Cross-Corridor Arbitrage Comparator
What could you keep after the move?
Compare two destinations using the same salary and your own household costs. See the tax assumptions, the annual margin and what that margin could mean over five years.
Employment-income planning only. Tax residence, special-regime eligibility and origin-country obligations must be confirmed separately. All comparison inputs and results are USD.
How to use this comparison without over-reading it
Start with the same annual gross employment income in both destinations. This is a salary-only illustration: it does not calculate a company’s profit, contractor expenses, dividends, pensions, stock compensation or crypto gains. All household inputs and headline results are in USD. The exchange rate converts income into local currency for the tax calculation, then converts local tax back into USD. An illustrative starting rate is not a current market quote.
What the income-tax rows mean
UAE employment wages use zero UAE personal income tax, not a claim that all UAE businesses or all origin-country obligations are tax-free. Ordinary Spanish tax uses published 2025 state and Madrid schedules as a visibly dated baseline, with a simplified personal minimum. It is not a 2026 filing calculation or a nationwide rate. Article 93 is shown only after separate qualification is confirmed; employment income uses 24% through EUR 600,000 and 47% above. Social contributions remain your own quote.
Portuguese ordinary treatment uses mainland 2026 progressive IRS bands and the additional solidarity charge. The joint-assessment switch assumes eligibility, one wage earner and a spouse with no income; spouse and child credits are not silently added. The conditional IFICI scenario is not available just because you hold a D8 visa. Thailand applies progressive rates to the entered assessable salary base. It deliberately does not equate foreign payroll or a DTV with tax exemption. Use an adviser’s annual tax quote when the simplified scenario does not fit.
U.S. citizenship changes the comparison
The U.S. switch compares two limited federal wage-tax scenarios: a full-year FEIE-only calculation, if you affirm qualification, and an FTC-only calculation. The 2026 maximum FEIE is USD 132,900 for the single modeled earner; family status does not double it. The exclusion preserves tax stacking on remaining income. Credits are not assumed eligible until you confirm them, and are capped to the modeled U.S. tax on these foreign wages. We do not combine a credit with tax on excluded earnings. No child credit, state tax, payroll tax, housing exclusion, partial-year qualification, carryover or mixed-income allocation is modeled.
From surplus to a five-year illustration
Annual surplus is gross income minus destination income tax, entered contributions, U.S. residual tax, housing, health cover, other living costs, school fees, home obligations and additional transfer friction. Your origin choice changes the departure warnings, not an invented universal exit-tax percentage. Confirm continuing origin-country tax and enter it under obligations.
The five-year figure assumes each positive annual surplus is invested at year-end, unchanged for five years: contribution × ((1.07⁵ − 1) ÷ 0.07). Seven percent is a hypothetical nominal return, not a recommendation or forecast. Investment taxes, charges, inflation, relocation capital and changing earnings are omitted. A negative surplus is a funding gap, not a negative investment balance. Replace every illustrative cost with a real quote before making a decision.
Sources and model vintage
Source review: October 2026. Spain’s ordinary-tax schedule is explicitly a 2025 baseline; other named tax years are shown above. Example costs and FX rates are assumptions, not official data.
- UAE FTA — corporate-tax scope and exclusions
- AEAT — special inbound-worker regime
- Portugal AT — CIRS Article 68 rates
- Portugal AT — solidarity surcharge
- Thai Revenue Department — personal income tax
- Thai Revenue Department — foreign-income guidance
- IRS — 2026 inflation adjustments
- IRS — exclusion amount and qualifying period
- IRS — exclusions and foreign tax credits
Questions worth asking
Does a lower result mean I should choose that country?
No. Work permission, tax residence, housing acceptance, family suitability and continuing origin obligations can outweigh this limited salary illustration.
Why are all costs in USD?
Using one comparison currency prevents a USD salary being subtracted from AED or EUR bills. Convert your local quotes into USD at the entered rate before entering them.
Is a DTV a Thai tax exemption?
No. Income-source classification and the foreign-income rules are separate. Post-2023 income is not automatically exempt because it is transferred in a later year.
Can FEIE and FTC both cover the same income?
No credit is allowed for tax on earnings excluded under FEIE. This tool compares separate scenarios; complex combinations require a return calculation.