Canadian immigration consultant says merge CIP with tax residency

A Canadian investment immigration consultant is suggesting that expanding the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) to include a tax residency programme could guarantee its sustainability and multiply the economic benefits of the host country.
In front of a crowd who would argue the contrary, President and founder of Apex Capital Partners Nuri Katz, declared that the object of CIPs in the Caribbean was simply to “sell passports”.
He then said, “We have to move toward a programme that will actually encourage people to spend time in that country. We have a chance to let people choose the country they want to be in and not just buy a passport as a commodity.”
Katz said this meant “creating a system whereby people can become legally tax residents”.
Someone’s tax residence is simply the state or jurisdiction in which they are liable to be taxed on their income. The criteria for someone to be taxed on that income within a given country or jurisdiction include the person being legally resident in that state.
Katz said part of any residency programme should include “ownership and not rental of a primary residence” and “a yearly physical presence test which we can make two months or three months”.
Some countries can attract high net-worth individuals because they have low domestic taxation rates. High net-worth individuals often migrate (for as long as needed to establish legal residency) to such countries so as to avoid higher and harsher taxes on their income in other countries.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)