Turkmenistan
| Pros |
|---|
| To maintain low personal and corporate tax rates minimizing direct state fiscal extraction. |
| To access exceptionally low-cost natural gas and electricity for energy-intensive industrial or technological operations. |
| To benefit from high levels of public order and minimal street crime within controlled environments. |
| Cons |
|---|
| To navigate pervasive government monopolies and heavy-handed bureaucratic interference in almost every private sector. |
| To endure severe internet censorship and restricted access to global communication platforms and digital tools. |
| To face extreme difficulty in currency conversion and profit repatriation due to rigid capital controls. |
Long story short: Here, the state will never tax you, it doesn't need to: it already owns the gas, the cotton, and pretty much the whole economy.
The flip side: setting up your business without a partner close to the regime is basically a fantasy, the official manat bears no relation to its black market rate, and getting your money out of the country is a real headache.
Besides that: Ashgabat, the all white marble capital, is oddly calm and safe, the food is decent, and the Karakum desert with its burning gas crater is worth the trip.
Will your income be taxed?
Long story short: NO.
Turkmenistan doesn't tax personal income, and nobody comes sniffing around when you settle in. No withholding, no tax return, no centre-of-vital-interests trap waiting to snap shut.
Earn what you want: the taxman here simply doesn't know your name.
Will your wealth be taxed?
Long story short: NO.
Turkmenistan keeps its hands off what you hold. No capital gains tax, no annual wealth grab, no inheritance regime.
Your portfolio compounds in peace and leaves the way it came in; nobody's standing at the door with their palm out.
Easy to run a company there?
Long story short: YES.
Turkmenistan is maximum operational chill: no corporate income tax on standard profits, no criminal liability for misuse of corporate assets, and non-public registries.
The state doesn't take a cut, doesn't park a prosecutor over your intra-company flows, and doesn't put your name in a search box.
VAT sits at n/a. Run your thing; nobody's looking over your shoulder.
A good fit for a holding?
Long story short: NO.
Turkmenistan 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.
Turkmenistan 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 Turkmenistan. 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.
Turkmenistan 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 Turkmenistan is locked down (RSF rank #174). 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 Turkmenistan. 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 Turkmenistan. No editorial ranking — neighbours in the same scoring space.