Caribbean CBI Tax Strategy

What this research found

A family of six holding a US green card and Australian citizenship, with a $1,000,000 budget and an import/export business, needed to know which Caribbean citizenship-by-investment programme to use. Five CARICOM jurisdictions were costed line by line for that exact family composition, then combined with research on tax exposure, shipping logistics, and trust law. The recommendation splits functions across three countries — citizenship in Antigua & Barbuda at $260,000, an operating company in St Lucia, and a Nevis trust — for a total project cost of $514,400, or 51.4% of the budget.

• For a family of exactly six, the University of the West Indies Fund in Antigua & Barbuda is the cheapest route at $260,000 all-inclusive. Donation options across the five jurisdictions ranged from that figure up to $360,500–$362,500 for St Kitts & Nevis, and all 11 pathways examined fit inside the $1,000,000 budget.
• Real estate routes cost more upfront but less permanently. Dominica had the lowest total at $339,500, while St Kitts & Nevis and Antigua leave only about $62,500 and $62,000 non-refundable respectively, because the property itself may be recovered after the five- to seven-year holding period.
• The March 2024 regional Memorandum of Agreement imposed a universal $200,000 minimum investment, raising entry prices by roughly 100 to 120% for most of these countries. Dominica, Grenada, Antigua and St Lucia had all previously started between $100,000 and $150,000.
• Exiting existing status was costed at $129,700 in total — $35,700 to relinquish the US green card and $94,000 to renounce Australian citizenship — against estimated annual tax savings of $175,000 to $400,000. That implies a nine-month payback on the exit taxes and 3.7 years on the project as a whole.
• The recommended three-country structure scored 9.05 out of 10 on the report's decision matrix, against 7.95 for taking Antiguan citizenship alone. Costs break down as $260,000 for citizenship, $129,700 in exit taxes, $54,000 for relocation and setup, $42,500 in professional services, and $28,200 for corporate entities.

How it was done

Five CARICOM citizenship-by-investment programmes — Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia and Grenada — were costed for this specific family from published 2024 and 2025 fee schedules, separating donation from real estate routes and itemising base investment, per-dependent charges, due diligence, processing and passport fees. Five further research passes covered personal and corporate tax exposure, import/export logistics rankings, legal structures under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, processing timelines, and a closing strategic synthesis, together running past 200 pages. Four alternative strategies were scored against the recommendation on a decision matrix. The output is a 19-page executive decision report with a structure diagram, an eight-month implementation chart, and a ten-year return projection.

Data sources

• Published 2024 and 2025 citizenship-by-investment fee schedules for Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia and Grenada, including official government cost-and-fees pages
• March 2024 Caribbean Memorandum of Agreement on citizenship-by-investment programmes, via OECS and national Citizenship by Investment Unit announcements
• Immigration advisory cost guides and programme comparisons published 2024–2025

Outputs produced

• step6_strategic_synthesis.md

  Final strategic synthesis and executive recommendations: Consolidation of all findings from Steps 1-5, unified narrative explaining why Hybrid OECS Model is optimal, definitive US Green Card relinquishment advice (RECOMMEND RELINQUISH, exit tax $35.7k, payback 7-16 months), Australian citizenship renunciation guidance (RECOMMEND RENOUNCE, exit tax $94k optimized), total budget utilization ($514k / $1M = 48.6% remaining), comparative analysis (Hybrid Model scores 9.05/10 vs Pure Antigua 7.95/10), 8-month executive roadmap with critical path and milestones, final action plan with confidence level 95%

• step5_processing_roadmap.md

  Comprehensive implementation timeline analysis: CBI processing stages (6-7.6 months), St. Lucia LLC timeline (1-2 days), Nevis Trust setup (2-3 days), banking timelines (6-12 weeks), dependency mapping (sequential vs parallel), document overlap strategy, month-by-month Gantt-style roadmap, critical path identification (CBI process), time-to-first-trade (4-5 months), and time-to-full-security (7-8 months)

• step4_legal_structure_csme.md

  Comprehensive legal framework analysis: Corporate entity comparison (IBCs vs Domestic), Economic Substance requirements (2024/2025), CSME/OECS freedom of movement, CBI citizen rights, ALHL requirements, asset protection vehicles (Nevis/Antigua/St. Lucia), banking infrastructure, and Hybrid OECS Model recommendation

• step3_logistics_analysis.md

  Comprehensive logistics infrastructure and trade connectivity analysis: Port/airport capacity, shipping lines, trade agreements (CARIBCAN, CBI, China), Free Trade Zones, and comparative ranking for importation business hub selection

• step2_tax_analysis.md

  Comprehensive taxation analysis: US Exit Tax (Section 877A), Australian CGT Event I1, CARICOM tax regime comparison, tax treaty analysis, and scenario modeling for importation business

• step1_cbi_costs.md

  Comprehensive cost breakdown and comparison of CBI programs across 5 CARICOM jurisdictions for a family of 6