# Croatia: Digital nomad visa, 0% tax, and a COVID summer on Brač

- **Episode:** [220](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/220.md) (2025-08-05)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** croatia, digital-nomad-visa, tax, covid
- **Time:** 4:34–8:04 (start 274s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=274](https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=274)

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[4:34] Al Elliott: Great. Okay. So next one I'm pulling out is, oh, Croatia. We know a lot about Croatia. So, uh, we were in Croatia for probably on and off about 3 years. Was it only 2?
[4:47] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, maybe, maybe 2. 2 and a bit
[4:49] Al Elliott: Uh, we did the digital nomad visa. Did we do it twice?
[4:51] Leanne Elliott: We applied for it a second time, then left before it came through
[4:54] Al Elliott: Oh, yes. Yes. So we did the Digital Nomad Visa, which is essentially, if you don't know, you get a year to live in Croatia. Um, and I think it's good tax breaks as well
[5:04] Leanne Elliott: 0% tax
[5:05] Al Elliott: 0% tax. You get taxed, obviously, if you are in, like, you have to be careful if you're American, because I believe there's something called W-2 or something in America where basically wherever you are, the American tax jurisdiction will find you and make you pay tax. But if you're in the UK and you're out of the UK for a year, Then, um, in theory, you don't pay any tax at all. Do— this is not financial advice
[5:24] Leanne Elliott: No, it's not. Um, Croatia, loved it. Honestly, Croatia is one of those places where if there was a route to permanent residency for third country nationals, which is Brits, Americans, Canadians, basically anyone who's not, um, born in the European Union, um, because it's a fabulous place to be. We spent a year in Istria near Pula. We spent then probably about 6, 8 months around Split. We did a lot of travelling whilst we were there. Um, it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. It is a little bit more expensive than it used to be
[5:58] Al Elliott: Mm-hmm
[5:58] Leanne Elliott: When we first went, it was really quite cost-effective. And then they went into Schengen, adopted the euro, things got very expensive overnight. But equally, it's where you are. If you're going to Dalmatia, so Split, Dubrovnik, very expensive. Islands, very expensive. If you're heading more towards Istria or Northern Croatia, Much more affordable
[6:16] Al Elliott: Yeah. There's some famous waterfalls in Croatia, which are cool. We went in the winter when it was all frozen and that was kind of cool. We also stayed in an amazing sort of like homestay, sort of like barn thing where there was, where we went down to the kitchen and he was cooking pork on the open fire and yeah, it was really cool. So, yeah
[6:33] Leanne Elliott: Definitely. It was also our COVID summer was in Croatia. We spent 3, almost 3 months on Brač, one of the islands, which was just heaven on earth. The Dalmatian Coast, it only, the only rival for me to the Dalmatian Coast is potentially Southeast Asia
[6:50] Al Elliott: Yes
[6:50] Leanne Elliott: But I'm talking the best bits like Lombok
[6:53] Al Elliott: Yeah
[6:53] Leanne Elliott: The Gili Islands. It's the most stunning coastline. You know, in terms of island hopping, it's perfect. The water, I don't know how it's so clean and crystal clear. It's so much fun. I would absolutely recommend Croatia to digital nomads. I would absolutely recommend Croatia in terms of holidays. Just bear in mind that depending where you go, it might be a bit spinny. Yeah
[7:16] Al Elliott: Yeah. Good point. So, uh, yes, I think overall in terms of the internet, that was relatively cheap and pretty fast, even on the islands, it's pretty fast. Um, and, uh, yeah, if you, if you are going there for a year, then you probably get yourself a decent apartment there. We're looking around about sort of €700 or €800 for a 1-bed, 2-bed, uh, somewhere in Split, probably a bit less if you're going to somewhere like Pula. Uh, generally Istria, um, which is the bit which is right next to Slovenia, is Uh, probably the, one of the cheapest parts with, you've also got the coastline, which is beautiful. So, there you go
[7:46] Leanne Elliott: Also, a good thing about doing the DN visa in Croatia is it's quite a good digital nomad community. There's lots of meetups, coworking spaces, that type of thing. So, so yeah, especially if you're maybe new to travelling around Central Eastern Europe, Croatia is probably a really nice place to start