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I am an unmarried EU citizen with no children. I work freelance and my workplace is Internet. I'd like to relocate to another EU country where I can pay least income tax on my global income.

Regarding these, which countries should I consider? what are the tax rates that I should expect there?

joat
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    What about languages spoken? Setting up as a freelancer isn't always the easiest thing to do if you don't speak the language of the country you're in, let alone day-to-day stuff – Gagravarr Apr 03 '15 at 11:07
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    One more factor to take into account: Where are your clients? If they are spread across many countries, it's not necessarily an issue but if most of them are from the same country, you could still be considered a fiscal resident there. – Gala Apr 03 '15 at 12:41
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    Also, income tax is not always the main thing freelancers have to pay, mandatory retirement and health insurance contributions typically are. It might feel like a loss of income and you might not like it but this is best seen as deferred income rather than a tax. Avoiding those contributions might still be advantageous for you but you do have to consider the benefits side as well to get the full picture (How will you pay for your retirement? What would happen in case of serious health issue?). Getting out of social insurance systems is not risk and cost-free. – Gala Apr 03 '15 at 12:48
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    @Gala, Gagravarr: You are right about all the point you made but these are not my concerns in this question. The question is ONLY about income tax. – joat Apr 03 '15 at 22:39
  • Fair enough, +1 from me. – Gala Apr 07 '15 at 12:15
  • The rate of income tax depends on the amount of income. The answer may be different depending on whether you make, for example, €40,000 or €200,000, or some other amount. – phoog Mar 22 '16 at 13:37
  • Don't forget that you get what you pay for. Places that are cheap, are cheap for a reason… – gerrit Nov 29 '18 at 11:18

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra, Bulgaria or Macedonia by the looks of this list. 5%, 7%, 10% and 10% flat rate respectively.

Essah
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  • +1 for the link but among those only Bulgaria is an EU country. Note that the table only includes the rate for the top tax bracket. Unless you are a millionaire, your effective tax rate will not be anywhere near it (and even then, chances are you have many ways to pay less at your disposal). – Gala Apr 07 '15 at 12:10
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    Well if 7% is top tax bracket for Bulgaria that would make it an even better choice no? Unless another country somehow has lower mid-range tax but higher top tax bracket, which sounds unlikely. – Essah Apr 07 '15 at 13:15
  • Bulgaria really does have a kind of flat tax so you would in fact pay 10% there. But my point is that it's not as dramatically lower for most people as the figures in the table would suggest, which means it's not as useful as it seems to make comparisons. – Gala Apr 07 '15 at 14:13
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    Incidentally, if you earn money elsewhere in the EU and you are prepared to live in Bulgaria, you don't really care about tax rates, you'll live like a king based on the difference in standard of living so I am certainly not suggesting it's a bad choice from a financial point of view. I have some friends who actually did it for a few years, they grew tired of it and had to leave for professional reasons but they still rave about how cheap it was to leave in a huge house, get good food, etc. and the general quality of life compared to living in an expensive West European city. – Gala Apr 07 '15 at 14:22
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    https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/global-tax/1458-best-countries-to-avoid-paying-income-tax-42423

    Bulgaria does appear to be the best choice, with Andorra and Bahamas not in the EU and Monaco being basically rich people only)

     – Essah Apr 07 '15 at 14:27
  • From your list Romania is somewhere near average regarding taxes. 16% + 5.5% + 10.5% for self-employed. But what most don't know is that Romania has a system where you pay your taxes based on a yearly set value which is based on the average income. Although the value was increased every year it's quite small (6500 EUR) meaning you pay the taxes just as if you would be making this amount per year. The system has an upper limit of 100k. – mkbrv Oct 15 '17 at 13:25
  • How about Cyprus? – Julius Hamilton Jan 24 '23 at 16:41