Cape Verde
| Pros |
|---|
| High political stability and low corruption levels compared to regional peers. |
| Strategic Atlantic location and Remote Working Program for digital entrepreneurs. |
| Strong protection of property rights and commitment to democratic governance. |
| Cons |
|---|
| High costs for electricity and water due to limited natural resources. |
| Small domestic market size and logistical challenges between the islands. |
| Relatively high corporate tax rates and complex bureaucratic procedures for business. |
Long story short: Here, you won't need to grease anyone's palm: Cape Verde is one of the least corrupt countries in Africa, with an administration that runs almost European style.
The flip side: you'll still pay your taxes, paperwork will eat up your time, and since everything arrives by boat, the cost of living climbs and infrastructure stays thin outside Praia.
Beyond that: you'll find a solid but credit-shy banking system, rock-solid security in Praia's upscale neighborhoods, tasty cachupa, and jaw-dropping volcanic landscapes.
Will your income be taxed?
Long story short: YES, A LOT.
Income gets fleeced in Cape Verde (top marginal rate 27.5%), but the residency test is surprisingly hands-off.
The bill is brutal for residents; the whole game is simply not to become one by accident.
If you earn a year, you will pay .
Roughly effective, with a marginal rate of .
Will your wealth be taxed?
Long story short: YES, BUT LIGHTLY.
Capital gains get off easy in Cape Verde (1%); the annual wealth tax doesn't (top rate 0.1%). It nibbles your pile every year, sold or not, and over a long hold the nibbling out-eats the sale tax entirely.
Watch the stock, not just the flow.
Easy to run a company there?
Long story short: NO.
Corporate tax in Cape Verde is 20%, but the rate isn't what hurts. Misuse of corporate assets is a criminal offense; the textbook case is the French abus de biens sociaux: spend your own company's money on yourself and you can end up prosecuted, even as sole shareholder, because the company is a separate legal person and your consent means nothing.
And the registries are public: your name as shareholder, free to browse.
For an owner-operator, those two together weigh far more than the rate, and unlike the rate they don't negotiate. Run it clean and you're fine; run it casually and you'll get burned.
A good fit for a holding?
Long story short: NO.
Cape Verde has no treaty network at all, which buries the holding question, full stop.
Every dividend in or out eats the statutory withholding at full rate, and no domestic regime can patch a hole that sits on the source side. Don't park a holding here.
| Country | Status | Dividends | Interest | Royalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| ∅ // no treaties match | ||||
Easy to come and go?
Long story short: SOME.
Cape Verde taxes your worldwide income while you're resident, but at least the exit is free: no exit tax on the way out.
Leaving costs you paperwork, not money; your unrealised gains walk out the door with you, untouched.
Is your money watched?
Long story short: PARTLY.
Cape Verde has signed most of the standard exchange frameworks and runs a public corporate registry. Your accounts get reported to your home tax office, and your shareholdings sit in the shop window.
Watched on both axes: not wall-to-wall, but don't come here for discretion.
Is it blacklisted?
Long story short: NO.
Cape Verde sits on no major blacklist, though it's outside the FATF club.
Some counterparties will run a bit of extra due diligence out of habit, but there's no formal stigma: you won't get hassled for dealing with it.
Do you feel free there?
Long story short: YES.
Cape Verde scores high on press freedom (rank #30) and files crypto as a taxable but legitimate asset class: regulated, not banned, no CBDC brewing.
Free speech, free markets; just declare what you make.
Connected to the world?
Long story short: POORLY CONNECTED.
The two rails that matter are both dead in Cape Verde. Stripe won't onboard you, so card payments mean a foreign structure or a local processor with its own rules. Amazon doesn't deliver either.
Some secondary services run (3/11), but for an online business this is swimming against the current.
Other jurisdictions worth comparing
Picked by similarity of strategic profile to Cape Verde. No editorial ranking — neighbours in the same scoring space.