Whilst reading about the Principality of Seborga and its somewhat mixed claim to still retain their independence as a principality I came across the Kingdom of Tavolara which surprisingly has a much stronger claim as an independent sovereign country. But ignoring the technicalities suppose for a moment during Shadowrun's backhistory some time after when Italy fragmented that the Kingdom of Tavolara declared its independence and via legal arguments and other means was able to get itself recognised as an independent country by enough countries and corporations to make it a fact. After many years King Bob (the currently reigning King) who rules as an absolute monarch and is childless has agreed for a large amount of cash to grant citizenship to one of your team mates, legally adopt and make them his heir apparent and then abdicate after a month or two and move off to Monaco or Taihiti to enjoy his retirement.

So what sort of schemes can people come up with to make some cash from running their own country? The only limits are that they can't be out and out blatantly illegal although they can certainly fall into the grey areas somewhat. I'm sure boardmembers around here can come up with something creative.

Two words : Money Laundering.
First step : you make an arrangement with a AA bank corp : you give them a building, tax free and they can install a branch at your place.
Second step : you invite multiple banks to install a branch in your country.
Third Step : you provide services to banks and people : buy your citizenship, make a compagny in less than a few mins for just 999 Nuyens (this enables to make a transaction with a compagny you'll create for the occasion and also delete a few mins later), data heaven etc ...
Well, basicaly, you can make money like all today's RL micro states in the world