Tax Advisory
Leaving the country triggered a tax bill on gains we never realised.
Exit taxation treats emigration as a deemed disposal. On the day residence ends, shareholdings and sometimes other assets are valued at market and the unrealised gain is taxed as though sold, even though nothing was sold and no cash was received. Several European and other countries apply it, commonly to substantial shareholdings above a percentage or value threshold, and it is the charge that most often surprises someone who planned a relocation around income tax rates alone.
The details decide the size of it. Which assets are within scope: company shares, funds, crypto, pension rights, intellectual property. How the valuation is made for a private company with no market price. Whether deferral is available, which within the EU and EEA it usually is, subject to reporting and sometimes security, and whether a later actual sale at a lower price allows an adjustment. Whether a return to residence within a period cancels the charge.
The worst outcomes come from sequence. Shares transferred to a holding company in the wrong order, or a departure completed before the position was valued and documented, can crystallise a charge that careful ordering would have deferred or reduced. And a valuation not prepared at the time is defended years later against the authority's own figure.
How LTB Resolves It
LTB establishes, before the move, whether an exit charge arises, on which assets, and at what likely quantum, and models the alternatives: restructuring or transferring holdings before residence ends, timing the departure across a tax year, claiming deferral where it is available, or choosing a different destination where the treaty and domestic interaction is better.
Valuations, deferral applications, security arrangements, and the exit filings themselves are prepared and submitted by the licensed tax professionals in LTB's network in the departing country. LTB sequences the corporate steps, arranges the incorporation and relocation on the receiving side, and coordinates both jurisdictions so the departure and the arrival tell one consistent story.
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