Lebanon’s Finance and Budget Committee approved a draft law offering a visa to wealthy investors looking to establish residency in the country and benefit from the country’s tax regime in exchange for a deposit or investment of $500,000, Lebanese media reported on Monday.
“We all know that Lebanon needs to attract investors and investment as part of [its] economic, financial, and banking recovery. It is necessary to prepare for the next phase, even if we are not there yet,” the committee’s president, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, said after the meeting, according to L’Orient-Le Jour.
Kanaan told the Lebanese media site that the law would give special residency rights to non-residents, allowing them to establish a tax residence in exchange for the investment. Applicants can invest the money simply as a bank deposit, in real estate, or in a Lebanese company, the report noted.
“This mechanism would create jobs, bring money into state coffers, and encourage investment once the conditions are met. It offers the possibility of choosing a tax residence and paying taxes there, without violating bilateral tax treaties or international standards on transparency, combating tax evasion and other forms of financial crime,” Kanaan said.
Applications could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for families
In addition to injecting half a million dollars into the Lebanese economy, the process would also require prospective visa recipients to pay a $50,000 fee to the government, with an additional $50,000 payment for each family member included in the application.
The potential economic benefit must also be weighed against whether the prospective plan could violate the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force.
As noted in a widely-cited LinkedIn post by Lebanese tax lawyer Karim Daher (a lecturer on Fiscal Law and Public Finance at Saint Joseph University in Beirut), Lebanon was placed on the FATF’s grey list, with many of the issues that led to the listing yet to be addressed.
FATF is notably critical of golden visa programs, having asserted in a joint 2023 report with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that such visa opportunities are susceptible to acts of bribery and corruption. Golden visas are often also treated as opportunities for money laundering, tax evasion, and sanctions avoidance.