Looking for advise on what to do

[zwerty]

Hi guys,

Great website with a lot of information here.
I want to first explain my situation to look for guidance.

I am initially from Australia but have been a non tax resident of Aus for the past 12 years (resident of the UAE), I moved back to Australia temporarily before leaving quickly after 2 years ago, which puts me in the category of being a tax resident as I have been using Australian bank accounts.
I have no desire to move back to my country nor contribute to their tax programs as I do not spend more than 3 weeks of a year in the country, I have no superannuation and I am not enrolled in any other AU systems, thus no ties to the country (apart from my bank accounts).

However, I own a consultation business online, in which I have steady work and am making approximately 80k+ a year.
I am looking for advise on the best location to register a company. I am willing to relocate and/or spend x amount of time in that country per year if there is benefits to doing so (residency/2nd passport), but ultimately would prefer to be based wherever I want.
Now, I know the easy solution here is to recommend the UAE, but this is not a solution for me.

My requirements are that I am able to set up a payment processor for billing clients, and also have bank accounts with cards.
I am not interested in darks or similar solutions.

 

[Sols]

Why not UAE? You can get bank account, cards, and payment processing for a local UAE company. A much simpler process than bothering with an overseas structure.

But since being declared tax resident in UAE isn't a problem in terms of tax, I'd look into Cyprus or maybe Malta. EU companies are great for accessing payment processors. Many will refuse you if you don't have operations in the EU but smaller ones tend to be more lenient.

You can probably achieve 0% total tax with Cyprus by proving that the company has its place of business in the UAE. You might need to set up a UAE holding to own the CY company. Depends on your billing model and how you operate. You probably won't be able to get a bank account in Cyprus (unless maybe you hire trustee directors for a few thousand EUR a year) but it shouldn't be much of a problem to get an EMI to work with you. There are threads with lists in this forum.

Malta is trickier to get down to 0% but effective 5% should be a walk in the park. Banking is a problem there, too.

Gibraltar would've been perfect but because of Brexit, it's unclear what will happen to payment processing in 2021 and beyond.

 

[zwerty]

The UAE is not an option as I am banned from the country for the time being, there for I cannot claim tax residency there anymore (my EID has since lapsed also) .

Total 0% is not an issue for me, I am looking to keep it somewhere between 0-10%.

 

[onemansomewhere]

Panama can be your solution.