The Top 10 (in Rough Order of Cost)

1. Believing “I don’t live anywhere” is a tax status. It isn’t. Nowhere-resident is a red flag and doesn’t remove your tax obligations to countries with claim on you.

2. Not properly exiting your home country. Canada, Australia, UK, the Nordic countries, most EU countries — none let you leave passively. Ties must be actively severed. Half-measures leave you fully taxed, and the debt accrues with interest.

3. (For Americans) Ignoring US Citizenship-Based-Taxation. No amount of moving eliminates US tax obligations if you’re a US citizen. Denial doesn’t help, the IRS doesn’t forget, and there’s no statute of limitations if you haven’t filed tax returns.

4. Setting up offshore structures without moving personally. Personal residency drives the tax outcome, not company jurisdiction. UAE company + Spanish personal residence = Spanish tax result.

5. Not tracking physical presence carefully. Accidentally triggering residency in a high-tax country by staying too long. Enforcement is real.

6. Assuming visas equal tax residency. They’re different concepts. Having a Portuguese visa doesn’t automatically make you Portuguese tax resident (or non-resident of home country).

7. Not planning around asset realisations. Selling a business, realising crypto gains, or exiting stock positions — timing matters enormously. Wrong timing costs hundreds of thousands.

8. (For Americans) Missing FBAR/8938 for US citizens. Non-filing penalties are severe. Foreign account reporting isn’t optional.

9. Poor documentation. In tax dispute, you need proof of physical presence, residency establishment, tie-severance. Nomads often lack it.

10. Cheap advice. Trying to save on cross-border tax advisers when the stakes are hundreds of thousands or millions. The savings are illusory.

Specific Cost Examples

• Case: American nomad, “I’ll file FBAR when I get around to it.” Multiple years of $10K+ non-filing penalties per year per account. Six-figure back-penalties + interest.

• Case: Canadian nomad, “I’m barely in Canada, must be non-resident.” Kept driver’s license, Canadian bank account, healthcare, and Toronto apartment leased. CRA determined still Canadian resident. Five years of back-tax on worldwide income + interest.

• Case: Australian nomad, “I sold my Australian shares from Bali.” Didn’t understand CGT Event I1. Still Australian tax resident because no permanent place of abode elsewhere. Full CGT on shares plus penalty.

• Case: UK nomad, “I claim non-dom, keep my UK life going.” Post-2025, non-dom regime gone. Full worldwide UK taxation applies.Case: US nomad, “I have a UAE corporation and pay no US tax.” GILTI, Subpart F applied. Effective US tax similar to as if no structure existed. Plus additional compliance burden.

The Common Root Cause

Nearly all these mistakes come from taking advice from someone who understands only one jurisdiction — or trying to figure it out from Reddit and YouTube.

Cross-border planning requires cross-border expertise. Domestic accountants and general lawyers usually don’t have it. That’s why FTR coordinates a global strategy between our local expert partners in each jurisdiction: our global team designs the architecture and writes the strategy, our local partners execute the paperwork on the ground using their local expertise.

The Positive Version

The nomads who get this right:   

• Establish clear, defensible tax residency   

• Properly exit their home country   

• Track physical presence meticulously   

• Get integrated advice covering all jurisdictions involved   

• Update planning as laws and their circumstances change   

• Document everything   

• Pay for expertise commensurate with the stakes - good tax planning pays for itself 10x over