Gibraltar

On 18 June 2026, the Government announced that new Category 2 applicants must show net worth above GBP 5,000,000, more than double the previous GBP 2,000,000 threshold. The application fee rises from GBP 1,233 to GBP 5,000. Existing certificate holders keep the old threshold, and the headline tax figures have not changed. The announcement gave no effective date, so anyone close to filing should confirm with Gibraltar Finance which side of the change they fall on. Any advisory material still quoting GBP 2m is describing a door that has already closed.

Category 2 caps assessable income at GBP 118,000 a year under the Allowance Based System. That produces a minimum annual tax of GBP 37,000 and a maximum of GBP 42,380. Worldwide income above the cap is effectively untaxed in Gibraltar. There is no capital gains tax, no wealth tax and no inheritance or estate duty, and Gibraltar taxes on a territorial basis. A hard GBP 42,380 ceiling on a nine-figure income, in English and under English-derived law, makes this the cleanest capped-tax deal in Europe. Gibraltar is still a full CRS participant, though, so information flows to your other jurisdictions of connection.

There is no minimum stay, but you must hold approved qualifying residential accommodation available exclusively to you and your family for the entire tax year. You pay for the house whether or not you use it, and it cannot be let out. In Gibraltar's very constrained property market, that is a real and recurring cost. Securing qualifying accommodation is usually the critical path on timing, rather than the Gibraltar Finance approval itself. Applicants must also generally not have been resident in Gibraltar in the previous five years.

No. Category 2 confers no path to British citizenship and does not itself lead to permanent residence. It is a tax status that must be maintained continuously. The Government has confirmed that a person who does not maintain Category 2 status has no right to continue residing in Gibraltar. This is not a residence permit that survives its tax basis. Lose the status, and you lose the right to reside. Gibraltarians are British citizens with full British passports, but Category 2 status gives you none of that.

The UK-EU treaty, applying provisionally from 15 July 2026, removes routine land-border checks between Gibraltar and Spain. That is a genuine lifestyle upgrade, given Gibraltar has no airport of the same convenience. But it is also a tax risk. Living in Spain while claiming Gibraltar status has always been the classic error, and a frictionless border makes it easier to slip into. Spain's 2019 tax treaty with Gibraltar contains specific residency tie-breakers aimed squarely at this. The timing of the June 2026 net-worth increase alongside the treaty is not a coincidence. Gibraltar is filtering for a wealthier, more permanent population.

HEPSS, short for High Executive Possessing Specialist Skills, caps assessable income at GBP 160,000 with a fixed annual tax of GBP 39,940 under the Gross Income Based System. It was untouched by the June 2026 Category 2 repricing. Unlike Category 2, there is no net-worth test. But you must genuinely hold a senior Gibraltar role paying above GBP 160,000 in skills the local economy lacks, and the Finance Centre assesses that substantively. It refuses applications that look like Category 2 by another name. The status is contingent on employment. Lose the role, and you lose the status and the residence basis with it. For a fund principal or a gaming, insurance or crypto executive relocating a business, it is often cheaper and less scrutinised than Category 2. It is also the natural fallback for someone who fails the new GBP 5m net-worth test but has large earned income.

No, and this changes the real cost in a meaningful way. In the June 2026 announcement, the Government reaffirmed that Category 2 confers no entitlement to publicly funded schooling or healthcare. You need to budget private school fees and private medical cover for the whole family, on top of the GBP 37,000–42,380 tax headline and the cost of maintaining approved accommodation. The advertised tax ceiling is only part of the total picture.

Yes. Gibraltar has no renunciation requirement, so dual citizenship is allowed. That said, the point is somewhat academic here, because Category 2 offers no route to a Gibraltar or British passport in the first place. This is a tax-residence status, not a naturalisation programme. If a British passport is your goal, Category 2 is not the mechanism that gets you there.