Internet Marketing Offshore Company How & Where? Panama? RAK? Somewhere Else?

[Gosha]

Hello, I am a total noob to this offshore thing and would love some help & advice. I have spent many hours researching how to take my business offshore but the information I have found so far has been very bad, and many of the services offering solutions appear to be scams after reading reviews.

I'm the founder of a small internet marketing company, I am originally from the UK but now resident in Bulgaria. I would like to move my company offshore as currently we pay too much tax being registered in the UK and new EU laws make it impossible to compete with foreign companies, and we have no privacy at all.

I need to be able to process credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX) probably with Authorize or 2Checkout but Stripe would also be fine, and I need access to a corp Bank Account with online banking in order to run my business. (preferably one I can set up without having to visit the branch)

I would also like if possible:

• Privacy/Protect My Information & Directors Information (and ideally bank privacy)
• Reduced Taxes On Corporate Income & Dividends
• Minimal/No Accounting/Book Keeping Requirements
• Documents/Formation in English (would be a bonus)

I was looking at Panama & RAK as two of my options, as both seem to offer 0% corporate tax, high privacy and low accounting requirements. Are these good options?

I have been told Panama is difficult to get payment processing/banking and that RAK is expensive to set up. I could not find any price info on RAK company but Panama seemed quite expensive at around $5,000-$10,000 based on what various 'company formation' websites were offering for a complete service.

1. Which jurisdictions should I be looking at? Are other places better?
2. How much should I realistically be prepared to pay in order to get a solution that works?
3. Can I set this up myself or should I pay for a service to do it? I'm guessing pay someone.
4. What set-up companies/services are legitimate and which should I avoid?

Excited awaiting your reply!

 

[W4rhol]

Do you have US customer ?
Your main customer or in EU or not ?

If you don't have any US customer, you can go with a Wyoming LLC

 

[JohnLocke]

Both Panama and RAK reports you like any other jurisdiction does, there is really no difference in this.

That said if it is cheap to setup a RAK corp. you may go for it. But I would check first what payment processor that is accepting which jurisdiction and then decide where to setup your business.

Wyoming LLC may be a good suggstion too, I don't know about it and I don't know what limitation it has at all, if any.

@W4rhol do you know what banking is available and what payment processing?

 

[blizz]

OP did you need any payment processing at all? I can't read it anywhere?

If not, setup a simple Belize corp. with nominees and Cyprus banking or Mister Tango banking, this is easy, fast and cheap to do.

 

[W4rhol]

@W4rhol do you know what banking is available and what payment processing?

For the Wyoming LLC, if I remember good you can work with stripe if you have an EIN number. For the bank, I think that you have the traditionnal option to have a US bank, otherwise most emi will not accept the wyoming but the delaware instead.

 

[JohnLocke]

Do you have any personal experience with a Wyoming LLC I'm doing some research on it at the moment because of your post. It sounds interesting.

How would you go about to get a EIN number, isn't that only for US citizens?

 

[W4rhol]

Do you have any personal experience with a Wyoming LLC I'm doing some research on it at the moment because of your post. It sounds interesting.

How would you go about to get a EIN number, isn't that only for US citizens?

I try to find a good law/tax consultant for the wyoming LLC.

The EIN number is the number who give you the right to hire someone. But the SSN (social security number) is only for Us resident

 

[moneymaster]

I try to find a good law/tax consultant for the wyoming LLC.

The EIN number is the number who give you the right to hire someone. But the SSN (social security number) is only for Us resident

I read all over the net it's impossible to get these 2 numbers?

 

[Gosha]

Hi, thank you all for your replies.

Do you have US customer ?
Your main customer or in EU or not ?

If you don't have any US customer, you can go with a Wyoming LLC

Yes, the majority of our sales come from US and Australian customers.

OP did you need any payment processing at all? I can't read it anywhere?

If not, setup a simple Belize corp. with nominees and Cyprus banking or Mister Tango banking, this is easy, fast and cheap to do.

Yes, we need to process credit cards, our revenue is almost entirely from online card transactions.

I read all over the net it's impossible to get these 2 numbers?

It's not impossible. You can make a phone call to the IRS and you can get one, it might take a couple of hours on the phone though. You will also probably need some documents notarised.
I believe if your country has double taxation treaty it's even easier.

Both Panama and RAK reports you like any other jurisdiction does, there is really no difference in this.

I'm not sure I understand, excuse me if this is a stupid question but like I said I am new to this. Do you mean they will report me to the UK?

Does this actually matter because I am not a UK Tax Resident? I don't mind too much if I must pay income tax when I pay myself as I am resident in Bulgaria and I'm willing to pay their 10% tax rate. I don't want to pay UK Corporation Tax/Income Tax though.

 

[blizz]

Did you check which payment processor is available for a RAK or Panama company at all?

You want to consult a tax consultant to help you with the tax issue here!

 

[W4rhol]

In that kind of business, you should think about your clients too.

In my case, I cannot bill them directly with a Panama/Seychelles etc company otherwise, they will have trouble with their tax administration. The best it's to use a front company in a "legit" country for the billing and move the fund where you want them to be.

 

[Gosha]

Did you check which payment processor is available for a RAK or Panama company at all?

You want to consult a tax consultant to help you with the tax issue here!

Yes, I can use 2Checkout to process payments for both Panama & RAK company, which are a legitimate and fully PCI compliant option similar to Authorize. I think the main problem will be the corp bank account & various costs associated with set up.

I am concerned about the use of a Nominee director, does anyone have experience with this they could share? I don't want anyone else let alone a stranger to have access to our accounts etc.

In that kind of business, you should think about your clients too.

In my case, I cannot bill them directly with a Panama/Seychelles etc company otherwise, they will have trouble with their tax administration. The best it's to use a front company in a "legit" country for the billing and move the fund where you want them to be.

Oh really? Even if you use a trusted PCI compliant payment processor? That's concerning.

How does the front company structure work, would you mind elaborating a little.

 

[bountymounty]

I am concerned about the use of a Nominee director, does anyone have experience with this they could share? I don't want anyone else let alone a stranger to have access to our accounts etc.

I have nominees appointed for one of my entities, it works fine they don't have access to any banking nor the company at all. I got a Deed of Trust which is signed by the nominees and me.

You don't want to bother too much about this part if you use a legit agent to setup the company.

You want to consider to setup some EU company for your processing. @W4rhol had a point that a EU corp will ook more legit!

 

[blizz]

How does the front company structure work, would you mind elaborating a little.

this I also would like to know? can you elaborate?

 

[Gosha]

Can anyone recommend a provider of company formation services? Having trouble differentiating which ones are legit and safe to go with. I'd like this done properly, so far the lawyers I've spoken to all quoted me above $10k and I'm thinking one of the online services may be a better option.

 

[blizz]

check admin's signature!

 

[Samuel Newman]

Do you have any personal experience with a Wyoming LLC I'm doing some research on it at the moment because of your post. It sounds interesting.

How would you go about to get a EIN number, isn't that only for US citizens?

it is not a big deal really
my US accountant set up company in US (usually Delaware) + gets EIN + opens bank account in Morgan Chase
everything takes about 1-2 weeks

any US company (and even foreign company) can get EIN number