For Ecuadorians

How tax residency works

Article 4.1 of the Ley de Régimen Tributario Interno (LRTI, the internal tax law) sets the tests applied by the SRI (Servicio de Rentas Internas, the tax authority). You are an Ecuadorian tax resident for a fiscal year if you spend 183 days or more in Ecuador in that calendar year, counting sporadic absences as days in Ecuador, or 183 days within any 12 months spanning two years, unless you prove tax residence elsewhere.

You are also resident if the main nucleus of your activities or economic interests (núcleo principal de sus actividades o intereses económicos) is in Ecuador. That is the case when, over the last 12 months, you earned more income from Ecuador than from any other country, or when the largest part of your assets is in Ecuador. If you hold more than US$1 million of assets in Ecuador, including shares in Ecuadorian companies, and you have been resident or hold Ecuadorian nationality, the law presumes your nucleus is in Ecuador unless you prove otherwise.

Finally, if you have not spent more than 183 days in any other country during the year, the regulations look to where your closest family ties are. Residents pay income tax on worldwide income at rates up to 37%, with a credit for tax paid abroad; non residents pay only on Ecuadorian source income, generally at 25% withheld at source.

• 183 days or more in Ecuador in the calendar year, or in any 12 month period across two years.
• More of your income in the last 12 months from Ecuador than from any other country.
• The largest share of your assets in Ecuador, or more than US$1 million there.
• No stay of more than 183 days in any other country, with your closest family ties in Ecuador.

Leaving properly

The rule that most affects your choice of destination sits in the same article. If you move your tax residence to a tax haven, lower tax jurisdiction or preferential regime, you remain an Ecuadorian tax resident for the four fiscal years after you stopped meeting the residence tests, unless you prove that you spent at least 183 days there in a year and that the nucleus of your economic interests is there.

A jurisdiction counts if it is on the SRI’s list, or if it meets two of three tests in the law: an effective income tax rate below 60% of Ecuador’s, rules that let activity avoid being carried on substantially there, and no effective exchange of tax information. The list includes Georgia, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Vanuatu; the SRI removed Panama in August 2025 and the UAE in November 2025. Paraguay, Uruguay and Turkey are not listed, but because the tests also reach unlisted jurisdictions, our team checks your destination before you plan around it.

1. 01

   Plan the calendar year

   Leave so that you spend fewer than 183 days in Ecuador in the year, and in any 12 month period across two years, and move your spouse and children with you.

2. 02

   Move the nucleus

   Arrange your affairs so that most of your income and the largest share of your assets are outside Ecuador, and watch the US$1 million presumption if you keep Ecuadorian property or shares.

3. 03

   Spend real time abroad

   If your destination could be treated as low tax, spend at least 183 days there each year and keep the evidence; with your economic interests there, that keeps the four year rule from applying.

4. 04

   Get proof of your new residence

   Obtain your residence permit and a tax residence certificate from your new country, which is your main evidence that you have left.

5. 05

   Close the resident period with the SRI

   File your final resident income tax return and update your RUC (Registro Único de Contribuyentes, the taxpayer register) details. From then on, Ecuadorian payers withhold tax as for a non resident.

The ISD and moving money abroad

The ISD (impuesto a la salida de divisas, the currency outflow tax) applies to money leaving Ecuador: transfers, cheques, cash carried abroad and card spending abroad, whether or not you are resident. The general rate is 5%, restored from 1 April 2024 after a temporary reduction.

The exemptions are small. Each adult can carry up to three SBU (salario básico unificado, the basic monthly wage, US$482 in 2026), that is US$1,446, in cash when leaving the country, plus one SBU for each minor travelling with them. Transfers are exempt up to three SBU in each half month, and card spending abroad up to US$5,188.26 a year. Amounts above those limits are taxed at 5%.

Moving a lifetime of savings out of Ecuador can therefore cost 5% of the amount, so the timing, route and documentation of each transfer deserve planning with your accountant. For residents, some payments made from accounts abroad can also attract ISD by presumption. Specific exemptions exist, for example for certain dividends paid to non residents, study costs abroad and treatment for catastrophic illness, each with its own conditions.

Exit tax, property and investments

Ecuador has no exit tax: leaving does not trigger a deemed sale of your assets. As a non resident you pay tax only on Ecuadorian source income, generally at 25% withheld at source, and dividends from Ecuadorian companies carry a 10% withholding, or more where an Ecuadorian resident is the beneficial owner or a tax haven sits in the ownership chain.

You can keep property in Ecuador, but remember the asset test: if the largest share of your assets, or more than US$1 million, stays in Ecuador, the SRI can treat you as still resident. Selling urban property can trigger the municipal plusvalía tax on the gain, and annual municipal property taxes continue.

Ecuador has tax treaties with 21 countries plus the Andean Community, including Spain, Uruguay and the UAE, which can settle residence where both countries claim you. Paraguay and Panama have no treaty with Ecuador, so there the domestic rules and your evidence decide.

Pensions and social security

Your rights with the IESS (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social, the social security institute) stay in place when you move abroad, and pensions are paid monthly into the bank account you register. You qualify at any age with 40 years of contributions, at 60 with 30 years, at 65 with 15 years or at 70 with 10 years.

Ecuadorians abroad can keep contributing through voluntary affiliation from abroad, at 17.6% of the income they declare, with a minimum based on the basic wage. It keeps building your pension, but IESS health cover applies only in Ecuador, so arrange private health insurance for your new home.

Ecuador has bilateral social security agreements with Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Spain, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and applies the Ibero American Multilateral Agreement on Social Security with countries including Brazil, Paraguay, Portugal and Uruguay, so contributions in those countries can be added together.

Dual citizenship

Ecuador allows dual nationality. Article 6 of the Constitution provides that Ecuadorian nationality is not lost by acquiring another nationality, so a second passport has no effect on it.

The practical gain is often travel. Ecuadorians need visas for the Schengen area and the United Kingdom, while St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda passports give visa free access to both.

Note that St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda and Vanuatu are on the SRI’s list of tax havens. Holding their citizenship does not change your tax residence, but moving your residence to one of them would trigger the four year rule.