Lithuania: The secret’s out – PLUS how AI could make income tax redundant and why EU Residency remains the most desirable
A compelling snapshot of Baltic life and opportunity, highlighting Estonia’s powerful passport, Lithuania’s fast-growing economy, and innovation-driven future, showcasing why Northern Europe is attracting living, investment, and growth opportunities.
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Did you know?
Well someone does! – Lithuania now has the highest increase in visitor numbers in Europe
To say the feeling on the ground here is electric, would be an understatement.
When I first arrived in Lithuania a little over three years ago, most of the inner city pavements were still Soviet era, broken, and frankly a challenge to walk over post lunch.
No body I spoke to back home, had heard of Lithuania, or at least knew anything about it, and whilst there were signs of prosperity everywhere, you could still buy an apartment in the central city for €40,000.
Those days are long gone.
I’ve never seen a place transformed as positively, as quickly, or as lucratively as Lithuania. And I’m not just talking about the capital, Vilnius. Every corner of this Baltic gem seems to be bursting at the seams with funding and opportunity.
Billions of euros have been invested in infrastructure over the last few years, and the results are obvious everywhere. The skyline is full of cranes, the roads and pavements are now amongst the best in the world, the air is crisp and clean, there is no vagrancy, no crime and no litter. The economy is growing steadily, and there are even more four-wheel-drive Bentleys and Lamborghinis on the road than when we first arrived.
I guess the secret’s out.
I recently learned there’s been a 35% increase in visitor numbers to Lithuania in the last 12 months. Those are tourists, and tourist spend money.
One of my early business ideas in Lithuania three years ago was to create a “tourism industry”. The country had cared so little about this part of its economy, that the tourism minister shared about six portfolios.
Now, in just three short years, the great people of Lithuania have decided to share some of the bounty they enjoy in their forests, lakes, and rivers, with the rest of us. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
I’ve never seen a place transformed as positively, as quickly, or as lucratively as Lithuania. And I’m not just talking about the capital, Vilnius.
Every corner of this Baltic gem seems to be bursting at the seams with funding and opportunity.
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French taxes eh?! – “Frenchman chased for taxes after three years in Iran prison”
When pondering your new European home base – don’t overlook this vital first step
I get to meet a lot of amazing people every month. Interestingly, we all fit about the same mold. We’re all what I like to call “bunker builders”. Out of the box thinkers, looking for another way to extract value, from a hard fought life.
We’ve all worked tirelessly in our home countries, often building a business or career equity, dreaming of a day when we can spend some of that equity exploring the world, and enjoying all the fruits Europe has to offer. As most non-indigenous Australasians came from British, or European stock, many would say, we’re coming home.
It doesn’t come as a great surprise to me then, when most people I speak to have plans to buy a house in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, or one of the bigger countries in Europe, that tend to take most of the headlines. Especially for Australasians, who are so far away from Europe, the “big ticket items” tend to get most of the attention.
In the last few years, helping people make that a reality in Europe, I’ve come to realize that the smart money actually hunts for a homebase in Europe, which ticks the following boxes (in no particular order).
– low tax
– good value property
– stable economy/political climate
– high safety
– natural beauty
– good connections, and links for internal European travel
Many are surprised then, when I explain why I chose Lithuania as my homebase in Europe. It’s just wasn’t on their radar. Yet.
Firstly, it ticks all of the boxes above. More importantly, on a political level, it’s very welcoming, and flexible. It sponsors business, and investment, it doesn’t punish it.
The people are kind and accommodating. I haven’t once been sprayed with a water pistol by locals complaining I’m spending too much money at a local restaurant. Though I have occasionally been doused with champagne, but that’s another story.
My free and friendly advice?
I suggest the vital first step in choosing your European life, is to select a home-base that ticks everything on the list above. Don’t get swayed by Mediterranean brochures, or Instagram feeds by influencers who are tax resident in the BVI, and living in Italy.
If you get your residency in France, for example, it’s in France that you will have to build, and maintain your European life. And of course, be subject to French taxes and cost of living.
If on the other hand you get your residency in Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, or one of the other smaller EU member states that tick all of the boxes above, then spend most of your time, if you choose to, in one of the larger European countries, you’ll be benefiting from a well-known, but often under utilised loophole.
The European Union prides itself on border-free travel within the Union. And whilst they are quickly tightening the external border, once you are in Europe, there are no internal border checks. This is a cornerstone principle of the European Union, and doesn’t look set to change any time soon. In practice, this means you can have a home-base in a country like Monaco, Bulgaria, or Lithuania, and spend a lot of your time somewhere else in Europe. Simply drive there, fly, or walk if you’re energetic (or a migrant). No harassment, no passport control.
In practical terms that also means that you will save a fortune maintaining your residency, in a country with lower priced real estate, cost of living, and crucially, significantly lower taxes.
Lithuania boasts a 6% tax rate, for annual income under €300,000. I’m not entirely sure I have enough zeros on my calculator to work out what the total French taxes would be by comparison.
This is why ultimately I am well settled in Lithuania, and enjoy frequent trips back to France, and of course staying elsewhere in Europe when I want a change of scenery. It’s usually no more than two hours, and a €40 flight.
Plus, I’m pretty sure that if you’re held captive in Iran, the Lithuanian authorities will understand. Perhaps their French counterparts could do the same. Headlines like this, and the attitudes that cause them do nothing to make the larger (more socialist) EU countries very attractive now for long-term residency.
“I was asked why I hadn’t filed a tax return for four years. I explained that I was in prison and hadn’t been able to do so. To which the tax officer replied that even in prison, you’re supposed to file your tax return,” he told Journal du Net, a magazine.
He said when he informed the agent that he had been detained in an Iranian prison, he was told: “In that case, your family could have done it.””
Follow-up to our last article on the troubles in the Middle East: Lately we’ve been seeing articles written about Dubai residents, expats, who without thinking have filmed what’s been going on, and Innocently shared events with friends or family, sometimes through a simple text message. Sometimes through their social media channel.
Of course what’s come to light, is the mentality of the UAE state. The indiscriminate application of laws which to us are nothing but foreign. Some of our own clients have had a rude awakening, One minute thinking they are living in a tax free paradise, the next ducking missiles, and arrest, at the hands of a totalitarian state hell bent on preventing any reputational damage.
I’ve been told firsthand that the only reason we’re not hearing about a lot more trouble in Dubai, forced detainment, harassment, threats or arrest, is because of the total media blackout.
Shiny “influencers” now live in fear of sharing news outside of Dubai, as electronic communications are tightly monitored, and now come with severe penalties for what we would term, freedom of expression.
I guess on the plus side, if it’s managed to shut the influencers up a little bit, there may be a positive spinoff after all. But I really can’t get behind a grandfather arrested for sending a message home to his family. Under any circumstances.
Watch this space in coming months, as more of these stories come to light.
“I don’t want to bang on about Dubai, God knows they’ve got their own trouble, but any state that will put you in prison for taking a picture they don’t like, in my opinion, isn’t what I’d call a “safe Haven”, or even a reasonable place to live.
….And no amount of tax saving will convince me otherwise. I’m happy to pay my 6%. I don’t need it to be zero.”
The smart money around here, and there is a lot of it, and it is very smart, knows that we’re going through a second “industrial revolution”.
Unless you’ve been buried in the sand over the last couple of years, you would’ve heard at least something about the way artificial intelligence is changing the way we live.
My robo-vacuum can detect whether it’s about to run over a power lead, or a dog, and act accordingly. Far more than I can say for my children pushing a vacuum.
In a recent press release the founder of Monzo bank, found a way to get some free publicity. He made the bold claim that AI could make income tax redundant in five years. Personally, I think he needs to take less crack with his cornflakes. I can’t see government’s allowing that to happen in five years. But it will probably happen.
The premise, of course though, is that income tax relies on people making an income. Employees filling factories, accounting firms, and all manner of white collar work that AI has pretty much made redundant already – they just literally haven’t got the memo yet.
In London last week KPMG announced they were axing 400 jobs in their auditing department alone. And I don’t think it’s because they’re going broke. Think of the savings on salaries alone, let alone maternity leave, sick leave, and the occasional idiot tripping over a power lead and suing for thousands. All the work of which is now complied by two or three people throwing spreadsheets at AI.
I have absolutely no doubt that what we know today, will be a distant memory in only a few years.
My grandmother used to tell me that she had to “heat the copper” (a very small copper bathtub), once a week in the kitchen of their small villa in Auckland, for her and her four sisters to wash their long hair. It was family bath time, and as the youngest, she went last. They shared a bed (let alone a room), and she often got smacked on the back of the hand with a ruler, for writing with her left hand. All pretty standard stuff.
I think today, pretty much of that would be “child abuse”. My seven-year-old boy loves himself a bubble bath, and isn’t opposed to spa jets.
I recently tried to hire an interior designer. The bright young girl quoted me €1800, to engage with us, before so much as submitting a sketch, fabric sample or shade of paint.
Staring out my 32nd floor office window I ponded this powerful new tool, sitting in the background of my desktop, and had my assistant Gabby, throw some pictures of the apartment into AI, and request a full interior design project plan. Seconds later, we were given one.
We told the machine where we wanted to buy furniture, the style of interior design, and we wanted full costings, and to see mock ups. I guess that’s €1800 that girl is never going to see.
The terribly sad thing is that she has no idea this is happening. The world is changing around her, and while design school might have been a lot of fun a couple of years ago, clearly nobody taught her business, let alone common sense. She’s representative I think, of an entire generation of entitled kids, that have lived with the best conditions humanity has ever seen. Perhaps until now.
If we’re already asking questions as big as “will income tax be made redundant by AI”. The smaller, every day questions like “do I still need an accountant”, have already been answered.
If I go to one more cocktail function locally, with somebody deploying AI in a way that will make millions of people redundant, I seriously think I’m going to shoot myself. It’s both extremely exciting, and a little terrifying.
Perhaps my best beach surfing days are behind me, but the lesson, the aches, and pains remain. You have to get ahead of a wave, there’s no point trying to catch up to it. It can be pure joy riding a wave, transformational in fact. But getting dumped by one on a coral reef leaves a lot to be desired!
Perhaps we should all be teaching our children, some real life lessons again, how to shake somebody’s hand, how to make a phone call, how to be a human being. Because hiding behind computers, social media, and gaming, simply won’t help them.
In coming years, the smart money will work with human beings, for human beings, by human beings.
Anybody that doesn’t get that, who doesn’t stand with integrity, behind their word, who can’t look someone in the eye and shake their hand, or can stay above the line and take responsibility, will be a victim of the next industrial revolution. Or already is.
P.S – There are two images above. One was a prank by Gabby on April fools day. The other is a real photograph of a summer house we bought recently to renovate.
Having not seen the property for three or four months over winter, she arrived at my house and showed me the roof had collapsed. The image was so realistic I went absolutely white in the face, or at least whiter, grasped my chest, and prepared to meet my maker. I think it took her a couple of minutes to take a perfectly innocent image, and turn it into a disaster. There, you see, and you were wondering what the hell the pictures above had to do with tax – it’s all smoke and mirrors 😉
So much now is fake, the news, Instagram, all of the b.s people try and feed us on a daily basis about how great their lives are, and why we should “follow them”…
Personally, I like to share a little sweat in a sauna, some wine in a restaurant, and some ammunition at the shooting range to get to know people on a deeply human level.
Frankly, I’m bugged if I know how to trust them, or like them any other way. So, stop by and see us sometime, we might just impress each other. As humans. 🙂
Located in the peaceful surroundings of Čepurniškės, this renovated log house offers a simple, balanced way of living – space, greenery, and quiet, all within easy reach of Vilnius. A large, well-kept plot gives you room to breathe, grow, or just enjoy having a bit more distance from everything.
Calm, practical, and connected – without giving up the feeling of being properly away.
PROPERTY SPECIFICATIONS
Address: Čepurniškių k., Vilniaus r.
House Area: ~65 m²
Plot Size: 25.64 ares
Rooms: 2
Floors: 1
Construction Year: 1968
Renovation: 2015
Building Type: Log house
House Type: Residential
Condition: Move-in ready
Heating: Electric + solid fuel
Water Supply: Well
Electricity: Connected
Outbuildings: 3
Access: Asphalt road to the property
Distance to Vilnius: ~27 minutes
Website for the sales listing –
Tucked away in Čepurniškės, this is what happens when you decide that maybe – just maybe – you don’t need more space inside, you need more space outside.
A solid log house, already renovated and ready to go, sitting on a plot big enough to finally justify all those thoughts about “growing something” or “having a bit of land.” Whether that turns into vegetables, a hobby, or a putting green is entirely up to you.
It covers all the bases: simple heating, a well full of spring water, and room to expand with three additional out-buildings.
It’s warm, functional, and quiet enough for the birds to drown out the notifications…
Despite the countryside feel, you’re still within easy reach of Vilnius, with a brand new road all the way to town. No mud, no drama, no traffic (most of the way).
In short: step outside, stroll the grounds, take a breath – and thank your lucky stars you read it here first!
