President Donald Trump 's proposed Gold Card visa for the rich could offer a tax incentive that other immigration pathways currently don't, experts say.

The $5 million "Green Card plus ," as Trump and his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick touted in the Oval Office last week, would allow holders to avoid paying U.S. tax on their overseas income—an option not currently open to citizens or immigrants in the country .

Newsweek reached out to the Departments of Commerce and the Treasury via email for comment.

Why It Matters

The president's announcement was the first legal immigration policy announcement of his second term in the White House. It is solely aimed at the world's wealthiest businesspeople. Some experts have been skeptical about how popular the Gold Card could be among investors if they don't see their $5 million fee ever again.

What To Know

Trump said at the White House last Tuesday that those who participated in the Gold Card program would "be paying a lot of taxes" and employing a lot of people, while also stating that "they won't have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States."

With so few details on the program currently, experts are cautious about this being an official policy if the Gold Card is implemented.

Rahul Soni, a partner at immigration services provider Fragomen, told Newsweek that to create the Gold Card with this tax loophole, something will need to be changed within the immigration system itself to create "a differentiating factor" between this visa and other Green Card options.

"Currently, all legal permanent residents (and U.S. citizens) are subject to the same U.S. tax implications for international income and assets," Soni said.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lists only a few exemptions for paying taxes on foreign income, including U.S. citizens who have lived in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period and immigrants from countries that have an agreement with the U.S.

Research by Henley & Partners, a firm that helps investors with immigration, found the U.S. was expected to attract upward of 3,800 millionaires in 2024. The country was already home to over 5.4 million.

Offering a tax incentive not even open to American citizens could make the $5 million price tag more bearable than the current cheaper EB-5 investor visa , which requires between $800,000 and $1 million in investment and fees charged by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Those who are granted an EB-5 still need to pay foreign income tax.

At the same time, not charging foreign income taxes appeared at odds with another benefit Lutnick touted: using the Gold Card fee to help offset the U.S. deficit. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that floated the idea of a Gold Card in 2019, suggested using a sliding scale of application fees to ensure enough applications were made to reach the funding goal set by the government.

While Trump and Lutnick said the EB-5 would be scrapped to make way for the Gold Card, Soni believes it could be left in place to work alongside it and offer multiple routes for those wanting to contribute to the U.S. economy.

What People Are Saying

Rahul Soni, a partner at immigration services provider Fragomen, told Newsweek : "Even our ultra-high-net-worth individual clients have not really expressed any interest in the 'gold card' program at all, even those who would typically have concerns over U.S. tax implications for legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens and will typically ask in-depth questions about EB-5 and tax implications.

"My takeaway is that there is mostly skepticism over how the 'gold card' program would practically work, given the scarce details about it in the announcement. If it is implemented, I suspect we will have a select few clients who would want to know if they can benefit from a taxation perspective, but this is still to come."

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told Newsweek : "If the goal is, we're trying to raise a certain amount of money through this process, then you should keep adjusting the price until, eventually, you raise that sum. It's not impossible that you could raise that sum through lowering the price and expanding the number of people who are participating in this."

What Happens Next

The Trump administration still needs to provide more details on the Gold Card and its implementation, as well as how to finish the EB-5, which has thousands of pending applications.

Congress has the power to establish new visa categories and dismantle them.