AirBnB/Uber/Booking.com ...how they do it?

[ziof3ster77]

Hi there,

I'm curios to see if anyone has got details/links/info on how these (and similar) businesses operates.

From what I can read on various neswpapers, for them European operations, they book in Netherlands, take a percentage there, and pay the host/driver back in the original country.
In Netherlands they kind of pay massive sums to a remote IP holder based in a zero tax area and this was are able to cover the operations in each country, minimizing them tax exposure, and channel most of the profit via Netherlands to some sunny island in the Caribbean.
When the Local operation need to expand/invest locally (new shops, marketing etc), asks a massive loan to the holding company, and use these funds in circle coming back from the Caribbean.

Not sure I understood well, as I'm not in this area and I'm pretty sure the overall system is much more complicated.

But for a much smaller operation, for a booking system, to book/rent something (a room, a tool, a furniture, an appliance etc), how this can be organized in a sustainable/clean/safe way?

An initial help/idea/remind to some specific documentations will be highly appreciated.

Best,
Z

 

[ih8socialism]

Well their advantage is that they have massive funding which allows them to pay top notch experts lol

If its a fully digital service I would go with a company somewhere in the known places like GCC (Bahrain or UAE) or Hungary, Cyprus, build economic substance and operate from there. If you need a branch in certain countries you could open a subsidiary in those countries. But atleast from what I know from germany is, the most important part is that the "mother" company is there before and has some real economic substance otherwise they can go nuts on you.

We used to sell SaaS (Software as Service) and totally shifted from Germany to UAE since our customers didn't really care from where they were billed .

But again, I am not an expert just my thoughts and take nothing for granted.

 

[ziof3ster77]

Well their advantage is that they have massive funding which allows them to pay top notch experts lol

If its a fully digital service I would go with a company somewhere in the known places like GCC (Bahrain or UAE) or Hungary, Cyprus, build economic substance and operate from there. If you need a branch in certain countries you could open a subsidiary in those countries. But atleast from what I know from germany is, the most important part is that the "mother" company is there before and has some real economic substance otherwise they can go nuts on you.

We used to sell SaaS (Software as Service) and totally shifted from Germany to UAE since our customers didn't really care from where they were billed .

But again, I am not an expert just my thoughts and take nothing for granted.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts.

I can see these big companies have very little to do on the surface with UAE, Baharain or other notorious tax paradise.

What they do is keep all the business as local as possible (in Europe), taking advantage of various Tax Differences between EU countries, with a CHannel/Sink mechanism that only at the very end ends up in a low/zero tax country.

My aim is to understand how/what they do...and try to replicate it in small scale.

(PS. I was reading on how IKEA is structured, or even Starbucks.....and all use Netherlands and IP in some ways).

Best,
Z

 

[cyprus123]

Are you referring to the double dutch irish sandwich or the triple dutch cayman IP box burger?

Ikea pays 3% royalty from it's turnover to Ikea Inter Systems B.V. in Netherlands for their intellectual property. This structure works only for big enterprises.

 

[CaptK]

You would need to clearly define the software owner (Any IBC Jurisdiction), Software exclusive distributor (Can be anywhere) and then your "customers".

For Example

Software owner and HQ in Cayman, Registered address and 2 staff (nominee directors)
Website showing HQ address and phone numbers for serviced office, calls to Cayman Island diverted to the distributor.
Software worldwide distributor pays for the licence and is paid a commission on all sales and bills on behalf of the owner for a fee( in home country). Then a back office in India that actually does all the work or you can employ any company anywhere in the world who actually maintain and service the software.

Contracts to reflect that.

 

[jakonda]

Thanks a lot for your thoughts.

I can see these big companies have very little to do on the surface with UAE, Baharain or other notorious tax paradise.

What they do is keep all the business as local as possible (in Europe), taking advantage of various Tax Differences between EU countries, with a CHannel/Sink mechanism that only at the very end ends up in a low/zero tax country.

My aim is to understand how/what they do...and try to replicate it in small scale.

(PS. I was reading on how IKEA is structured, or even Starbucks.....and all use Netherlands and IP in some ways).

Best,
Z

Can you share some links or docs about IKEA, Starbucks, etc. with me -thnx

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Just google it, it’s all on Wikipedia. Google Ireland + Netherlands + tax + sandwich.

 

[jakonda]

Just google it, it’s all on Wikipedia. Google Ireland + Netherlands + tax + sandwich.

Oh, okay I thought you have more sophisticated docs to share. Thanks for the reply but I am aware of those wikipedia like examples.