Territorial Tax Countries: the Full List, Not the Usual Seven

A territorial tax country taxes only what is earned inside it. What you earn elsewhere is outside its base: it is not an exemption you apply for, it is taxable matter that does not exist.

The lists you will find name seven to ten. There are eighteen, and we hold the taxing basis of all 217 countries in the ranking.

First, what territorial is not

It is not a zero rate. The UAE is on a worldwide basis with a rate of zero. The difference looks academic and is not: a rate changes with a stroke of a pen, a base is a structure. Oman has just shown it, introducing an income tax on 1 January 2028, and its worldwide basis will then reach everything, including what you earn elsewhere. A territorial country creating a tax would still reach only local income.

Nor is it "remittance". On a remittance basis, foreign income is taxed only if it enters the country. That is very different: you do have to bring in enough to live on. It is why Ireland, which offers the best-known non-dom regime in Europe, sits only at rank 173rd in our ranking.

The eighteen, in order

The best placed: Macau rank 11th, Belize rank 12th, Hong Kong rank 17th, Paraguay rank 19th, Singapore rank 26th, Georgia rank 31th, Panama rank 33rd.

Macau has just joined. The territory moved to territorial taxation on 1 January 2026. One reservation to state: for a resident that is a constituent entity of a multinational group, foreign income stays within the scope of complementary tax.

The middle of the table: Botswana rank 35th, Malaysia rank 36th, Guatemala and the Philippines rank 44th, Bolivia rank 48th, the Seychelles rank 51th.

And Central America, which weighs heavily here: Costa Rica and El Salvador rank 56th, Honduras and Nicaragua rank 64th, plus Namibia rank 67th.

Ten of those eighteen appear in none of the lists we read.

The rule that demolishes half the advice

Work physically performed in a country is locally sourced there. Even if your client is in London. Even if they pay into a foreign account. Even if your company is elsewhere.

What counts is where you were when you worked.

Direct consequence: territoriality does not protect the nomad working from the beach. It protects the person whose income genuinely comes from elsewhere: an investor, a passive partner, someone drawing royalties or dividends from foreign companies.

The freelancer coding from Tbilisi produces Georgian-source income, and Georgia is territorial. That is exactly why its small business status at 1% exists and is worth having: it does not dodge the rule, it makes local source cheap. See our article on freelancers.

What territoriality also does not protect you from

Your country of origin. As long as your home, your main activity or the centre of your economic interests stays there, that country taxes you, and your new country's basis changes nothing.

Controlled foreign company rules. France, Germany and many others can look through a passive foreign company and tax you directly on its results.

A lack of substance. Panama and Costa Rica now require genuine economic substance for passive income. A shell with no office, no staff and no activity no longer holds.

The exit tax. None of the eighteen is in the EU or the EEA. The French deferral of payment is automatic only if the country has signed with France both an administrative assistance convention and an assistance-in-recovery convention. Failing that: application, tax representative, guarantees, and 90 days' notice.

The six remittance countries, and why they are not worth the eighteen

Six countries tax foreign income only if it is remitted: Malta, Mauritius, Barbados, Thailand, Ireland and Japan.

On paper that is close to territorial. In practice it is not: you do have to bring in enough to live on. A regime that exempts you provided you never touch your money does not exempt you.

Malta is the exception, and it is documented. Malta never taxes a foreign capital gain, even remitted. That is not deduced from its basis, it is written into its regime. It is what places it at rank 22nd with 8.4 out of 10 while showing 35% and 35%. See our guide.

And Thailand has changed: it now taxes remitted foreign income, which much of the web still describes as it was before.

So, where?

The full ranking gives all 217 countries with their basis, and the FiScore page explains how it enters the calculation.

Sources

Each country's taxing basis is on its own page, with its source: our control refuses a non-worldwide basis without one. They are not all equal, and we prefer to say so: Botswana and Namibia come from PwC, while Macau, Belize, Guatemala, Bolivia and the Seychelles come from specialist aggregators. Checked in August 2026.

This page informs, it does not advise. Where your income is sourced turns on your actual situation: have it looked at, as our terms say.