Moving to the British territories

The British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Montserrat share English common law, very low crime, and — in two of the three — no income tax at all. But they range from a billionaires' sailing hub to the Caribbean's most affordable safe island. Here's how they compare.

Three small British Overseas Territories share a legal DNA — English common law, English as the working language, British-linked institutions, and crime rates most countries would envy — and then diverge completely on price and personality. The British Virgin Islands is a superyacht-and-offshore-finance hub with no income tax. Anguilla is a flat coral island of famous beaches, luxury resorts, and a bespoke tax-residency program for the wealthy. Montserrat is a near-empty, near-zero-crime volcano island that is among the most affordable places to live safely in the whole Caribbean. Same flag, three very different moves — this guide covers all three.

Do the British Caribbean territories have income tax?

Mostly no — but not universally, so this is worth getting right. The British Virgin Islands and Anguilla levy no personal income tax at all; they fund themselves through payroll taxes, import duties, fees, and consumption taxes instead. Montserrat is the exception: it does levy a modest personal income tax, so it is not a zero-tax island in the way the other two are. On currency, the BVI uses the US dollar, while Anguilla and Montserrat use the East Caribbean dollar (pegged at roughly EC$2.70 to US$1).

The three territories at a glance

British Virgin Islands — sailing and finance, at a price

The BVI is the region's yachting mecca (Virgin Gorda's Baths are the postcard) and a major offshore-finance center, which shapes who moves here: high earners, boat crews, and finance professionals. There's no income tax, though a payroll tax applies to employment. Residency is deliberately hard: work permits are employer-driven, and the path to permanent residence and eventual “Belonger” status typically requires around twenty years of residence, with a separate route for major investors. Cost of living is high and hurricane exposure is real (Irma devastated it in 2017), but violent crime is low.

Anguilla — beaches, luxury, and a tax-residency deal

Anguilla is smaller, flatter, and built around some of the Caribbean's best beaches and a high-end resort economy. It levies no income, capital-gains, or inheritance tax, funding itself through duties and a goods-and-services tax. For the wealthy it offers two headline routes: permanent residence via a substantial donation to the island's development fund or a large real-estate purchase; and a “High Value Resident” tax-residency program under which paying a flat annual worldwide-tax amount (on the order of US$75,000) plus owning property above roughly US$400,000 and spending at least 45 days a year on-island makes you an Anguillan tax resident. It's the most expensive of the three and extremely safe.

Montserrat — affordable, empty, and remarkably safe

Montserrat is the outlier and, for many, the most interesting. The Soufrière Hills volcano erupted in 1995, burying the capital Plymouth and forcing an evacuation that cut the population from around 11,000 to a few thousand; a southern exclusion zone remains off-limits, and life has rebuilt in the green north around Little Bay. What's left is a near-empty island with near-zero crime and living costs among the lowest of any safe Caribbean destination. It offers a one-year Remote Worker Stamp for digital nomads, plus property-based and investment residence routes (permanent residence now requires a longer qualifying period than it once did).

What does it cost to live in each?

The spread is enormous. Anguilla sits at the top — a luxury market where two-bedroom rentals commonly run well into the thousands of US dollars a month and a family budget can climb past US$7,000. The BVI is also expensive, driven by imports and its finance-hub economy. Montserrat is at the opposite end: a family can live comfortably on a fraction of the others' budgets, which — combined with the Remote Worker Stamp — makes it a genuinely under-the-radar option for location-independent earners who prize safety and quiet over amenities.

Is it safe to live on Montserrat with an active volcano?

Yes, with an important caveat about geography rather than crime. On crime, all three territories are among the safest places in the Caribbean, and Montserrat in particular has almost none. The volcano risk is confined to the southern exclusion zone, which is closed and monitored; the inhabited north, where the new capital area and community have been built, is considered safe and life carries on normally. You are trading proximity to a monitored volcano for one of the lowest crime environments anywhere in the region.

So which British territory is right for you?

It comes down to budget and what you're optimizing for. High earners who want no income tax and either sailing (BVI) or beaches and a formal tax-residency structure (Anguilla) should look there — accepting some of the region's highest living costs and, in the BVI, a long road to permanent residence. Anyone prioritizing affordability, safety, and quiet — especially remote workers who can use the one-year stamp — should look hard at Montserrat, the rare Caribbean island where “very safe” and “very cheap” overlap. All three give you English law and English-speaking institutions; the price tags could hardly be more different.

Frequently asked questions