So my review of the four Islands I visited to research nom nom / expat life in the Caribbean.

I had discounted St. Marteen and St Lucia before I went, purely because they have no specific advantages either Bitcoin or Tax related. My visit confirmed I don’t wish to live in either place.

St. Kitts & Nevis was a serious contender due to its tax laws and adoption of Bitcoin (albeit BCH).

After visiting, I am not totally discounting it, but it is not a front runner as you have to pay $300K for its citizenship by investment scheme. This is either in the form of a lump sum, or by purchasing an approved property. The property purchase route is not as it seems, you have very little choice and the property devalues by at least $300K after you’ve held it the minimum of 5 years (required by the investment scheme). So either way the fee is $300K, which you loose.

For this reason I have discounted St. Kitts, despite seeing some Bitcoin adoption.

So to Barbados.

Everything else aside, I liked this place, I would consider living here for its own merits. It has a lot of beauty and the poverty, of which there is much, is somehow more relaxed and less threatening.

For example, we were on a Beach having a few drinks when a very laid back man passed by hawking some Aloe vera leaves he had just cut down from a tree. He was offering them to the tourists to help with any sunburn.

However unlike touts I had observed on other Islands, he was very relaxed and didn’t hassle you at all. And if you didn’t want to buy the leaves, he gave them to you anyway if he thought you needed them. This made the tourists offer him money in gratitude, which is a much more intelligent way to earn a subsistence living. He was also very friendly with the restaurant staff who clearly helped him with the odd meal or even money sometimes.

The tax situation in Barbados is pretty good, no CGT, but there is income tax of around 28%. I don’t object to tax, I simply object to the misappropriation of tax income for vanity or woke projects.

I am now investigating the logistics of this with a non Bitcoin friend who is also looking to go non dom.