In 30 Seconds
There is no single best country to move to from the UK. There is a best country for your situation. If you want the easiest move on earth, it is Ireland: no visa, no permission, no paperwork to exist there. If you want sunshine inside Europe, Spain still wins on lifestyle but the tax picture needs real planning. If you are a business owner moving for financial reasons, the comparison keeps ending in Dubai: 0% personal income tax on salaries, a seven hour flight home, and everything runs in English. This guide compares 10 countries honestly, catches included. We move people to Dubai for a living, so read the UAE section knowing that. The rest of the list is played straight.
How to actually judge a country
Most lists rank countries by vibes. Use these six tests instead, in this order:
- Can you legally live and work there? This kills more plans than anything else. Since Brexit, British citizens get 90 days in 180 in the Schengen area as visitors, and no automatic right to work anywhere in the EU.
- What does the tax picture really look like? Not the headline rate. The rate you will actually pay on the money you actually make, plus wealth taxes, exit rules and what happens to your UK company.
- How far is home? Ageing parents, client meetings, school holidays. A 7 hour flight is a different life to a 22 hour one.
- Language and admin. Can you open a bank account, sign a lease and argue with a utility company without a translator?
- Schools and healthcare, if you have or plan a family.
- Can you earn there? A cheap country where you cannot work legally or your income dries up is not cheap.
The quick comparison
| Country | Right to live and work | The catch | Flight from UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | Automatic, no visa ever | Housing crisis, similar weather and tax | 1 hour |
| Spain | Visa needed | Wealth taxes, admin in Spanish | 2 to 3 hours |
| Portugal | Visa needed | The famous tax deal is gone | 2 to 3 hours |
| UAE (Dubai) | Visa via company or job, fast | Cost of living, summer heat | 7 hours |
| Netherlands | Visa via employer | Expat tax break shrinking in 2027 | 1 hour |
| Australia | Points based, age matters | Distance, slow process | 21+ hours |
| Canada | Points based | Housing costs, winters | 7 to 10 hours |
| New Zealand | Skilled visas | Small economy, very far | 24+ hours |
| USA | Hard without sponsorship | Visas and healthcare costs | 7 to 11 hours |
| Singapore | Employer pass needed | Cost, rising salary bars | 13 hours |
1. Ireland: the easiest move in the world
British citizens do not need a visa, a permit or anyone's permission to live in Ireland. Under the Common Travel Area, you can move there tomorrow, work, study, use the health service and access social welfare, with rights confirmed by both governments regardless of Brexit. No other country on this list offers anything close.
The honest catches: Dublin has one of Europe's worst housing squeezes, the weather is the weather you just left, and income tax at higher earnings is comparable to the UK or worse. Ireland is the best answer if the question is "how do I leave the UK with zero admin". It is rarely the answer if the question is about tax or sunshine.
2. Spain: the favourite, with paperwork
Spain remains the default dream for UK leavers, and for good reasons: climate, cost of daily life outside the big cities, healthcare, and two to three hour flights home. Since Brexit you need a visa to stay beyond 90 days in 180. The digital nomad visa opened a workable route for remote workers and contractors, and there is a special expat tax regime for some new arrivals.
The honest catches: regional wealth taxes can bite people who arrive with meaningful assets, admin runs in Spanish at regional pace, and tax residence in Spain means Spanish tax on worldwide income. Business owners with UK companies need proper advice before, not after, the move. Lifestyle 10, paperwork 5.
3. Portugal: check the date on what you read
Half the internet still recommends Portugal for the Non Habitual Resident tax regime. That scheme is closed. NHR ended for new arrivals, with the final transition window shutting on 31 March 2025. Its replacement, the IFICI regime, sometimes called NHR 2.0, is much narrower: a 20% flat rate for up to 10 years, aimed at qualified professionals in research, innovation and other high value sectors, with strict eligibility tests.
Portugal is still a lovely place to live, and the D visas still work for people with income. But if a guide sells you Portugal on tax, check when it was written. For most UK business owners the maths changed completely.
4. UAE (Dubai): where the business owner maths ends up
Declared interest: this is what we do. Landed moves UK business owners to Dubai, so weigh this section accordingly. Here is the case, honestly made.
The UAE charges no personal income tax on salaries. Corporate tax is 0% on profits up to AED 375,000 and 9% above, with conditions for free zone companies. Everything runs in English. The flight home is about 7 hours, close enough for board meetings and grandparents. Visas move at a pace no Western country matches: our own founder went from landing to banked resident, Emirates ID in hand, in under 72 hours as a client of our process. A free zone company with one visa costs around £7,000 all in, and we publish that number rather than hiding it behind a quote form.
The honest catches: Dubai is not cheap to live in, school fees are real, summer is ferocious, and 0% does not mean your UK tax obligations vanish. UK exit rules, the Statutory Residence Test and temporary non residence rules all still apply to leavers, and getting them wrong is expensive. Read our guides on UK exit tax and the real cost of moving before deciding anything. Also note the FCDO currently advises against all but essential travel to the UAE due to regional tensions; check the live advice when planning travel. None of this is tax advice. It is the map, not the accountant.
5. Netherlands: great salaries, shrinking perk
For employed professionals, the Netherlands is one of Europe's strongest moves: English works almost everywhere, salaries are high, and the expat scheme lets employers pay part of a qualifying salary tax free. Know the direction of travel though: the Dutch government has confirmed the tax free allowance drops from 30% to 27% from 1 January 2027, with salary caps and thresholds tightening around it. Still a good deal, just a smaller one than the blogs of 2022 promised.
You will need an employer to sponsor you as a highly skilled migrant. This is a route for people with jobs, not a lifestyle visa.
6. Australia: the long game
Australia is where British emigration tradition lives: wages are strong, the lifestyle is real, and English removes all friction. The catch is getting in. Skilled migration is points based, favours younger applicants with in demand occupations, and can take serious time and money. And it is 21 hours or more from the people you left. If your parents are ageing, that distance is not a detail. Best for people in their 20s and 30s with portable careers and no reason to be back next month.
7. Canada: points, snow, house prices
Canada runs a transparent points system through Express Entry, welcomes skilled migrants at scale, and gives you a huge English speaking country with proper healthcare. The catches: Toronto and Vancouver housing costs will feel familiar in the worst way, winters are a lifestyle decision of their own, and the process rewards planning years ahead, not months.
8. New Zealand: the lifestyle purist's pick
If the goal is outdoors, safety and space, New Zealand is hard to beat. Skilled visa routes exist for in demand occupations. The trade offs are structural: a small economy with lower salaries than Australia, and the longest flights home on this list. People who move for the lifestyle stay for decades. People who move for careers often route through Sydney instead.
9. USA: brilliant if you can get in
The US pays the highest salaries in the world for many professions, and there is no general work visa you can simply apply for. Realistic routes are employer transfers, extraordinary ability visas, or the E-2 treaty investor route, which is open to British citizens who buy or build a real US business. Healthcare is employer dependent and brutal without cover. The US rewards people who arrive with a sponsor, capital or an exceptional CV, and punishes everyone else with paperwork.
10. Singapore: the executive posting
Singapore is safe, efficient, low tax by European standards and superbly connected across Asia. It is also one of the most expensive cities on earth, and work passes hinge on employer sponsorship with salary bars that keep rising. This is a country you get posted to or hired into, not one you drift into. For senior professionals in finance and tech, it can be the best financial decision on this list. For everyone else it is a holiday.
Also considered
Cyprus combines EU membership, sunshine and a non dom regime popular with UK company owners; take proper advice on the details. Malta offers English and EU access in a very small package. Switzerland pays the best salaries in Europe and charges accordingly. Thailand and Bali are wonderful places to spend a winter and complicated places to build a compliant long term tax life.
Moving with a family changes the ranking
Alone, you can absorb chaos. With children, three things dominate: schools, healthcare and how fast the family gets legal status together.
- Ireland is the easiest family move full stop: everyone has rights on arrival, schools are free, no visa stage exists.
- Australia, New Zealand and Canada bundle families into the main visa and offer free schooling, which offsets the distance.
- Dubai processes family visas quickly once the sponsor has status, but budget for private school fees from day one, they are unavoidable. Timing the move around the school year matters more than most people plan for; our Dubai family visa guide covers who you can sponsor, costs per person and the school year timing question.
- Spain and Portugal work well for families who commit to state schools and the language, and get expensive if you default to international schools.
The decision in one paragraph
Zero admin: Ireland. Sunshine in Europe and you accept the tax planning: Spain. Employed professional maximising salary: Netherlands, Singapore or the US if a sponsor exists. Young and playing the long game: Australia or Canada. Business owner optimising for tax, speed and staying connected to the UK: run the Dubai numbers against everything above, then check them against our honest list of tax free countries. If Dubai keeps winning your comparison the way it keeps winning ours, book a free call and we will put real numbers on your exact situation.
FAQs
What is the easiest country to move to from the UK?
Ireland. Under the Common Travel Area, British citizens can live, work, study and access healthcare and welfare in Ireland with no visa or permission of any kind. You could move tomorrow.
Can I just move to Spain or Portugal after Brexit?
Not without a visa. British citizens get 90 days in any 180 as visitors in the Schengen area. Staying longer requires a residence visa, such as Spain's digital nomad visa or Portugal's D visas, applied for before you go.
Which country has the lowest tax for UK leavers?
On personal income, the UAE is the strongest mainstream answer: no personal income tax on salaries, with corporate tax of 0% up to AED 375,000 profit and 9% above. Leaving UK tax residence properly is its own process with its own rules, so treat any move as a two country tax question and take advice. This is not tax advice.
Is Portugal still a good tax move?
Not like it was. The NHR regime closed to new arrivals, with the last transition window ending 31 March 2025. The replacement IFICI regime offers a 20% rate but only to qualified professionals in narrow innovation and research categories.
What is the best country to move to from the UK with a family?
Ireland for ease, Australia, New Zealand or Canada for bundled visas and free schooling, Dubai for speed and income if you budget honestly for school fees. The right answer is the one whose school system you can afford and whose visa gets the whole family status together.
Where do most British people actually move?
The long standing favourites are Australia, Spain, the USA, Canada and increasingly the UAE. Ease of entry does not track popularity: some of the most popular destinations are the hardest to enter legally.
Do I need to tell HMRC when I leave the UK?
Yes. Leaving properly means dealing with the Statutory Residence Test, usually a P85 or Self Assessment, and understanding the temporary non residence rules if you might come back within five years. Our UK exit tax guide covers what actually applies in 2026.
Related guides
- Tax free countries in 2026: the honest list
- UK exit tax: what nearly happened and what applies now
- Moving to Dubai from the UK: the complete guide
- The real cost of moving to Dubai from the UK
- The Dubai family visa, explained
References
- GOV.UK: Common Travel Area, rights of UK and Irish citizens
- International Bar Association: an overview of Portugal's new IFICI regime
- Business.gov.nl: the expat scheme (30% ruling) for foreign employees
- GOV.UK: UAE travel advice and entry requirements
- u.ae: corporate tax in the UAE
This guide is general information, not tax, legal or immigration advice. Rules change and your situation is specific. Take regulated advice before acting.