Hey everyone, I'm planning to start an affiliate-marketing like online business very soon, and I'd love to get your thoughts on the best way to go about setting it up the right way in a foreign country to either fully avoid paying taxes, or greatly minimize them (especially since it's my first time doing something like this).
Currently I'm an official Canadian resident & citizen, and for many different reasons I'm looking to move away from Canada and start a new chapter in life + set up my online businesses(es) in a country that doesn't have insane tax policies or that taxes entrepreneurs on their worldwide income (but still keep my Candian citizenship for passport purposes).
My ultimate goal is to constantly be traveling around the world and visit numerous countries throughout the year for the next 5+ years, where I'd be staying in each country for about 1-2months at a time. In other words, living the digital nomad lifestyle and working from anywhere I want several hours a week.
The online business I'm planning to create is very simple - It's a B2B type of business where I would be partnering with several online entrepreneurs and helping them grow their business via certain strategic plans as a consultant, as well as providing them with other valuable services like sales and marketing to help them get better results quicker (this will be done on behalf of my "company", I wouldn't be performing the non-consulting services myself). In return, I'll be getting paid on a performance/commission basis, where the more revenues I generate for them and the more their business grows, the more I get paid as well (based on a certain % we agree on).
In many ways this is the exact same idea or concept as affiliate marketing, where you usually get paid anywhere from 15-40% of revenues you generate for a company as an affiliate, except there's a lot more to it than that and it's a bit more complex in the way it works or how I go about it.
The great thing about this business model is that I don't even need to create my own merchant account to accept payments - I only need to have a reliable bank account where I can receive money from others quickly, easily, cheaply, and where I can transfer it to other countries or bank accounts without any issues or complications if I want to. And ideally a bank account in a country where it is safe to keep large amounts or transfer whenever + however much I want.
I've been doing a lot of research on this myself, and at the moment I decided to go to Panama to obtain permanent residency there through the Friendly Nations Visa (in order to have an official residency/address somewhere in the world for whenever I decide to officially move away from Canada + other benefits that come with it on a personal level), which also required me to set up a corporation as part of the process. This is perfect because now I have permanent residency in Panama and also a Panamian Corporation where I don't have to pay any taxes on foreign income, so I get the best of both worlds.
The only downside is that I heard that Panamian bank accounts are not very reliable on an international level, esp when dealing with large amounts - so I'm looking for another country where I can easily & quickly set up a corporate bank account and connect it to my Panamian Corporation to start receiving transfers from my partners who mostly live in English speaking countries. Ideally, these countries should have no taxes requirements on worldwide income (like in Panama), or have very low corporate taxes rates of under 10% (ideally around or below 5%).
Also, I'm a huge believer and advocate of blockchain & crypto. Ideally, I would LOVE to store ALL of my money in my own personal digital wallet where I have full control over it & without needing to ask any government for permission - rather than risk storing it in ANY country/traditional bank account with the risk of it being frozen or getting asked a bunch of questions whenever I want to receive or especially transfer large amounts elsewhere.
If there is a way where my partners can use a non-popular online merchant that can not only accept various types of cryptocurrencies for under 1% fees, but also accept fiat payments and then automatically convert them to BTC, ETH, or preferably USDT/USDC (especially a set % of the full amount like it usually goes when affiliates get paid) - then that would be a dream come true for me. I know and have heard of several crypto payment processing platforms that can accept crypto and then fully convert it to fiat and send that amount to your bank account, but not the other way around.
So If this is possible, I would be able to store all my money in my own digital wallet in the same USD equivalent virtual stablecoins, and not have to deal with a bunch of BS from having different bank accounts in various countries (and plus save a lot on taxes as it would be easier to hide). But if sadly such an option doesn't exist, my plan is to either way, convert all my fiat money into crypto stablecoins right away or on a weekly basis as soon as I receive various transfers into my "traditional" bank account. If anyone here happens to do this often or knows someone who does this - I would love to hear how this can be done in a safe & convenient way.
Anyways, crypto aside - this brings me to a few questions I have in mind:
1. What would be the best country(s) where I can set up a corporate bank account where there are little to no taxes on worldwide income? A place that is reliable and where I can easily & quickly receive large amounts of money and then use or transfer it in any way I want without a bunch of questioning or complications?
And would I be able to easily connect that corporate bank account to a corporation from another country like Panama, or I would need to set up the corporation there as well?
2. What exactly do I need to do in order to completely avoid paying any taxes in Canada (but still keeping my citizenship + passport) when setting up an online business offshore? Besides becoming a non-resident and not living in Canada for 6+ months.
3. What do you think about Panamanian residency for personal reasons, as well as Panamian Corporations + bank accounts for doing business & accepting payments/money transfers from overseas? Would be even better if someone here has personal experience with that or knows someone who does.
4. What's the smoothest way to go about traveling the world & changing countries throughout the year (aka living the digital nomad lifestyle) where you pay little or no taxes in your online business yet do everything legally and have an official address/residency somewhere that doesn't require you to spend too much time during the year there to maintain it?
5. For crypto - is there any merchant/payment processor that can not only accept payments in crypto with low fees, but also accept fiat currency and convert it to crypto and then automatically send it to your digital wallet? This would be the perfect thing for me if something like this exists and is reliable.
And if a payment processor cannot do that - is there any business or group/organization that deals with large fiat-to-crypto exchanges (or vice versa) that is reliable and is fully virtual?
Because like I said, my goal is to store 99% of my money in crypto and avoid keeping large amounts in any country or bank account. I want to have full control over my money and not depend on any country to store & control my money for me when I can easily do it myself in this day & age.
Apologies if this is a bit long but looking forward to your thoughts!
Currently I'm an official Canadian resident & citizen, and for many different reasons I'm looking to move away from Canada and start a new chapter in life + set up my online businesses(es) in a country that doesn't have insane tax policies or that taxes entrepreneurs on their worldwide income (but still keep my Candian citizenship for passport purposes).
My ultimate goal is to constantly be traveling around the world and visit numerous countries throughout the year for the next 5+ years, where I'd be staying in each country for about 1-2months at a time. In other words, living the digital nomad lifestyle and working from anywhere I want several hours a week.
The online business I'm planning to create is very simple - It's a B2B type of business where I would be partnering with several online entrepreneurs and helping them grow their business via certain strategic plans as a consultant, as well as providing them with other valuable services like sales and marketing to help them get better results quicker (this will be done on behalf of my "company", I wouldn't be performing the non-consulting services myself). In return, I'll be getting paid on a performance/commission basis, where the more revenues I generate for them and the more their business grows, the more I get paid as well (based on a certain % we agree on).
In many ways this is the exact same idea or concept as affiliate marketing, where you usually get paid anywhere from 15-40% of revenues you generate for a company as an affiliate, except there's a lot more to it than that and it's a bit more complex in the way it works or how I go about it.
The great thing about this business model is that I don't even need to create my own merchant account to accept payments - I only need to have a reliable bank account where I can receive money from others quickly, easily, cheaply, and where I can transfer it to other countries or bank accounts without any issues or complications if I want to. And ideally a bank account in a country where it is safe to keep large amounts or transfer whenever + however much I want.
I've been doing a lot of research on this myself, and at the moment I decided to go to Panama to obtain permanent residency there through the Friendly Nations Visa (in order to have an official residency/address somewhere in the world for whenever I decide to officially move away from Canada + other benefits that come with it on a personal level), which also required me to set up a corporation as part of the process. This is perfect because now I have permanent residency in Panama and also a Panamian Corporation where I don't have to pay any taxes on foreign income, so I get the best of both worlds.
The only downside is that I heard that Panamian bank accounts are not very reliable on an international level, esp when dealing with large amounts - so I'm looking for another country where I can easily & quickly set up a corporate bank account and connect it to my Panamian Corporation to start receiving transfers from my partners who mostly live in English speaking countries. Ideally, these countries should have no taxes requirements on worldwide income (like in Panama), or have very low corporate taxes rates of under 10% (ideally around or below 5%).
Also, I'm a huge believer and advocate of blockchain & crypto. Ideally, I would LOVE to store ALL of my money in my own personal digital wallet where I have full control over it & without needing to ask any government for permission - rather than risk storing it in ANY country/traditional bank account with the risk of it being frozen or getting asked a bunch of questions whenever I want to receive or especially transfer large amounts elsewhere.
If there is a way where my partners can use a non-popular online merchant that can not only accept various types of cryptocurrencies for under 1% fees, but also accept fiat payments and then automatically convert them to BTC, ETH, or preferably USDT/USDC (especially a set % of the full amount like it usually goes when affiliates get paid) - then that would be a dream come true for me. I know and have heard of several crypto payment processing platforms that can accept crypto and then fully convert it to fiat and send that amount to your bank account, but not the other way around.
So If this is possible, I would be able to store all my money in my own digital wallet in the same USD equivalent virtual stablecoins, and not have to deal with a bunch of BS from having different bank accounts in various countries (and plus save a lot on taxes as it would be easier to hide). But if sadly such an option doesn't exist, my plan is to either way, convert all my fiat money into crypto stablecoins right away or on a weekly basis as soon as I receive various transfers into my "traditional" bank account. If anyone here happens to do this often or knows someone who does this - I would love to hear how this can be done in a safe & convenient way.
Anyways, crypto aside - this brings me to a few questions I have in mind:
1. What would be the best country(s) where I can set up a corporate bank account where there are little to no taxes on worldwide income? A place that is reliable and where I can easily & quickly receive large amounts of money and then use or transfer it in any way I want without a bunch of questioning or complications?
And would I be able to easily connect that corporate bank account to a corporation from another country like Panama, or I would need to set up the corporation there as well?
2. What exactly do I need to do in order to completely avoid paying any taxes in Canada (but still keeping my citizenship + passport) when setting up an online business offshore? Besides becoming a non-resident and not living in Canada for 6+ months.
3. What do you think about Panamanian residency for personal reasons, as well as Panamian Corporations + bank accounts for doing business & accepting payments/money transfers from overseas? Would be even better if someone here has personal experience with that or knows someone who does.
4. What's the smoothest way to go about traveling the world & changing countries throughout the year (aka living the digital nomad lifestyle) where you pay little or no taxes in your online business yet do everything legally and have an official address/residency somewhere that doesn't require you to spend too much time during the year there to maintain it?
5. For crypto - is there any merchant/payment processor that can not only accept payments in crypto with low fees, but also accept fiat currency and convert it to crypto and then automatically send it to your digital wallet? This would be the perfect thing for me if something like this exists and is reliable.
And if a payment processor cannot do that - is there any business or group/organization that deals with large fiat-to-crypto exchanges (or vice versa) that is reliable and is fully virtual?
Because like I said, my goal is to store 99% of my money in crypto and avoid keeping large amounts in any country or bank account. I want to have full control over my money and not depend on any country to store & control my money for me when I can easily do it myself in this day & age.
Apologies if this is a bit long but looking forward to your thoughts!
Last edited:
