Latest / IMI Podcasts / This Week in Investment Migration - Mar 4, 2023

Transcript

This Week in Investment Migration - Mar 4, 2023 · IMI Podcasts

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to This Week in Investment Migration.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Singapore's Economic Development Board has decided to sharply raise the minimum investment required to qualify for permanent residency in the city-state through its global investor program.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: The threshold will rise from investments of 10 million and 25 million Singapore dollars in categories A and B, both of which have hitherto demanded a minimum investment of only$2.5 million Singapore dollars.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even under the previous thresholds, interest was limited.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: By the government's own count, the program has averaged 60 approvals a year since 2020.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Property developers, industry associations, and the governor of semi-autonomous Madeira all expressed their vehement opposition to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa's intention to close the country's golden visa program.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Accusing the government's housing policy of being more ideological than logical, they warned the state's moves would tarnish the country's reputation, cause an unnecessary loss of sorely needed foreign capital, and remove Portugal's competitive advantages.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Madalena Monteiro, a lawyer specializing in Italy's Dolce Visa, said during an appearance on our Mobility Standard podcast that there was a ninety nine percent chance the Senate would introduce a real estate option for the program in the coming weeks.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: As golden visa options in the EU dwindle following the recent closure of Ireland's IIP and the heralded end of Portugal's Golden Visa, the Italian alternative has been the subject of renewed interest.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: The lack of a property investment option has thus far prevented the Dolce Visa from garnering the application volume of its southern European peers.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: In an impassioned opinion piece, Martin Saint-Hilaire and Philippe May argue that Vanuatu might as well give up on meeting the EU's ever-shifting standards for citizenship by investment programs to retain visa-free travel to Schengen.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they propose the Pacific Nation target the mid-market, focusing on citizenship investors motivated by factors unrelated to travel to Europe.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Specifically, they propose reducing the program's asking price from$130,000 to somewhere between$75,000 and$95,000.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Echoing many of their views, commentator Brian Greco maintains that the market's over reliance on access to Europe as a CBI selling point places such programs in a vulnerable position.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Stefan Todic, another IMI columnist, asks whether there's still hope for investment migration in the EU and whether the industry itself could have done more to avert Brussels' ongoing and recently successful anti-RCBI campaign.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholas Nicky Gowder, meanwhile, explains the nuances of the link between citizenship and taxation in Malta.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: For the first time publicly, the UK's Minister of Security confirmed his department was scrutinizing Caribbean CIPs over concerns they might provide a so-called back door to the UK, an ostensible concern long since popularized by members of the European Parliament.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: The minister highlighted Dominica's CIP in particular, a program he had been mortified to see advertised in British Airways in Flight magazine.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: In an excerpt from our new report, Eleven Special Regimes for Low Tax Living in High Tax Europe, we outlined two favorable policies that allow investors and others on passive incomes to live in Greece while paying an effective tax rate in the single digits.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: In their second installment of a four part series on expatriation from the United States, David Lesperance and Melvin Warshaw detail the five steps Americans who wish to renounce their citizenship must take, also highlighting potential tax related pitfalls to avoid.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.