How the relocation math is built.

For each destination Latitude models, the headline effective tax rate is a blended estimate for a senior professional earning USD 200k–500k. The blend layers:

• National income tax — top marginal bracket reached at the modeled income, not the schedule average
• Payroll / social security — the employee-side contribution (or self-employed equivalent for fractional CFOs)
• State / regional / local — NYC city tax, NY state tax, California state, German Solidaritätszuschlag, etc.
• Inbound expat regimes — when applicable, the engine uses the favorable rate (Portugal NHR/IFICI, Spain Beckham, Italy impatriati, France impatrié), not the standard schedule

Primary sources, cross-referenced:

• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — the standard reference for jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction tax mechanics
• KPMG Individual Income Tax and Social Security Rate Survey — annual, blended effective rates for high-income brackets
• EY Global Tax Guide (Individual) — used to verify expat-specific regimes (NHR, Beckham, etc.) when sources disagree
• National revenue agency tables — for cities where third-party summaries are stale (UAE, Singapore IRAS, Hong Kong IRD, etc.)

These are directional blended rates. Clients should always verify with a local tax pro before acting on the brief. A lawyer's opinion is more expensive than a Latitude subscription and more authoritative.

The 9-row “What the same money buys” table on every brief is sourced from Numbeo, the standard CoL reference for international comparisons. Items pulled per city:

Rent (1BR center, 3BR center); meal costs (inexpensive, mid-range); cappuccino; grocery basket proxy; monthly transit pass; utilities (85m²); internet 60Mbps; gym membership.

The annual lifestyle burn (the full-tier number) is computed from a deeper 22-item Numbeo basket plus city-specific overlays (private schooling, domestic help, healthcare tier) sourced from the WealthFit dataset that Latitude shares with the Payback engine.

Numbers update quarterly when Numbeo refreshes its city tables (mid-January, mid-April, mid-July, mid-October).

Verified against expat finance forums (Blind APAC, Singapore Expats, ShanghaiExpat, Reddit r/expats) for sanity-check on outlier cities.

For each destination, Latitude documents the realistic residency pathways with duration, minimum income/investment, and citizenship timeline. Sources:

• Henley & Partners Global Mobility Reports — the standard reference for golden-visa programs
• National immigration department guidance — UK Home Office, US USCIS, UAE GDRFA, MOM Singapore, AIRE Italy, etc.
• BAL Immigration / Fragomen quarterly updates — used to catch policy changes (e.g. Portugal NHR closure, UK domicile reform 2025, Spain Golden Visa repeal)
• Country-specific advisor channels — Sovereign Group for Asia/MENA, Astons for CIS, Latitude Group for Caribbean CBI

The engine flags visa friction per destination as “open / moderate / hard” — open means a low-friction self-petition track exists (LTR Thailand, Dubai Golden, Portugal D7); hard means employer sponsorship, lottery, or significant capital is required (US H-1B, Switzerland B-permit non-EU).

Latitude does not give immigration legal advice. Every brief recommends engaging local counsel before acting. The engine surfaces what to ask, not what to do.

The brief's “Exit considerations” section flags first-order risks when leaving the origin jurisdiction. Coverage:

• US — worldwide income tax obligation, Section 877A exit tax mechanics, FATCA / FBAR continuation, PFIC trap on foreign mutual funds
• UK — Statutory Residence Test (post-2025 residence-based regime replacing non-dom), CGT rebase on departure, ATED on UK property
• France — Article 167 bis exit tax on unrealized capital gains >€800k for residents who lived in France ≥6 of last 10 years
• Germany / Netherlands — Wegzugbesteuerung / substantial-shareholding exit tax
• Australia — CGT deemed disposal at cessation of residency
• Canada — Section 128.1 departure tax

Coverage is best-effort: 9 origin jurisdictions documented in detail. Any city outside that list shows a generic “Verify with a local tax pro” advisory.

The single most-debated assumption in Latitude. The engine assumes the client earns the same gross income in destination as in origin. This is true for most senior finance, tech, and consulting roles where comp scales with seniority not geography. It's less true for:

• Sales — quotas and books of business reset on relocation, comp typically rebases 30–50% lower
• Partner-track professional services — lawyers, doctors, top consultants — relationships don't move
• Founders post-exit — pre-exit they may earn nothing; post-exit they may need different domicile entirely
• Industries with local language barriers — German legal, Japanese investment banking, etc.

The brief flags this assumption as a “brutal insight” on every output. Override the income field on the calculator if the move involves a meaningful comp change.

The line chart on every brief compares two scenarios over the expected horizon:

• Stay — current city, current effective tax, current burn at chosen tier
• Move — destination city, destination effective tax, destination burn at the same tier

Each year, both scenarios:

1. Compound prior-year wealth at 5% real (a defensible long-run global equity assumption after inflation)
2. Add net annual savings: after-tax income minus annual lifestyle burn

The gap between the two lines at year N is what relocating buys, in dollars. We deliberately don't compound at 7% nominal because the client's burn is also denominated in real terms — using a real return keeps the comparison internally consistent.

Every brief surfaces a list of rules-based observations under “Brutal insights.” The engine looks for 13 specific patterns; each match becomes a card on the brief:

1. Tax-arbitrage size (>20pts: positive flag; 5–20: edge; <-5pts: warning)
2. Zero-tax destination (Dubai, Bahamas, Monaco, Cayman, etc.)
3. Territorial tax regime (Singapore, HK, Panama)
4. US worldwide-income trap (auto-fires for any US-origin client)
5. Hard-visa friction warning
6. Lifestyle compression (target coverage 70–100%)
7. Lifestyle expansion (target coverage ≥150%)
8. 5-year wealth velocity (flag >$250k delta or <$0)
9. Income-holds-across-cities caveat (always shown)
10. Capital-gains treatment in destination
11. US-citizen-specific traps (PFIC, FATCA when destination has unfavorable fund regime)
12. Wealth-tax exposure
13. Inheritance / estate-tax flags

• Probabilistic visa outcomes. H-1B lottery odds (~25%), Tier-2 sponsorship variability, Singapore EP rejection rates — Latitude assumes the visa is granted. If the lottery loses, the math doesn't apply.
• Dual-income household dynamics. Spousal earning potential, work-visa rights, cultural barriers to spouse employment — modeled lightly via the “kids” flag but not as a separate income stream.
• Industry-specific shocks. 2022 tech layoffs, 2024 PE comp compression — Latitude uses 2024–25 reference data which capture partial recovery. A forward-looking macro shock model doesn't exist.
• Currency hedging. Income in USD vs burn in EUR/GBP/local — Latitude converts at point-in-time spot rates. Long-term FX volatility is not modeled.
• Real estate equity. The brief tracks liquid wealth only. Selling a primary residence to relocate involves transaction costs, capital-gains exemptions, and rebuy timing the engine doesn't address.
• Education quality, not just cost. The schooling tier flags cost ($38k/yr international) but doesn't differentiate between an excellent local public school in Zurich and a mediocre one in Bangkok. Quality is a parallel decision.
• Climate, culture, and personal preference. The numbers can favor Dubai while the family hates 50°C summers. Latitude is a financial-defensibility tool; the client's life decision is theirs.

Theory is fine. These are working briefs the engine generates from URL params — the same brief your client receives, branded. Click through; verify the math:

• London → Dubai · ELITE on tax arbitrage (42pts of tax savings, UAE 0% regime)
• New York → Singapore · STRONG on tax + APAC purchasing power (territorial regime, US worldwide trap auto-flags)
• San Francisco → Lisbon · ELITE on EU expat regime (IFICI program), 5-year wealth delta $385k+

Every number you see on those briefs comes from the inputs in the URL using the methodology described on this page.

• PwC / KPMG / EY tables refresh annually each spring — Latitude refreshes when each publishes
• Numbeo CoL data is live-pulled; city-specific rent / meal prices refresh quarterly
• Visa policy changes (e.g. UK domicile reform, Portugal NHR closure) are added within 30 days of announcement
• If you spot a number that looks wrong, email sales@pgintel.dev with the source. We'd rather fix it than defend it.