in Zurich, one of the pioneers and leading specialists in international residence and citizenship programs and advises both private investors and governments.
Patrick Weil is a Professor at University of Paris-Sorbonne and Yale Law School. He is one of the leading academics in the field of international and comparative citizenship.
Marshall Langer is a Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and is recognized as the most experienced US tax attorney specialized in expatriation and international taxation.
Simon Anholt is an independent policy advisor who helps governments develop and implement strategies for enhanced economic, political and cultural engagement.
Rt. Hon. Denzil Douglas is the Prime Minister of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He is the longest serving Head of Government in the Americas.
About Henley & Partners
The production of this book has been made possible by the generous sponsorship of Henley & Partners.
Residence and citizenship planning are terms which were coined by Henley & Partners about twenty years ago when, at that time, most international lawyers and wealth planning professionals did not consider the subject to be of much relevance.
Over the years, Henley & Partners has emerged as the only global firm specialized and focused in this particular area of practice. International residence and citizenship planning has itself become a major topic among the increasing number of internationally mobile entrepreneurs as well as many wealthy individuals and families, who are interested in looking at alternative residence and citizenship solutions.
Lawyers such as Christian H. Kälin, the author of this book, as well as many others, further developed the discipline together with an entire group of specialists who now work at Henley & Partners. The firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Eric G. Major, who formerly built the most important Canadian immigrant investor business at HSBC, is another guiding light in the area of global residence and citizenship planning.
Today, individual clients as well as advisors and law firms worldwide rely on Henley & Partners for specialized advice and assistance in this delicate area where its expertise and experience are second to none.
The firm’s renowned Residence and Citizenship Practice Group advises private clients and their close advisors, as well as governments, on investor immigration and citizenship solutions. Henley & Partners is in contact with the government authorities of all relevant countries and constantly monitors the worldwide situation. The firm also assists in designing, implementing and operating investor immigration programs and gives relevant advice to governments. One of the most recent mandates is from Antigua and Barbuda, where Henley & Partners acts as special advisor to design, implement and administer the Citizenship-by-investment program for this country.
Besides advising clients on the possibilities of acquiring resident status, permanent residence and citizenship-by-investment, members of the Planning Group advise them on the (re-)acquisition of citizenship based on ancestry as well as on residence planning for private clients with a view to tax optimization and/or post-immigration citizenship acquisition.
Residence planning and related tax planning for private clients involves finding solutions for individuals and families who move internationally, own property in different countries and who often have complex international situations and requirements. In this regard, they work closely together with the firm’s Trust and Tax Planning Group, and our combined services cover not only tax, immigration and citizenship law, but also international private law, real estate structuring and more.
For many years, Henley & Partners has organized the Global Residence and Citizenship Conference, which is the most important such event in the world. It is held annually in mid-November in different locations each year. To check for the program of the next conference and to benefit from early registration discounts, please visit www.henleyglobal.com/events
For more information about the firm please visit www.henleyglobal.com
Acknowledgements
This work arose from my idea and the need for a first-rate, up-to-date and useful handbook on residence and citizenship options for private clients.
It was forward-thinking pioneers like US tax attorneys Marshall Langer and Stephen Gray who started to systematically plan for wealthy clients in terms of their residence and citizenship requirements, and have thus helped form the basis of this increasingly important field of private client advisory practice.
While there have been many different publications in the past, mainly information brochures, nothing of this kind, and in particular of this level of professional accuracy, has been attempted before. The publisher, Ideos Publications Ltd, concurred with this idea. Together with the author, they are now pleased to present the 3rd edition to interested readers.
A great deal of specialist knowledge, work and effort has gone into this project, and it has certainly proved worthwhile. As an expression of its overall concept, this volume can unquestionably be seen as a pioneering achievement. The author and publisher hope that our readers share this viewpoint as well as our enthusiasm for the project.
Certainly this book will be useful for many lawyers, private bankers, immigration specialists, tax planners and other private client advisors, but also governments and government agencies – they all require firsthand information in this increasingly important field. We are convinced that with this book we are making an important contribution in the advancement of private wealth planning.
No great book is created without the contribution of a great team supporting it, and this book, though it may not be great, is no exception. At this point, I would like to thank all those who have contributed to and supported this book. Special thanks are due to my colleagues at Henley & Partners and Ideos Publications, in particular Amanda Philp, Drew Markson, Ulrike Trux and Dominik Fehr, as all of them made a tremendous effort to help me produce this book. Furthermore I also thank the co-authors and the publisher, as well as the main sponsor, Henley & Partners. Thanks to their valuable support, they have also contributed significantly to the successful publication of this book.
CHRISTIAN H. KÄLIN
Zurich, May 2013
Foreword
They say the world is getting smaller and more interconnected every day. Indeed, the effects of globalization continue to expand and touch all aspects of our modern lives. In the age of internet, jet travel, free-flowing movement of capital and multinational companies, we have become both more interdependent and more mobile than at any time in human history. This poses interesting new challenges for governments, as the concepts of immigration, citizenship and even statehood are changing.
Malta introduced its first tax residence scheme more than twenty years ago. Around that time, it was Henley & Partners which started to focus on residence and citizenship planning when most international lawyers and wealth planning professionals were not considering the subject to be of great importance. Today, the world looks very different, and countries find themselves competing not only for international talent but also for investors, entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals and families.
Malta has risen to the challenge. Despite being a small country in the Mediterranean Sea, we are a globally networked nation with a vibrant multi-cultural population and a sizeable Diaspora
