Working from Guernsey as a Germany resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Guernsey

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

1. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running a foreign holding company from a Guernsey home office can make it Guernsey tax resident, with no treaty escape

   A company is Guernsey tax resident if it is controlled in Guernsey, or centrally managed and controlled in Guernsey. A founder who relocates and keeps directing a FOREIGN holding or trading company from a Guernsey home office makes that company centrally managed and controlled in Guernsey, and therefore Guernsey tax resident on worldwide income, usually at 0%, which sounds harmless and is exactly why people get careless. The real damage runs the other way: the foreign jurisdiction the company left will also claim residence or a permanent establishment, and dual-residence exposure follows the founder's tax residence, not their passport, so this rule is keyed on tax residence. For a founder tax resident in one of these 12 countries there is no DTA at all, so there is no tie-breaker article and no mutual agreement procedure to resolve the resulting dual-residence fight.

2. Significant issueRight to work

   The 90-day visitor allowance permits no work at all, not even remote

   gov.gg states it verbatim: the 90-day visitor allowance 'does not allow anyone to undertake employment, even if this is remotely for a non-Guernsey based employer.' A visitor on tourist or guest accommodation who does any paid work, including remote work for a foreign employer, is outside the visitor allowance entirely and needs the separate remote-work carve-out or a Permit.

3. Significant issueTax residency

   182 days makes you Principally Resident, removing the standard charge option

   182 or more days in a calendar year, or 91 or more days having been in Guernsey 730 days in the previous 4 years, makes you Principally Resident, taxed on worldwide income at 20% with no standard charge alternative. Anyone who moves to Guernsey to establish permanent residence is also caught this way: resident in the arrival year, becoming solely or principally resident the following year, having not been resident before arrival.

4. Significant issueResidency routes

   Buying an Open Market home does not by itself get you into Guernsey

   The Open Market route works cleanly only for someone holding a British, Irish or BN(O) passport, UK Settled Status, or a suitable visa. Every other roster nationality, US, Canadian, Australian, Brazilian, Singaporean, Emirati, Indonesian, German, Dutch, Belgian, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Polish, must independently obtain Bailiwick immigration permission, and there is NO investor or self-sufficiency visa that maps to the Open Market. In practice non-CTA buyers use Entrepreneur or work-based immigration routes, or rely on pre-existing UK status. For most of the roster, buying a GBP 1.5 million Guernsey house does not by itself get you in.

5. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   12 of 16 roster nationalities have no tax treaty with Guernsey at all

   Guernsey has roughly 15 full comprehensive DTAs and 13 partial ones, almost entirely with small finance-centre jurisdictions. Of the 16 roster nationalities, only the UK has a full DTA, the Netherlands, Australia and Poland have partial ones covering individuals, and Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, the US, Canada, Brazil, the UAE and Indonesia have nothing at all. This rule is keyed on tax residence, not nationality, because treaty access follows where someone is tax resident. Duties physically performed on-island for a foreign employer are Guernsey-source in principle, and without a treaty article there is no relief mechanism beyond Guernsey's own unilateral credit, capped at the Guernsey tax on that income.

6. Significant issueImmigration and visa

   Indonesian nationals need entry clearance, not just an ETA

   Indonesia is a UK visa national, and that status is extended to the Bailiwick. An Indonesian national needs formal entry clearance rather than the lighter ETA that non-visa nationals use, and from 1 July 2026 that clearance is no longer issued as a vignette in the passport.

What tends to surprise people here

• The 90-day visitor allowance permits no work at all, not even remote
• Remote work for a foreign employer is capped at 10 days in any 30-day window
• Buying an Open Market home does not by itself get you into Guernsey

Tax treaty between Germany and Guernsey