Not sure which company to incorporate

[hayabusa]

HI there everyone, recently i was looking into opening a LLC in the US. And was about to go ahead with it when i found out even for non US residents , i'll still need to pay the US federal taxes which is 30%. My main reason to incorporate a LLC in US was because i wanted to open up a stripe.com account for my crowdfunding website. But now, i'm thinking if there is a way that i can incorporate a offshore company and offshore merchant account for my crowdfunding online biz.


So is there a way i could do this with offshore companies? Will i be able to get a merchant account with offshore companies? There are a few merchant service providers i contacted and according to them, there is a hold of 5-10% of funds for a few weeks to a few months. That would mean i'll have to pay using my own cash first and that's not something practical. so i would like to hear some advises from you guys , if you have any.

 

[JohnLocke]

5-10% of funds for a few weeks to a few months. That would mean i'll have to pay using my own cash first and that's not something practical.

Most if not all merchant account providers / Acquiring banks requires this "holdback" percentage. If you want to avoid it, you will have to go to your local bank which I read from your post isn't a option for you.

 

[myhand]

I agree with Admin, 10% holdback is normal for merchant accounts, same in Germany, UK, Latvia and other places where you may apply for an account. I would go with a SC or BZ company and 2co or neteller.

 

[hayabusa]

Oh ok . can i know what are the available EU offshore companies i can incorporate a company in?

 

[JohnLocke]

BVI and Cyprus are the main offshore jurisdictions among Malta and UK... BVI is very complicated and requires a lot of documents to be send by courier to the Agent while Cyprus requires accounting and filing of tax each year costs aprox €2500 to maintain! Malta and UK requires the same only UK will be cheap to incorporate (you can google hundred of Agents doing it for less than £100) but still requires some sort of accounting and filing of tax.


Depending on your budget and requirements I would look into Cyprus since it is the jurisdiction that will ofer you the highest level of privacy and the lowest possible corporate tax in Europe.

 

[myhand]

If you have them oney go for a Cyprus comp. it's the best of the the listed 4 countires if you ask me.

 

[hayabusa]

HI there thank you for all the advise, i have decided to get a UK company incorporated as i can use it to open a stripe.com account, but the problem i'm facing now is finding a uk bank account to open? i tried calling barclays , Natwest , Lloyds and so far being a non UK resident i can't open one. Also they have a high amount of money that needs as deposit.


So is there any other banks in the uk that will allow a non uk resident to open a business bank account?

 

[buzzoffshore]

As far as I know all banks in the UK will require you to visit them to open the account, if you are in Europe you are allowed to open an account in the UK by personal visit. Otherwise you can open the account in Cyprus or Latvia if accepted by Stripe. Other options are Mauritius or Hong Kong the latter requires personal visit.

 

[hayabusa]

As far as I know all banks in the UK will require you to visit them to open the account' date=' if you are in Europe you are allowed to open an account in the UK by personal visit. Otherwise you can open the account in Cyprus or Latvia if accepted by Stripe. Other options are Mauritius or Hong Kong the latter requires personal visit.[/quote']
Hi thank you for sharing, i'm willing to travel to any country to open the bank account. I tried calling a few banks such as : barclay, Lloyds , Natwest bank etc but all rejected me as i'm a non resident . They said i have to be a UK resident.

• Australia
  
• Canada
  
• Denmark
  
• Finland
  
• Ireland
  
• Norway
  
• Sweden
  
• United Kingdom
  
• United States
  
• Belgium
  
• France
  
• Germany
  
• Luxembourg
  
• The Netherlands
  
• Spain
  
• Austria
  
• Italy
  

This are the countries stripe supports at the moment.

 

[hayabusa]

As far as I know all banks in the UK will require you to visit them to open the account' date=' if you are in Europe you are allowed to open an account in the UK by personal visit. Otherwise you can open the account in Cyprus or Latvia if accepted by Stripe. Other options are Mauritius or Hong Kong the latter requires personal visit.[/quote']
I tried calling a few banks in UK like barclay, Lloyds , Natwest bank and they told me i had to be a UK resident and also the min deposit was 25,000-5 million. so now i'm looking at banks in crypus as it needs to be in a EU country and according to stripe , the bank must also support Bankers' Automated Clearing Services(BACS) .

 

[myhand]

Most if not ALL European banks support BACS it is a banking standard. You can only open an account in Cyprus through an introducer the banks in Cyprus don't accept customers from the street, you may ask Admin to help you. I got my account through them.

 

[hayabusa]

Most if not ALL European banks support BACS it is a banking standard. You can only open an account in Cyprus through an introducer the banks in Cyprus don't accept customers from the street' date=' you may ask Admin to help you. I got my account through them.[/quote']
Oh ok thank you for this info. I have been reading around and for my situation, stripe needs me to have a bank based in this countries: denmark,Australia,Canada,Denmark,Finland,Ireland,norway,Sweden,United Kingdom,Belgium,France,Germany,Luxembourg,The Netherlands,Spain,Austria,Italy


Admin if you are seeing this, please let me know if you could help me setup a bank account in any of the above mentioned countries. Thank you

 

[JohnLocke]

We can only help with the account opening in Cyprus, you may contact us directly here /contact-us.html


You can find more information and our fee here, /offshore-banking/cyprus-banking.html

 

[buzzoffshore]

What corporate service have you been using in the UK for your comp. there if you don't mind? I consider changing the firm I'm using, More...

 

[clemens]

If you find some accountent that knows what they are doing they can help you to open a UK account for your business there. You don't need to visit the UK then. The requirement is to have your papers ready including passport and utility bill and even a bankers reference letter from your current bank may be required.

 

[hayabusa]

What corporate service have you been using in the UK for your comp. there if you don't mind? I consider changing the firm I'm using' date=' [url']More...[/url]

I
I haven't used one yet but have been using this as a guide and checking the services they provide .

 

[hayabusa]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/formation-and-company-secretarial-agents/company-formation-agents-and-secretarial-agents

 

[hayabusa]

If you find some accountent that knows what they are doing they can help you to open a UK account for your business there. You don't need to visit the UK then. The requirement is to have your papers ready including passport and utility bill and even a bankers reference letter from your current bank may be required.

So far the banks i talked with said i can't open a UK bank account if i'm a non resident . Still finding if there is a way

 

[hayabusa]

We can only help with the account opening in Cyprus' date=' you may contact us directly here [url']/contact-us.html[/url]
You can find more information and our fee here, /offshore-banking/cyprus-banking.html

Hi does the bank provide a merchant account? This way i do not have to use a 3rd party payment gateway for my biz. I contacted a Latvia bank and they told me , i could not open an account with them if i used a 3rd party payment gateway such as stripe, ccbill, epoch etc since they won't be able to verify the payment and source etc. I explained to them that they(the bank) are just going to be the receiving party but they denied, saying i don't have a solid proof of where the money is coming from .

 

[JohnLocke]

What bank in Latvia did you aproach if I may ask?


The banks in Cyprus don't offer any merchant account for credit card processing, unfortunatly, but there are sufficient of payment processors in the EU that can take your business for payment processing.