Anguilla

Instead of a lump-sum investment, the High Value Resident, or HVR, programme sells a fixed annual tax bill. That is USD 75,000 per year in lieu of all other taxation, committed for a minimum of five consecutive years, for a total of USD 375,000. You must also own Anguillan property worth at least USD 400,000 and spend at least 45 days per year on the island. Anguilla itself levies no income tax, capital gains tax, gift tax, net worth tax, inheritance tax or corporate tax. So the USD 75,000 buys certainty and a capped bill, rather than a rate you have to defend.

That low bar is exactly the problem. Anguilla does not break your existing residency. Only your former country's rules can do that. A UK, German, Australian or Canadian client who spends 45 days in Anguilla and drifts through the rest of the year will very likely remain tax resident wherever their family, home or business actually is. 45 days is the lowest presence bar a serious tax authority is likely to accept as real, but likely to accept is not the same as will accept. The programme's economics only work above roughly USD 750,000–1,000,000 of annual income. Below that, a flat USD 75,000 is a bad trade.

Expect scrutiny. The OECD specifically flags residence-by-investment schemes that grant a personal tax rate below 10% on offshore financial assets without requiring at least 90 days of physical presence. It considers these schemes potentially high-risk for CRS circumvention, and the HVR, at 45 days, fits that profile exactly. Anguilla is a CRS participant, so banks will examine an Anguilla self-certification closely, and the OECD's framing may be cited against you. This is a real reputational and compliance friction, not a theoretical one.

Not on any sensible timescale. The HVR is a tax status, not permanent residence. The citizenship clock and the 45-day lifestyle are mutually exclusive. BOTC naturalisation needs 270-plus days a year for five years, and full British citizenship takes roughly 19 years in Anguilla. There is no Anguillan passport. Long-term residents naturalise as British Overseas Territories Citizens and then register as full British citizens. If you want the passport, you cannot also keep the 45-day life. You have to choose one.

The HVR buys tax status. Anguilla Select, known formally as Permanent Residence by Investment, buys residence. Anguilla Select offers a USD 150,000 non-refundable donation to the Capital Development Fund, plus USD 50,000 per additional dependant, or USD 750,000 in real estate held at least five years. Either route grants immediate permanent residence. But permanent residence is not tax residence. Holding it changes nothing for your home-country tax position unless you actually move and break residency there. If the tax result is the objective, the HVR is the relevant product. If a lawful bolt-hole and optionality is the objective, Anguilla Select is the one to look at.

At USD 150,000, the Capital Development Fund route is one of the cheapest permanent residencies anywhere in a zero-tax jurisdiction. Just as important, it grants residence rather than a passport. That means, unlike the CBI programmes, it is not drawing EU or US retaliation. For a client buying optionality, and somewhere lawful to go rather than a travel document, it is well priced. The trade-off is that the British-citizenship endgame is remote. The certificate itself carries no presence requirement, but a British passport runs only through British Overseas Territories citizenship. That is reached either through Belonger status, which generally follows many years of genuine residence, or through BOTC naturalisation, whose residence test demands actual physical presence for most of each year. It is a long, presence-heavy path, so it should not be priced as a British-passport route.

Yes to both. Anguilla permits dual citizenship, so you do not need to renounce your existing nationality. Both programmes cover a spouse and dependent children. Anguilla Select also allows dependent parents. Processing is quick, up to three months assuming no areas of concern, subject to a clean criminal record, due diligence clearance and verified source of funds. Keep in mind that Anguilla is very small, with limited healthcare, schooling and connectivity. Hurricane exposure is real too. The island was devastated by Irma in 2017.