Why 2026 Is the Year to Stop Thinking About a Plan B and Start Building One

Every January the same thing happens. People who spent the previous year thinking about an international base sit down and resolve to spend the coming year thinking about it some more. I have watched this cycle for two decades. The thinking is not the problem. The not-building is.

If you are reading this, you have probably done the reading already. You have listened to the podcasts, maybe attended a webinar, perhaps even sketched a plan on the back of an envelope. And then you went back to your life and did nothing, because change is uncomfortable and "later" is always available. I understand it. I left Germany in 2000, and even for me the decisive step took longer than it should have.

But I want to make the case that 2026 is genuinely different, and that the cost of waiting has quietly changed.

The pressure has become too consistent to ignore

Look at what has happened in the places our clients are leaving.

• •In the UK, the non-dom regime is gone, capital gains tax sits at its highest in decades, inheritance tax has been tightened, and a wealth tax is openly discussed. This is not rumour. It is enacted law or live political debate.
• •In Australia, superannuation has been raided more than once in a decade, the tax take on investment income keeps creeping up, and the cost of living has deteriorated sharply.
• •In the United States, citizens are still taxed on worldwide income wherever they live, the only country besides Eritrea that does this. Move where you like, you still file for the IRS.

And underneath all of it, the same currents everywhere: banks debanking clients who do not fit a narrowing compliance mould, automatic information exchange making accounts visible by default, and central bank digital currencies moving from pilot to implementation. The frictionless, low-scrutiny world in which a base was easy to build is closing, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.

Why the Philippines, and why now

The Philippines, and Davao City specifically, remains an exception, and exceptions do not stay open forever.

• •The territorial tax system is intact: foreign income is not taxed for a Resident Alien.
• •The country remains outside CRS for now, though it has signalled an intention to join, which is precisely why "now" matters more than "eventually."
• •The SRRV is available from age 40, opening permanent residency to early retirees and remote workers, not just pensioners.
• •Banking is accessible, and the cost of entry is low.

That combination is unusually favourable, and at least one piece of it, the CRS position, is on a clock. The smart move is to establish your base while the conditions are easy, not to wait until they are not.

What "building" actually means

Acting is not the dramatic thing people imagine. It is not burning your passport or abandoning your life. It is adding optionality to it:

• •A real address
• •A real bank account
• •A real, documented tax position
• •Documents that hold up to a bank, a tax authority, and a notary

That is it. A base you may use heavily or barely at all, but which exists, in your name, ready, the day you decide you want it.

Life is short, and the version of this decision that you keep postponing is the one that costs you. If 2026 is the year you stop thinking and start building, we are here to help you do it properly, and to do it before the easy conditions tighten further.