@pras_k

What’s the best place?
For residency I’m looking at Portugal and they have the NHR (non habitual resident) program which would exempt dividends from foreign income.
So all I’m really looking for is the best place to actually start the company.
Biggest factors are of course low taxes and ease of setting up the company plus a business bank account that enables me to receive payments through Stripe.

What I found so far:
Hong Kong
Corporate tax rate of 16.5% (8.25% for the first HK$2 million)
⊕/⊖ offshore income from outside HK is exempt from taxation but it’s not clear whether this can be done in the first year and prorated or if it’s only through filing the offshore exemption claim. This might take two years and requires not income from HK at all. More info on that would be great
⊖ seems very difficult to get a business bank account
⊖ necessary services and fees are roughly around €2000 / year
⊖ accounting requirements seem to be very strict
⊕ Doesn’t require local partner
⊕ Agencies available that seem to handle most of the work

Singapore
Corporate tax rate of 17% (0% on the first S$100k, 8.5% up to S$300k)
⊖ requires a local director. What are the implications of this?

Malta
Corporate tax rate of 35%
There is the “full imputation system” but I don’t really understand it.
"In most cases, the tax refund to the shareholder is 6/7 of the tax paid by the company on profits distributed as dividends. The tax refund rate may be different in the following cases: " This would result in an effective corporate tax of around 5%.
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that

Cyprus
Corporate tax rate of 12.5% and there seem to be ways to lower this
⊖ European customers would have to pay VAT and I’d have to deal with that
⊖ requires staying in Cyprus for 2 months / year

I find it surprising how much research this requires and how much “it depends” information is out there when I’d assume that there are probably thousands of digital nomads who probably have very similar requirements.

Is there an affordable way to incorporate in Singapore?

I asked an agency and they charge around SG$11000 for the whole package.
I’d like to find a cheaper option since I’m just starting out.
Any recommendations?

My question is about the actual experience of staying outside of major cities, as well as where/how (on this site or elsewhere) to search to find questions and discussions about the same.

Sometimes I like being in the big city, but sometimes I like being away from it. For many people with “regular jobs” you have little choice but to be in a big metro area since that’s where the jobs are; for me, part of the appeal of considering DN is sometimes being able to work someplace quiet, remote, secluded and beautiful- rather than a concrete jungle.

I’m curious who’s actually done stuff like this. Because while it sounds great, I could also imagine all sorts of unpredictable problems that might not be an issue when one is way off the beaten path that wouldn’t come up if one were in a big metro area.