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Hi and welcome to the forum !

There is no age limit to become a retiree under the retirement occupation permit scheme and the USD 40,000 may be spend. The BOI is actually even having a closer look now as to how these 40,000 are spent locally.

The 30,000 MUR would fall under the 'old' work permit scheme.

The 150,000 MUR (gross salary) would fall under the professional occupation permit and you would be eligible to apply for a Permanent Resident Permit after 3 year but the law is still pending on this issue as of date. No Permanent residence permit has been issued yet.

As far as I am aware, there isn't any written rule forbidding you to have an occupation in Europe whereas it would be impossible for you to have an activity (i.e commercial/ professional...) in Mauritius should you fall under the retirement scheme. Your husband and children would have the right to stay in Mauritius being your dependents. Also just keep in mind that your husband, being a dependant, wouldn't be allowed to work.

Hope it help...

@mzgerry:

thank you so much for the quick and very good reply.

I understand the problems with the retirement scheme. But if I understand all correctly my husband and I could work if I fell under the "professional" scheme, I could work as well as my husband?! Of course with the open question that no permanent visa has yet been issued. (Is this because the law is so new?)

Would we be allowed to buy property one day? Assuming that they will issue permanent visa to "professionals" one day.

Thanks again for the great help so far. Do you live on Mauritius? Do you like it?

Cheers,
Leony

No problem Leony, hope it helps !

Yes I live in Mauritius after a few years away. I'm actually Mauritian !

I'm not sure whether the professional Occupation Permit scheme is really the one you would need or if you are talking about creating your own business (in which case you would fall under the self employed or investor scheme) ?
Anyway, as long as your husband is a dependent - as far as any OP scheme is concerned - he won't be able to work. He would have to get his own professional/self employed... OP.

Buying a property is already possible for a foreigner under a RES/ IRS Scheme. But it was indeed a possibility for the holder of a permanent residence Permit (though still subject to the approval of the competent authority).

Cheers,
MzG.

Hi Leony,

The wording of the visa for retirees does not stipulate a minimum age and in fact says "irrespective of age and nationality."  It also does not say you cannot work overseas, but it does say you are forbidden from receiving any income for any work in Mauritius and are not allowed to be a full time director of any Mauritian businesses. 

As mzgerry stated, the $40,000 figure is to be used for your living expenses so does not need to remain frozen in the bank.  However, I have been told that the non-working requirement in Mauritius only applies to a single individual in the family (you) so your husband could possibly find work in Mauritius assuming he meets the criteria for an occupation permit.  The $40,000 per year requirement for the retiree visa would have to clearly come from a source other than your husband I would assume though.

Additionally, it is theoretically possible you could be able to do some "part time" work outside of Mauritius, but one thing you would need to be careful of is spending too much time out of the country initially.  You need to be in Mauritius at least 182 days per year for each of your your first two years to be able to claim tax residency in Mauritius and from year 3 onwards the threshold is only 91 days per year.  You would also need to check the rules regarding tax residency where ever you would be working in Europe.

Also, the way the statute is written regarding permanent residency, it talks about the cumulative number of days you are in Mauritius so if when ever they do start issuing permanent residency, they will look at the total number of days living in Mauritius not just the calendar years. 

For instance, the rules say you need to have 3 years in country, then it is 1,095 days you need to have been in Mauritius which could take you a lot longer than three years to accumulate, especially if you will be working back in Europe four or five months per year.  In the meantime, you will have to reapply every 3 years for your residential permit as a retiree until such a time that the government issues the guidelines and means to apply for permanent residency.

Although, you could come to Mauritius under an occupation permit if you meet the income requirements as well depending on how you did it.  You could start your own company and be hired back in Europe as a "consultant / contractor" would potentially be one way to do it.  Again, with regards to permanent residency, you will also have to meet both the time as well as income thresholds looking backwards once the government does start carry out issuing permanent residency visas.

With regards to buying property before that happens, the only way at the moment to legally do so as a non-Mauritian is via an IRS (Integrated Resort Scheme) or RES (Real Estate Scheme).  Both schemes have to be in government approved developments which reduces the appeal to many potential buyers as most of the homes in these developments all look identical and come with a large price tag attached.

With an IRS property you are then able to potentially receive an occupation permit, but with the RES you cannot.  The IRS and RES also have different price thresholds being $500,000 USD for an IRS property and theoretically no minimum for the RES.  That being said, you will be hard pressed to find an IRS home for less than $1mm USD and the least expensive RES home I have seen on the market was around $250,000 Euros, but it was more of a "holiday" home than somewhere a person would live permanently or with children in my opinion and was marketed as such.

I would seek some professional advice regarding it so that either way you decide to go you can be sure you do not run in to any potential trouble down the road.  I can refer you to a few different companies that are well established in Mauritius and well respected that could advise you properly regarding all of these matters (visas, buying property, etc).  Let me know and I can forward on their contact details.

Hi Leony,

I was thinking about this a bit more and think you should look in to setting up your own business in Mauritius if you are going to be working four to five months per year back in Europe.  Specifically, you should investigate setting up a Global Business Category Type 1 (GBC1) company through one of the management companies here in Mauritius.  What this will enable you to do is not only have your occupation permit (OP) through the company so you can live in Mauritius, but at the same time you will be able to lower your overall taxes as well probably.

This is all assuming that you can pay yourself enough through the company to qualify for the OP rules and still have high enough company revenues and profit to warrant the associated annual GBLC1 costs. 

If so, your "corporate" taxes will be at a lower 3% tax rate since all of the company's revenue would be generated offshore compared to the 15% flat tax that a company would normally have to pay if you were doing business locally.  At the same time, the minimal local salary you would pay yourself through the company to qualify for the OP would more than likely be taxed at a lower rate than the taxes you would of been paying if you were still living in Europe. 

Your "local" income that you would pay yourself would be taxed be at 15%, but any dividends you paid to yourself generated from the company's profits would be tax free.  Depending on how much revenue and what sort of profits you could generate through the company this could equate to a much more profitable way to function.

At the same time, depending on the type of work your husband does and his background, qualifications and experience, the company could sponsor his occupation permit and employ him if that made sense and was reasonable.

The two of you could act as the "local" directors that would be required as you both will be living in Mauritius so there would be no need to pay for this service through the management company.  You may need to have the management company provide company secretary services unless you or your husband are qualified to act in that capacity as well.