Equatorial Guinea
| Pros |
|---|
| Relatively low corporate tax rates for non-oil sectors to encourage economic diversification |
| Modernized transport infrastructure in urban centers through massive oil-funded public investment |
| High level of physical security and low crime rates compared to regional peers |
| Cons |
|---|
| Pervasive corruption and lack of transparency within the ruling elite and state institutions |
| Extreme state control over civil liberties and limited protection for individual property rights |
| Onerous bureaucratic requirements and heavy government interference in private business operations |
Long story short: Here, the state is a family business: the Obiangs control the oil, the permits and the police. Without a contact, you won't open anything, and every stamp gets paid for under the table, though taxes stay light as long as you don't rock the boat.
Counterweight: oil money has paid for decent roads and near military-grade security in Malabo's wealthy neighborhoods. The CFA franc, pegged to the euro, keeps the banks stable.
Besides that: grilled fish, gorgeous beaches and volcanoes on Bioko, but anything imported costs a fortune.
Will your income be taxed?
Long story short: YES, A LOT.
Income gets fleeced in Equatorial Guinea (top marginal rate 25%), 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, A LOT.
Equatorial Guinea shears capital gains hard (25% at the top), but at least it stops there: no annual wealth levy, no inheritance regime.
Selling is the trigger; as long as you don't pull it, the position compounds untouched.
Easy to run a company there?
Long story short: NO.
Corporate tax in Equatorial Guinea is 25%, no IP-box mercy, VAT at 15 on top.
Operationally, running a company here is fine; fiscally, the state helps itself to a fat slice of every unit of profit. You do the work, they skim the cream.
A good fit for a holding?
Long story short: NO.
Equatorial Guinea 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.
Equatorial Guinea 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: NO.
Nobody's reading over your shoulder in Equatorial Guinea. It has joined almost none of the big automatic-exchange machines (CRS, FATCA, CARF, MLI, MAAC), and its corporate registries are non-public.
Your account movements stay out of foreign tax offices; your name stays out of search boxes. Here, discretion isn't a perk; it's the factory setting.
Is it blacklisted?
Long story short: NO.
Equatorial Guinea 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: NO.
Press freedom in Equatorial Guinea is locked down (RSF rank #118). Independent media and civic space operate under pressure (when they operate at all), and that kind of grip usually spills over into economic life too.
Small mercy: crypto isn't formally banned.
Connected to the world?
Long story short: POORLY CONNECTED.
The two rails that matter are both dead in Equatorial Guinea. 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 Equatorial Guinea. No editorial ranking — neighbours in the same scoring space.