Germany ends fast track citizenship program

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V I D E O S    T O    W A T C H    N E X T :

Online Business Tips to Working and Traveling In Mexico: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGH0voCyOc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j&index=2

Moving to Mexico: 10 Reasons Why We Chose to Live in Guadalajara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK23vD8_xjc&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_LAY7UV78YMgms-f2e1UcwN&index=23

Tips for Moving Overseas: Top 5 Remote Work Skills That Make Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFzjCrlNAL8&list=PLh3xKhkMgH_IA6s3KvB_g9Cc9Ze1eji8j

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Transcript

Germany ends fast track citizenship program: 0:36

Well, another citizenship program bites the dust. Germany's three year fast track to citizenship was recently repealed by the German government with them. Saying that a passport or a citizenship to our country is something that you get after that full integration process. Into our society, not at the beginning. In this video we're gonna talk about exactly what happened, what that means for you as an entrepreneur, expat looking to. Place your roots, perhaps in other countries around the world, and perhaps what some of your other options might be now that this Fast Track program is closed. Hi, if this is your first time here, my name is Justin Keltner and this is Entrepreneur Expat. On this channel, we talk about building your passport portfolio of second citizenships, as well as second residencies. Living and working from anywhere in the world, moving away from the country that you were born in. Search of better opportunities, better investments, better lifestyle. Overall, that's what we help people do here on Entrepreneur Expat, and we work with a lot of high net worth individuals helping them get citizenships and residencies in places like Mexico ua. Now we're working on Albania and a lot of other countries as well, and. If that's something you're interested in, if you've got a million dollars or more in net worth, then you wanna book a call@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult. We'll put that on the screen as well, because we can help you and your family. The consult is absolutely free, and we'll help you see exactly what your opportunities are and where your best to invest your time and money in terms of other countries, as well as build perhaps a business in another country. We help people do those things as. Well, and if you're interested in learning more about this, you can also subscribe to this channel. We have over three videos every single week coming out and help us out and click that like button as well. Give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to click that notification bell. It'll help us reach more people and also help you make sure that you're never missing an important update when it comes to global citizenship, global taxation, global business, and everything else. So if you've been looking at Europe lately for a second passport, I'm sure you've seen those headlines lately about what happened to Germany's program. So that fast track program they had the one that let people naturalize and have a German passport, which of course is an EU passport giving you the right to live and work anywhere in the eu. Just. Got canned. Now here's the thing though, even before they ended it, that program was insanely tough to qualify for. You needed near perfect German, exceptional integration, volunteering, of course, no welfare or anything like that. And you pretty much had to live in Germany full time. And now with things like rising taxes, in some cases as high as almost 50% for those higher earners. Growing tension across Europe, especially with what's going on with Russia right now. And, uh, I'll throw this in as an aside. All of those energy prices going up like crazy. I wasn't even gonna dive into this, but I'll mention this because I think it relates a lot to what's going on with Germany and with Western Europe as a whole. They have a huge dependence on foreign energy in part just because of their location and, and even more than that, because of the political moves that have been made over these many years saying, Hey, we're not gonna. Burn coal in our country. We want everything to be super green. We want everything to be environmentally friendly, where in reality they weren't doing any of that because let's face it, energy, unless you're going nuclear, which has its own pros and cons, is a very messy thing to create. And we're big consumers of energy in the world, and especially places like Germany where you need energy. To heat your home in the winter, it's freezing there. I don't know about you, but I have spent winters in Germany and Austria, in Hungary, in the uk and I'm very familiar with how cold it gets. You absolutely need that, uh, heating. And in the older buildings, you know, it comes through those little, little pipes where the heat, uh, the heat, that oil up and your. And you, you turn your, your valve on and you're, you're exposed to that heating. That happens a little bit in places like New York as well, in really, really old buildings. That sort of central oil based heating that's been around for generations. But guess where all that energy comes from? Well, it comes from Russia because Germany and so many other countries in the quote unquote West, have made themselves. Dependent on foreign energy and foreign exports overall. I'm not even gonna get into the situation with China and how dependent we in the West are on China. That's actually another video that we just recorded today, so you're definitely going to want to check that out. But Germany isn't even a great target because of all those things for entrepreneurs anymore at all. So we're gonna break down exactly what's changed. How the rules work now and why For most entrepreneur, expats like yourself, your time and money are probably better spent elsewhere. That includes places like Mexico, like Panama, or even the UAE so if you're interested in moving to one of those places, we've got partners all over the world. Don't forget to book that call below@entrepreneurexpat.com slash consult, not just for your own sake, but also for your family's sake, because things are getting tough in the West, including the US and Canada and in places like Western Europe as well in Australia. There's a lot more totalitarianism, there's a lot more dependence on foreign governments, which is ironic, uh, because of everything that has been said in the political rhetoric. And there's also economies that just keep going down. So we really want to help you. We really wanna help your family get out if you do have the means to do so. So make sure you book that call. So what exactly is it that happened? So Germany's government officially scrapped that fast track. Three year citizen option and the new baseline is now five years of continuous legal residence. Before you can even apply for naturalization and to qualify, you now need five years living in Germany, legally and habitually. You need German at a B one level minimum, which is intermediate conversational. Of course, you've gotta be financially independent. You're not relying on any type of public assistance. You've got a clean criminal record and you pass a civic integration test, as well as now an explicit declaration supporting Germany's constitutional rights, an order, and its commitment to protecting Jewish life. Uh, you also need to acknowledge Germany's historic responsibility for the Nazi era. Which as a Jew kind of makes sense. I understand it. Although it's, it's been, it's been quite some time, right? They also have loosened dual citizenship rules, so you can usually keep your original passport, but otherwise it's a pretty rigid process. German obviously is not in a super easy language to learn and you're gonna spend five years qualifying. For this citizenship, but I would argue, like I said before, places like Germany, places like Portugal, with. Nearly 50%. Tax rates at the highest brackets probably aren't places that you want to be. If you are making a lot of money, and even if you're retired, you've got pension income, they may still tax that depending on the country as well as if you are looking to start a business at some point in the future, or even if you are retired and then they decide to change the laws. It's all just going in a really bad direction. All of these countries in the west are increasing taxes. They're making things more complicated. They're adding a lot of bureaucracy, adding a lot of red tape. There's a lot of political tension. When we look at countries like Albania, which is not as dependent on on Russia and other foreign countries, it just recently actually was able to get out of communist rule. And so they still kind of have that remembrance of everything that happened under communism. And they're like, we don't want to go communist. We don't want to go. Socialist even, because that's, that's a very slippery slope. Versus if you look at Western Europe, I mean they're all, all kind of bowing down to Brussels and they're all following what the EU powers the be want. So again, I don't think it's a place that if you are entrepreneurial and if you are looking to build a name and expand your brand and create more revenue in different countries and hire a team and all these other things. Those places are going down, they're not going up. So the fast track was never really fast. Anyway, that three year fast track was kind of almost mythical because it required a super high level understanding of German, the C one level, which is near fluency. Most foreigners never reach it. You also had to show exceptional integration, meaning top academic or professional achievement plus community involvement. So volunteering in a fire brigade, cultural association, translation work or similar. And even if you nailed all of that, it was not guaranteed. It was up to bureaucratic. Discretion. So Germany's version of Fast was still slow, expensive, and designed for absolute perfect model citizens. So they close the door to that fast track program completely, and here's why that might actually be good for expats. My honest take is that this move really clears up a big misconception, which is Germany is not a shortcut country. It's not a place for fast tracking anything. It's not. Fast tracking taxes, not fast tracking bureaucracy. There's a lot of bureaucracy there. It's not fast tracking citizenship. And the average entrepreneur in Germany, if we talk about the specific numbers here, they're looking at top income tax rates around 45% plus. A 5.5% solidarity surcharge, whatever the hell that means. If you're religious. You also need to pay a 9% church tax if you're registered religiously. And you also have, in addition to that, a corporate tax that ends up around 30% once you include trade tax. And if that wasn't enough, now you've also got to. Contribute heavily to social security, which includes health pension and unemployment for you and for your employees. And that's before you talk about the inflation that's going on there, which may soon be hyperinflation. Just like in the us, the tight labor laws and the political shifts, you've got a lot of immigration coming in that the EU is basically mandating. Uh, I think that they take it just too far in so many ways because they're making it really difficult for even model citizens or people like you that want to come to their country and invest, but they're making it super easy for people to come in RAFs, and they get all of the government assistance, all of the subsidies, everything just like we're doing in the US or we're doing until recently with the open border policies we have. It does not make any. Sense, and of course energy policy, that's another one. Energy is astronomically expensive. Uh, since the war with Russia has broken out, and Germany essentially is declared like a. Basically a trade war there and sanction Russia and all these other things, which by the way, did absolutely nothing. Russia's economy is fine. They have their own version of McDonald's and Starbucks that if you've seen any of Tucker Carlson's videos apparently taste better and healthier than what we have in the us. Uh, I am, I'm not pro Russia by any means, but when we look at the, the data and the facts and. China's in the same boat, right? They we, we try to sanction them. We try to make things difficult for them economically. Is it working? I don't think it is. Of course, you've also got the political instability. You have all that tension with Russia, not just the energy prices going up. You've also got that tension with Russia, people coming in through the border, high crime. They're starting to increase their defense spending a lot. Guess what? Now that 45% tax rate might go up to 47, 48 50, who knows? And you know the people that they want to tax the most because of how liberal those governments tend to be. It's you. It's the wealthy expats that are coming there and spending money bringing jobs. It makes no sense. That's why if you look at places, even like the uk, and this is another video that we're gonna link to below that we're doing about the UK billionaire, the founder of Revolut, who now is leaving to the UAE because he was just sick of all of the regulation and all the difficulties with employment and all the taxes, and they just try to tax you for everything, including even leaving the country. So this is another reminder, guys. I mean you if, if you have the means, if you've got a million dollars or more in liquid net worth. You've got the means to get out and to get a residency, whether it's in Eastern Europe, sometimes in Central Europe. In Southeast Asia, you could potentially get a residency in the Middle East. In Latin America where we currently are right now, there are better opportunities for your money, both to save it, to store it, to invest it, to grow it, to hire people, to build businesses. Book a call right below. At entrepreneur expat.com/consult because it is not getting any better in the us. It is not getting any better in Canada. And I would argue that a lot of these western nations, especially all these English speaking nations around the world, Australia and the UK and so much of Europe included, are not going on the up and up. They're getting more difficult. And if it's not for you, if you're like, you know what, maybe I got another 30, 40 years left. I think I'll ride it out. I think it'll be okay. Well think about your kids' future. And their kids' future. Think about what all of them are going to have to do now that not only the US and the West in general is getting worse, but also as you see here, even in Germany, even a country that's in the quote unquote West, all of these countries, Mexico is making their citizenship and their Visa programs harder. Germany's obviously making it harder. They're all making it more and more difficult to immigrate to their countries. Even countries where before people would joke and say, Hey, Mexico is just sort of letting anybody in. You could just show up, renew your visa for 180 days, fly back for a day to the us, come back, get another six months, and stay there forever. I did that for a couple years when I was living in Cabo and nothing happened. People are getting turned away at the border now. Or getting 14 days stamped on their passport coming into even Mexico. So it's getting more and more difficult and you absolutely want to book that call because we can help you fast track this. Even if Germany doesn't have a fast track program, we can help you get your residency somewhere else and create a much better future for both you and your family. So all that to say that in the end, this fast track program going away might actually save you from wasting years chasing a passport in a country that's moving towards higher taxes, slower growth, and more bureaucracy. Here are some of the places that I hinted at a little earlier where smart entrepreneur expats are looking instead. So Mexico is one that's very strong. Obviously we have our residents here and now we are close to both getting our passports here. That's my wife and myself. We're gonna have Mexican passports for both of us in the next two years. With Mexico, you can get residency in just a few months. Then in around five years, you can get your passport if you're living there regularly. In Mexico now they do have a territorial tax system for many non-residents and entrepreneurs. Meaning if you are here less than six months a year, which a lot of people are, they'll spend half their time in the US or even another country and travel like we're going to do very shortly here. If you are here less than six months a year, you don't have to pay taxes, obviously. Consult your professional on that. But a territorial tax system means that you're only really paying taxes as a non-Mexican resident on Mexican income. And there's a lot of loopholes and there's a lot of tax breaks and things like that. And when you pair that with Mexico's cost of living and international connectivity, and of course it's proximity to the us, it's not that difficult to get back to the US if there's an emergency or if you wanna visit family or if you have clients there. It's very practical for expats, especially as a soft landing, and especially if you're earning in dollars from clients in the US or elsewhere that you can work for online. Panama's another country where expats are going. They also have a territorial tax system that's that's even a little bit more lenient than Mexico's. They've got investor visas starting around$200,000. They've also got really good programs for retirement as well. They are now allowing dual citizenship too, and you can get potential citizenship after just five years of residence. You can even live there in Panama, run all of your global operations there and have minimal tax friction because your income is coming from outside of Panama. Uruguay, that's another really good one. One of the things that I love about Uruguay, and we're gonna probably be checking that place out in the next couple years as well, is that they actually give you an 11 year break on all of your foreign taxes. So they give you a tax holiday for 11 years for new residents, and that's in all of your foreign income. They do not tax any of that. Foreign income at all for 11 years. Most of the taxes that they do have on foreign income is actually just from dividend or capital gains income. And they've got a solid rule of law there. It's very safe. They have access to good treaties, and it's really a hidden gem for business-minded expats. And what I'll add in as well is that they have a very European style of life. So even though you're not in Europe, you're in South America, where living expenses are a little bit more reasonable and you could potentially save more money. And of course, don't forget about taxes. Taxes are huge. You're gonna be paying so much less in taxes, potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, less in taxes every year than you may be paying in the US because of how good the system is there in Uruguay for those expats. Other places that smart expats are going include the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar, which have no personal income tax at all. The UAE now does have a 9% corporate tax, but with proper structure, you can still pay 0% on qualifying free zone income. If you've got a company in one of those free zones and you have a high end lifestyle, of course you are trading more flexibility for a little bit more cost. Obviously, it's pricier maybe than somewhere like Latin America. But you have more flexibility. You have a lot of international business people there, and for the most part, 0% tax, unless you're running your business out of a place like the UAE, Albania is one that we've been looking into personally and we're very serious about maybe moving there part or full-time in the next year or so. Albania is EU adjacent. It's still in Europe, but it's not currently in the eu. Which means that they're not at least yet subject to a lot of the political craziness that's going on with the eu. They have very low personal and corporate tax, in some cases as low as 15%. But there's actually a plan now that is still in effect to attract foreigners to their country where you have a tax break until 2029, so you don't pay any taxes. And after that, if you're registered properly as an independent business owner, you can pay as little as 15% tax on your net. Active income. There's a, an emerging digital nomad scene there, which is really cool. They're not yet in the shein territory, but it's a hop, skip and a jump to Italy, to Greece. I mean, it's a a six hour car or bus ride all the way to Athens from a couple different cities in Albania. You can also take a ferry over to Italy or a cheap flight anywhere in Europe, and you'll be in pretty much any country in Europe in an hour or so. So that's also. Very, very cool. It's a lean base for entrepreneurs in Europe, but without the bureaucracy of somewhere like Germany or the uk. Now each of these gives you more flexibility, faster pathways to residency or citizenship and dramatically lighter tax burdens without tying yourself to one of Europe's most expensive welfare systems. So the bottom line is Germany is ending its fast track citizenship program, but that's not really the end of the world. And in fact, it's kind of a blessing in disguise because it wasn't really that great for expats in the first place. It was not very practical. A lot of those economic indicators in Europe are not great anyway. So if your goal is time freedom, tax freedom, and long-term mobility, your best bet is really to look south, whether that's Latin America, you look at the East, perhaps the Middle East, you look at countries, uh, that we're gonna be going to like Albania, there's a lot more opportunity than those. Legacy brand countries, as they are called. So don't chase the passport. Build the life in business that lets you choose where you wanna live, not where the tax man tells you that you should. If you want help doing that for you and your family, please book that call below. Go to entrepreneur expat.com/consult. If you've got a million dollars or more in liquid net. If you've got a million dollars or more in liquid net assets, we can help you and your family relocate to a country that is going to be tax friendly. It's going to be business friendly, it's going to have regulations that are not going to make you sacrifice your quality of life and the quality of your business. Book that call right below, we can help you out. And for everybody else, check out all of the free resources below this video in the description. Make sure you give this video a thumbs up. It helps us a ton with our goal of reaching a million entrepreneur expats or aspiring expats, and also subscribe to this channel so that you don't miss any of our new content coming out. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you again very soon