There’s a big difference between a country that relies on its popularity to attract foreigners, then taxes them heavily… and a country that is not so popular but really wants people like you to move there. There are, effectively, countries trying to get you to retire there.
In 2026, that difference matters. Governments are competing for you. And instead of glossy tourism ads, they offer visa programs, tax incentives, and even… homes. They want to attract foreign residents who bring pensions and savings.
And to attract them, some countries are making it easier to obtain a visa. Some are offering much longer stays with less bureaucracy. Others are even cutting taxes for expat retirees.
I’ve spent weeks talking to experts, went through the law changes, the updated rules. And while some countries like Portugal recently have made it much harder for expats to retire there, others are going in the opposite direction — almost rolling out a red carpet for you.
One of them is a place most retirees would never put on their shortlist. So here are the 5 countries most aggressively trying to get you to retire there in 2026.
Number 5 — The UAE
All the 5 countries I will mention today made very recent, positive changes for expat retirees. The curious thing is that the changes the UAE did are not on the same way the other four did.
It doesn’t need a special retiree tax rate because the system is built in your favor. There is generally no federal personal income tax on your wages, your pension, your dividends, your interest, your personal investment income — that’s just how the country works.
And that is nothing new — for a long time the UAE has adopted tax-free policies. What is new, however, is that they introduced a federal corporate tax system, and for the first time, natural persons conducting business activities came within its scope. That worried some people.
But the rules drew a critical line: personal investment income and real-estate investment income are explicitly excluded from what counts as business activity. So if you’re a retiree living from your portfolio, your rental income, your dividends, you’re not suddenly treated like a company.
The residence routes are easier too. The UAE has a dedicated retirement visa for people fifty-five and older. The federal requirements include property worth at least 1 million dirhams plus 1 million in savings, or an annual income of at least AED 180,000 — around $49,000.
If you’re applying through Dubai specifically, the income threshold is higher: AED 240,000, about $65,000. The permit lasts five years and can be renewed.
And there is also the Golden Visa. If you own property worth at least 2 million dirhams — around $545,000 — you can qualify for long-term residence.
And Golden Visa holders get something the retirement visa doesn’t give you: you can stay outside the UAE for longer than the normal six-month limit without automatically losing your residence status.
For someone who still spends part of the year in London, Toronto, Sydney, or visiting the grandchildren in the States, that flexibility matters a lot.
However… If you’re American, moving to the UAE does not make you invisible to the IRS. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live, so even with the zero tax regime of the UAE, you still owe Uncle Sam.
If you are from Canada, the UK, Australia, or almost any other country, moving to the UAE is a chance to stop paying income taxes. But remember: the UAE is expensive, specially Dubai. So the amount you save in taxes must be significant enough to compensate for the higher cost of living.
Housing, healthcare, and lifestyle costs can rival or exceed what you’d pay in a major Western city. And in terms of culture and climate, it’s a different place from the four countries that follow.
If you would prefer to live in a Mediterranean village, drinking wine and eating prosciutto, the UAE might not be the best option. But if you’re financially independent, and want lower taxes, global connectivity, and modern infrastructure all in one place, the UAE is a good choice.
The next countries take a very different approach, and the higher we go, the more powerful those incentives will be.
Number 4 — Greece
Greece has one of Europe’s best retirement tax incentives. A qualifying foreign pensioner who transfers tax residence to Greece can be eligible for a lower income tax rate of just 7% and that regime can last up to fifteen years — far longer than most temporary tax deals anywhere in Europe.
But that incentive is not new. What is new is that Greece did make the environment around it even better. Like with the 2026 income-tax reform, when Greece lowered several tax rates. These are not expat-specific changes, but they do improve the overall tax environment for anyone living in Greece.
After all, if your dentist pays lower taxes, there is a big chance your dental treatment will be cheaper.
There’s another angle worth knowing: Greece updated its property and inheritance laws. And inheritance laws are something really important for those who care about their families.
Among the biggest changes are the stronger protections against inherited debts and reforms to Greece’s forced-share regime, known as the “nomimi moira”.
One more thing: recently, Greece introduced a three-year tax break for property owners who convert short-term rentals into long-term ones — a housing-supply measure responding to the pressure tourism and Airbnb-style rentals put on the Greek housing market.
With the 7% special regime and all these new changes, it is no surprise that Greece is among the countries in the world that attract more financially independent expats.
But if you want a country that made a bigger recent move, keep reading.
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Number 3 — Malaysia
When you say “retire abroad,” most Westerners think about the Mediterranean, Central America, maybe Southeast Asia in a general sort of way. But almost nobody says Malaysia. And that’s exactly why it’s interesting: Malaysia rebuilt its residence program from the ground up.
The Malaysia My Second Home program — MM2H — has existed since 2002. But by the early 2020s, it had become difficult to use. The 2024 overhaul changed that.
The government created four new categories: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and a Special Economic Zone route called SEZ/SFZ. For a typical retiree, the Silver category is the entry point. You need a fixed deposit of $150,000, a minimum property purchase of 600,000 ringgit, and you get a 5-year renewable residence permit.
Gold requires a $500,000 deposit, a million-ringgit minimum property purchase, and offers a fifteen-year renewable term. Platinum asks for even more, but gives you a twenty-year renewable term.
Twenty years of renewable residence is a very generous proposition when compared to chasing short-term visa renewals every year or two.
But the route that might matter most for retirees over fifty is the SEZ/SFZ category. The deposit drops to 32,000 US dollars, and gives you a 10-year residence permit, renewable. And unlike the main categories, applicants 50 and older don’t face the same ninety-day annual stay requirement.
That is attractive if you want Malaysia as a base without the need to spend most of the year there.
Now, let’s talk about taxes — because this is where Malaysia gets interesting. Malaysia extended its exemption for qualifying foreign-source income earned by residents until 2036. That exemption covers dividends, interest, rents, and other foreign-source income.
For someone whose retirement is funded from outside Malaysia, that tax treatment can be very favorable.
Malaysia is also convenient for other reasons. English is widely spoken. Kuala Lumpur has world-class hospitals and international restaurants. Penang offers a more relaxed island life at a lower cost. And you’re within a short flight of Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore.
But… the entry price is not among the lowest: $150,000 locked in a deposit, plus property — and that’s just the Silver tier. For a retiree with modest savings, this program is out of reach. But for someone with assets who wants long-term residence in Asia with good tax benefits, Malaysia’s MM2H is an alternative.
Number 2 — Malta
Malta is tiny. It’s a small archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean that many people couldn’t find on a map. But what Malta did in 2026 is one of the cleanest, most straightforward expat retirement incentives any country has made in years.
Qualifying pension income is now 100% exempt from Maltese income tax, up to €37,104. That’s a full exemption, not just a reduced rate. Up to about $40,000 of pension income, you pay ZERO income tax in Malta.
And this didn’t come out of nowhere. The Maltese government phased it in over several years — 20% in 2022, forty in 2023, sixty in 2024, eighty in 2025, and now 100% in 2026, reaching now €37,104.
The exemption has a broad scope and covers social-security pensions, government pensions, foreign pensions, occupational and private pensions. So that includes an American with Social Security and a 401(k), a Brit with a State Pension or private pensions, a Canadian with CPP, OAS, and registered savings, and so on.
Malta’s exemption is designed to be relevant across all of those systems.
Malta also changed for better the tax treatment in other aspects. Other income benefits from a 0% bracket, and if you are married, there’s a further rebate of up to 540 euros.
There are other pros of Malta: English is an official language, it has deep British and Commonwealth ties and a large foreign-resident community. For a British retiree, it can feel much less foreign than most alternatives. For an American or Canadian, the English-language environment removes one of the biggest practical barriers to living abroad.
But it is important to remember that Malta’s property market is small and relatively expensive — as I said, it is a small archipelago.
Malta is an often underestimated place in the Mediterranean. But one country made an even more impressive change.
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Number 1 — Italy
Italy didn’t invent a new tax incentive in 2026. What it did was take an existing one — one that was among the best retirement tax deals in Europe — and make it available in more places.
Italy has a special regime for qualifying foreign pensioners. Move your tax residence to an eligible municipality, meet the conditions, and you can pay a reduced rate of 7% of income tax on your foreign-source income. This special tax regime is valid for the Italian regions considered part of the “Mezzogiorno”, or Southern Italy.
But until April 2026, there was a considerable limitation. Only cities and towns with less than 20,000 residents allowed you to qualify for this special, lower income tax rate. And since twenty thousand was the maximum, most of the time we were talking about very small villages. Places with charm and beauty, but often without a hospital or airport access that makes daily life convenient year-round.
Then came Law 34, from March 2026. This law increased the population ceiling to 30,000 residents.
That is a huge change, because now, between 74 and 81 additional municipalities became eligible. Towns like Ostuni and Noto — places with real infrastructure and established communities. The kind of towns where you can build a life.
Think about what this means for someone with, say, a $75,000 retirement income from a mix of Social Security, a private pension, IRA distributions, and some dividend income. Under a normal Italian tax return, you would lose around 31% of your money on income taxes. Under the 7% special tax regime, you pay just 7%… instead of 31%.
So your losses are 77% smaller! That is potentially life-changing.
And Italy is using this benefit to attract you to smaller communities in the south. That incentive creates a combination that almost no other country can match. A meaningful tax incentive paired with towns where the cost of living is well below Northern Italy, well below most of Western Europe.
Now, there are certain requirements, of course. You need to receive a qualifying foreign pension. You need to establish Italian tax residence in a municipality in southern Italy with less than 30,000 residents. And the special regime is only valid for foreign-earned income.
Said all that, if you qualify, Italy — together with Greece — gives you one of the most attractive tax incentives among all major European countries for retirees.
Now, not everything is flowers and cannoli in Italy — there are some cultural obstacles too, and unfortunately many articles prefer to ignore them. Not us. Check our article about the obstacles of retirement in Italy to discover what those obstacles are, and join our Patreon for detailed reports of all the countries we covered, plus access to our algorithm that will help you discover what is the best country and city for you.
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Levi Borba is the founder of expatriateconsultancy.com, creator of the YouTube channel The Expat, and a best-selling author. Some of the links in our articles may be affiliated links, meaning the author earns a small commission if you make a purchase.
