Head to head
Gustavia vs Vaduz.
Vaduz leaves about $261K more of a $1M income in hand each year than Gustavia, on the Patrician.ch 2026 model. 🇫🇷 St Barths against 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein, compared on tax, residence, cost and the life.
In short, current to October 2026
- On $1,000,000 of income, Gustavia takes an effective 44% and Vaduz takes 18%, so Vaduz leaves about $261K more in hand each year on the Patrician.ch 2026 model.
- On a capital gain realized after residence begins, Gustavia charges 35% and Vaduz charges 0%. On a $5,000,000 event that is a difference of about $1.8M.
- St Barths operates a special regime for arriving foreigners: For the first 5 years a new resident is treated as a French tax resident and pays French income tax on worldwide income. From the sixth year St Barths tax domicile applies, with no income tax and French tax only on French source income. Vaduz is modeled with none.
- Inheritance, what a child pays: yes, above €150,000 in Gustavia, nothing in Vaduz.
- Route in: Gustavia by Founder & talent. Vaduz by Lump sum residence.
- Cost of the life is 132 in Gustavia against 95 in Vaduz on the Patrician.ch index where Zurich is 100, and safety 9 against 10 of 10. Both are Patrician.ch editorial indices scored by us, not published statistics.
Source: the Patrician.ch board, an original ranking of 100 residence addresses across 47 countries and territories. Tax rates, thresholds and routes are sourced. Cost, safety, schools, sun and beauty are Patrician.ch editorial indices. Figures current to October 2026. Updated . Cite as: Patrician.ch, Gustavia (St Barths) vs Vaduz (Liechtenstein): tax, residence and cost 2026, patrician.ch/compare/st-barths-vs-vaduz/, October 2026.
