over the last few years, taking with them a combined net worth north of $4 billion.
Indeed, he’s one of the estimated 128,000 millionaires who are said to have moved to a new country this year. The motivations for this millionaire migration are likely the same issues that have you looking offshore… opportunities, safety, asset protection, lifestyle factors, health care, taxes, and retirement…
Some of the destinations they’re choosing are tricky to move to without a millionaire’s bank balance… Switzerland (Haga’s choice), Singapore, New Zealand… but some make sense for those of more modest means… Italy, Greece, France, and, of course, Portugal.
For a lot of years, Portugal stood head and shoulders above many other European destinations for two key reasons: its Golden Visa program and its tax benefit rich Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) program.
Property in the country was a steal, too. I bought an ocean-view apartment in the historic seaside city of Lagos for under 100k euros. Four years later, as Portugal’s property market began to soar, I sold, locking in capital gains of 125%.
It proved to one of the best property investment purchases of my career (and that’s more than 50 buys across two-dozen countries) so I’ve long understood Portugal’s allure.
Today, the landscape in Portugal has changed considerably.
The NHR and its tax benefits have been scrapped for newcomers while the real estate investment option of the Golden Visa program—previously Europe’s most popular—is also no more (though the program remains with other investment options).
House prices have been rising here since 2015. Rents too… but there are still bargains to be found if you’re happy to look off the beaten track.
And while you can’t get a second passport by buying property anymore, you can still do so through naturalization. And normal (D7) residency is still one of the easiest in Europe—you can qualify with the equivalent of about $1,300 a month in income.
Plus, for investors, mortgages are available to foreigners in Portugal—and rates here are averaging 4.26%. You don’t even need to live here to qualify.
Bottom line: Portugal is still a land of opportunity.
There’s also other advantages to life here… great weather, a low cost of living, and the ability to get by with English if you locate yourself in an expat area such as Algarve or Lisbon.
It’s also ranked among the top 10 safest countries in the world. Its health care system lists as the 12th best in the world and, as a resident, health care is free or nearly so.
You have good options for daily flights from the United States to Lisbon. From there you can connect or drive easily to anywhere else in the country. From Lisbon, Faro, and Porto, you have many direct flight options to destinations across Europe.
Little wonder that this year alone some 800 millionaires have chosen to call it home. It makes sense to follow the money…
Stay diversified,
Lief Simon
Editor, Offshore Living Letter