I'm a digital entrepreneur, mostly in software development/websites I run with ads, not from the US. I'm a resident non-citizen in a territorially taxed southeast asian country, and not subject to worldwide income tax. Years ago I set up an IBC in Belize with bank account in Singapore. I found it difficult to do business with the big players such as Google etc (eg: adsense) since bank account and incorporation were in different jurisdictions and it was always a hassle. Forming business partnerships also always raised eyebrows with the bank account in a different jurisdiction. Also Belize didn't have the best reputation.
I'm past trying to find 0% tax strategies from dodgy jurisdictions and am ready to pay a reasonable amount of corporate income tax (<=20%) for offshore incorporation in an Internationally respected jurisdiction with a trustworthy bank account in the same country too. My research is leading me to either Singapore or Canada.
A few questions: How expensive is it to incorporate in Singapore, including the cost of having the incorporating service appoint some local director for me or whatever else is legally required? Some posts on this forum quote around the ~$5k range, yet a bit of googling brings up cheap solutions like this: Company Incorporation Services in Singapore for Quick Company Formation Anyone here with firsthand experience on actual costs?
When I had a corporate bank account in Singapore before with IBC in Belize, they required minimum 30k SGD or USD to open an account (the company is now dissolved and bank account closed years ago). I don't have kind of money right now. Again from my research I see corporate bank accounts in singapore can be opened for as low as $1k minimum deposit now from a bit of googling. There seems to be a mismatch in my understanding here. Is Singapore a cheap or expensive jurisdiction for a company + bank account, provided I'm willing to pay 17% tax?
Also, what about Canada? It states it has a 38% corporate tax rate but after a 'General Tax Reduction' (see: Corporation tax rates - Canada.ca) this seems to go down to 15%. I don't understand that, does it mean the actual corporate tax rate there is 15%? Also how hard is it to get a good corporate bank account there? Is it expensive?
My business will be online based and International, I won't be selling services to local residents of the incorporating country. I'm just after a bit of advise, as someone that's over pursuing the 0% income tax 5 flags theory in jurisdictions that always make it hard to do business with the rest of the world in practice, and just want to bite the bullet, and pay a reasonable amount of corporate tax for an easy and respected jurisdiction to operate in. I'd rather just focus on my business and grow it than focusing on tax minimization, but still refuse to pay ridiculous tax rates (>20%).
tldr:
What's the best jurisdiction for -
1) Internationally trusted country, ease of doing business (particularly in ecommerce with Google, Microsoft, Stripe, Paypal, etc)
2) Easy to also set up a corporate bank account in the same jurisdiction (I'm done keeping this in a separate jurisdiction to the incorporating country, it's always proved a headache in my experience)
3) Reasonable corporate tax rate (<=20%)
4) Reasonable overall costs (particularly yearly renewal of both incorporation fees & agent fees, and minimum bank account opening deposit & ongoing fees)
5) Paying myself a salary from the jurisdiction should not trigger any personal income tax events from the incorporating country (such as 'receiving money' from my corporation there meaning I must now owe that country personal income tax). No need to worry about the country I'm residing in, it's tax exempt from worldwide income, I'm only concerned if the incorporating country will do something insidious like that.
I'm sure this has been asked before but no doubt things have changed a lot in the last few years. I'm looking into Singapore and Canada but am open to any decent jurisdiction, but Singapore particularly seems to have a lot of conflicting information as to actual expenses.
Lastly, I'll just mention I'm not particularly interested in a US LLC as I do not wish to enter into the complicated tax system there and don't wish to put the intellectual property of the company in a jurisdiction with so many civil suits (I realize I can bypass tax there to some degree as a passthrough entity, which isn't exactly what I want - I want a full corporate 'person' in a jurisdiction with a bank account - a completely separate legal entity to myself for both liability and taxation purposes. I intend for this company to be a real business I'm operating all my websites under.
Thank you for any advise.
I'm past trying to find 0% tax strategies from dodgy jurisdictions and am ready to pay a reasonable amount of corporate income tax (<=20%) for offshore incorporation in an Internationally respected jurisdiction with a trustworthy bank account in the same country too. My research is leading me to either Singapore or Canada.
A few questions: How expensive is it to incorporate in Singapore, including the cost of having the incorporating service appoint some local director for me or whatever else is legally required? Some posts on this forum quote around the ~$5k range, yet a bit of googling brings up cheap solutions like this: Company Incorporation Services in Singapore for Quick Company Formation Anyone here with firsthand experience on actual costs?
When I had a corporate bank account in Singapore before with IBC in Belize, they required minimum 30k SGD or USD to open an account (the company is now dissolved and bank account closed years ago). I don't have kind of money right now. Again from my research I see corporate bank accounts in singapore can be opened for as low as $1k minimum deposit now from a bit of googling. There seems to be a mismatch in my understanding here. Is Singapore a cheap or expensive jurisdiction for a company + bank account, provided I'm willing to pay 17% tax?
Also, what about Canada? It states it has a 38% corporate tax rate but after a 'General Tax Reduction' (see: Corporation tax rates - Canada.ca) this seems to go down to 15%. I don't understand that, does it mean the actual corporate tax rate there is 15%? Also how hard is it to get a good corporate bank account there? Is it expensive?
My business will be online based and International, I won't be selling services to local residents of the incorporating country. I'm just after a bit of advise, as someone that's over pursuing the 0% income tax 5 flags theory in jurisdictions that always make it hard to do business with the rest of the world in practice, and just want to bite the bullet, and pay a reasonable amount of corporate tax for an easy and respected jurisdiction to operate in. I'd rather just focus on my business and grow it than focusing on tax minimization, but still refuse to pay ridiculous tax rates (>20%).
tldr:
What's the best jurisdiction for -
1) Internationally trusted country, ease of doing business (particularly in ecommerce with Google, Microsoft, Stripe, Paypal, etc)
2) Easy to also set up a corporate bank account in the same jurisdiction (I'm done keeping this in a separate jurisdiction to the incorporating country, it's always proved a headache in my experience)
3) Reasonable corporate tax rate (<=20%)
4) Reasonable overall costs (particularly yearly renewal of both incorporation fees & agent fees, and minimum bank account opening deposit & ongoing fees)
5) Paying myself a salary from the jurisdiction should not trigger any personal income tax events from the incorporating country (such as 'receiving money' from my corporation there meaning I must now owe that country personal income tax). No need to worry about the country I'm residing in, it's tax exempt from worldwide income, I'm only concerned if the incorporating country will do something insidious like that.
I'm sure this has been asked before but no doubt things have changed a lot in the last few years. I'm looking into Singapore and Canada but am open to any decent jurisdiction, but Singapore particularly seems to have a lot of conflicting information as to actual expenses.
Lastly, I'll just mention I'm not particularly interested in a US LLC as I do not wish to enter into the complicated tax system there and don't wish to put the intellectual property of the company in a jurisdiction with so many civil suits (I realize I can bypass tax there to some degree as a passthrough entity, which isn't exactly what I want - I want a full corporate 'person' in a jurisdiction with a bank account - a completely separate legal entity to myself for both liability and taxation purposes. I intend for this company to be a real business I'm operating all my websites under.
Thank you for any advise.
