The United Arab Emirates now has the most powerful passport in the world, according to a new study.
Nomad Capitalist, a tax and immigration consultancy firm, ranked the value of nearly 200 countries’ passports based on five factors: the availability of visa-free travel, the taxation on residents living in foreign countries, perception, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedom.
It found that the UAE’s new visa-free travel privileges, as well as its rapidly growing economy and the fact that there are no income taxes have made its passports the most valuable.
Meanwhile, the United States came in at 43rd in large part because it taxes citizens who live in foreign countries. The United Kingdom also ranked 30th and Australia ranked 39.
Previous studies have ranked both the UK and the US higher, but those only took into account how many countries a passport holder can enter without a prior visa.
In Nomad Capitalists’ analysis, the most weight was put on the availability of visa-free travel but it also put emphasis on how much citizens are taxed, the perception of the country, the availability of dual citizenship and personal freedoms that residents enjoy.
It assigned the lowest scores to counties that tax citizens no matter where they live — like the United States, and gave countries that allow citizens to relocate to avoid taxes scores of 20 to 30, countries that do not tax foreign incomes scores of 40 and countries with zero taxes scores of 50.
Those that strictly forbid dual citizenship, like China, received scores of 10, while those that allow for naturalization received a score of 50.
Nomad Capitalist also relied on data from the World Happiness Report and Human Development Index to determine how each country was perceived, but Jovana Vojinovac, the director of operations and sales, said the bottom line is ‘Will someone bother you at the airport as being a citizen of that country?”
Sourcr: Daily Mail UK
