Working from Dominica as a Germany resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Dominica

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Dominica, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issuePermanent residency and citizenship

   Buying Dominica citizenship costs you your Dutch nationality unless a narrow exception applies

   Under Article 15, paragraph 1, sub a of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, an adult Dutch national automatically loses Dutch nationality by voluntarily acquiring another nationality. Citizenship by investment is a textbook voluntary acquisition, you apply for it, you are approved, you take the oath and accept the certificate of naturalisation. The loss is automatic in law at that moment, it is not a renunciation you have to sign and it is not something Dominica's own dual-citizenship-friendly stance changes, because this is a rule of Dutch law, not Dominican law. Paragraph 2 of the same article sets out exactly three exceptions, and only three: you were born in Dominica and had your main residence there when you acquired the nationality, you had your uninterrupted main residence in Dominica for five years before turning 18, or you are acquiring the nationality of your spouse or registered partner who is genuinely Dominican. A CBI applicant who has never lived in Dominica and is not marrying a Dominican national meets none of these. Note this is narrower than the vague 'married to one of its nationals' or 'acquired as a minor' framing sometimes used informally, the actual statute requires marriage or partnership to a national specifically, and residence before adulthood specifically, not simply being under 18 at the time.

2. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   No Netherlands treaty and a worldwide-income system today means real double taxation exposure, not a moot point

   Dominica's only real double taxation agreement is the CARICOM multilateral treaty, and the Netherlands is not a CARICOM member, so no bilateral treaty exists. Unlike a genuinely zero-tax Caribbean state, where a missing treaty barely matters because there is nothing on the destination side to relieve, Dominica currently taxes residents on worldwide income at up to 35 percent. If you become both a Dominica tax resident and remain Dutch tax resident at the same time, there is no treaty tie-breaker to decide which country wins and no treaty mechanism guaranteeing a credit for tax paid to the other. You would be relying entirely on each country's unilateral domestic relief rules, if any, rather than a treaty right.

3. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   A Dominica company actually run from a Dutch kitchen table is usually a Dutch taxpayer too, and no treaty rescues it

   Incorporating in Dominica does not decide where a company is taxed, effective management does. If the real decisions, board control, strategy, signing authority, are actually happening from the Netherlands, Dutch corporate tax law will very likely treat the company as Dutch tax resident under its own place-of-effective-management rules regardless of the Dominica certificate of incorporation. Normally a tax treaty's tie-breaker article would step in to resolve a dual-residence conflict like this, but because there is no Netherlands-Dominica tax treaty at all, there is no tie-breaker and nothing standing between the Netherlands and a full domestic assertion of taxing rights.

4. Significant issueMoving your company

   The offshore zero-tax IBC regime was abolished from 1 January 2022, older guides describing it are wrong

   The International Business Companies (Repeal) Act 2021, No. 6 of 2021, repealed Dominica's International Business Companies Act 1996 with effect from 1 January 2022, ending the ring-fenced offshore regime that once let IBCs operate largely tax-free provided they did no business locally. Existing IBCs had until 31 December 2021 to re-register as ordinary local companies, at no cost to convert, and are now subject to standard Dominica corporate tax. A meaningful amount of content still online describes Dominica IBCs as a live zero-tax offshore vehicle, that content predates the repeal and is simply wrong now.

5. Needs checkingTax residency

   Nothing about Dominica citizenship or tax status changes whether you remain tax resident at home

   Whether you stop being tax resident in the Netherlands, Germany, or wherever you currently live is decided entirely by that country's own domestic rules, physical presence, permanent home, center of vital interests and similar factors. Dominica has no mechanism, CBI or otherwise, that reaches into your home country's test and switches it off. With no Netherlands double taxation agreement in force, there is not even a treaty tie-breaker to fall back on if home and Dominica both have a claim.

6. Needs checkingImmigration and visa

   The Work in Nature Extended Stay Visa covers remote work past the 6 month visa-free window

   Once a stay runs past the 6 month visa-free ceiling, Dominica's dedicated route for remote workers is the Work in Nature (WIN) Extended Stay Visa, run through the official windominica.gov.dm portal. It requires expected income of US$50,000 or more over the next 12 months, or otherwise demonstrated means, remote work for an employer or clients not registered in Dominica, valid health insurance, and no serious criminal history. Spouses, partners and dependent children can be included. Approval typically follows within 14 to 28 days of a complete application, with 30 days then allowed to pay the visa fee, and the WIN visa stamp itself is issued on arrival.

Tax treaty between Germany and Dominica