Offshore company NEEDED for e-business. + merchant account + PP or Stripe

[Bilbo Begins]

Hey guys,
I am looking for a jurisdiction where to form a new business for tax reasons.

Me and my partner are Ukrainians, and my partner is resident in Italy. We are about to launch our online shop (shopify) with jewelry line that will further expand into original clothing. The business is 100% legal. We start small and going to scale to 10000euros in a couple of month, with later growth up to 50k a month.
The products are made in Italy and gonna be sold primarily in EU and rest of the world, but later the main market will be in Asia.

We are looking for a stable structure that could allow us to have corporate bank account + merchant bank account + PP or Stripe or 2co.

From what I found from other threads on this forum is that there are following possibilities:
- UK ltd or Irish ltd + merchant/corporate bank account (high deposits for non-UK residents?) Possible with EMI?
- Malta
- Cyprus (account fees cost an arm and a leg)
- UAE FZ
- Bulgaria or Latvia (but Bulgaria doesn’t have a full PP)
- Mauritius + Mautitius Commercial Bank (unknown destiny because of planned EU-US regulations)
- HK + HK EMI + PP (Is choosing EMI a good idea?)
or
Singapore (high costs for formation, accounting fees and personal visit needed)

UAE FZ option, Malta with Nominee Director or Irish Ltd looks interesting for now.

What would you suggest as the best jurisdiction (in terms of cost of formation vs legal burden and tax) for small-medium business with potential for growth? Or maybe other scheme you would suggest? (Holding company + UK Agent?)

We are looking in long term period taking into account that offshores are getting shut down, and US and EU are looking at everyone's pockets.

Much appreciated!

 

[fshore]

- UK ltd or Irish ltd + merchant/corporate bank account (high deposits for non-UK residents?) Possible with EMI?

Both good options. UK banking hard for non resident, not necessarily high deposit, but difficult to open an account. You can open an EUR account in another country. Transferwise doesn't work with Stripe. Irish company more expensive to run than UK but tax is lower.

- Mauritius + Mautitius Commercial Bank (unknown destiny because of planned EU-US regulations)

What are those planned EU-US regulation that would affect non EU companies?

- HK + HK EMI + PP (Is choosing EMI a good idea?)
or
Singapore (high costs for formation, accounting fees and personal visit needed)

You can do accounting yourself for Singapore and audit is not required. In HK you need audit.

 

[negon]

You can forget about the UK and HK if you are not willing to travel. You can also forget UAE and Mauritius nothing than bulls**t if you don't have a huge budget.

I would find a country where you have easy access to setup the business as you mentioned i.e. company, bank account, merchant account and paypal. You will need to face that you have to pay taxes if you don't have the budget to setup something in a low tax jurisdiction like Cyprus. This also lead me to say, you don't need anything in any of these low tax jurisdictions, because you don't make sufficient of money to pay what it cost to setup something useful.

My best advice for you is, setup your business locally, pay your tax in your local country and be happy. Focus on making money like the big guys do and then enter the game.

 

[Bilbo Begins]

Both good options. UK banking hard for non resident, not necessarily high deposit, but difficult to open an account. You can open an EUR account in another country. Transferwise doesn't work with Stripe. Irish company more expensive to run than UK but tax is lower.



What are those planned EU-US regulation that would affect non EU companies?



You can do accounting yourself for Singapore and audit is not required. In HK you need audit.

Thanks for the info. Do u have an idea about approximate costs to form Irish or Singapore company with bank account + annual fees for renewal and accountant? Maybe you know a service I can contact for more details?

Hey bratan,welcome aboard....If I were you I would set up the company in Ireland or Cyprus....Romania is also an option but you will have to travel there

Hahaha bratan! It nice to hear some familiar words out here! Do you know someone who provide formation services in Romania or Ireland?
To tavavel to Romani is not an issue, its pretty cheap and not far to go.

We are ready to spend around 5k to register everything (company, appropriate documents + corporate/merchant account). Do u think its possible to do that with this sum?

You can forget about the UK and HK if you are not willing to travel. You can also forget UAE and Mauritius nothing than bulls**t if you don't have a huge budget.

I would find a country where you have easy access to setup the business as you mentioned i.e. company, bank account, merchant account and paypal. You will need to face that you have to pay taxes if you don't have the budget to setup something in a low tax jurisdiction like Cyprus. This also lead me to say, you don't need anything in any of these low tax jurisdictions, because you don't make sufficient of money to pay what it cost to setup something useful.

My best advice for you is, setup your business locally, pay your tax in your local country and be happy. Focus on making money like the big guys do and then enter the game.

To travel to UK is pretty feasible from Italy.

As I mentioned in previous message we are ready to spend around 5k to register everything (company, appropriate documents + corporate/merchant account). Do u think its possible to do that with this sum? (Cyprus, UK/Ireland or Singapore?)
And can you maybe provide someone who provides this services and is reliable?

 

[Bilbo Begins]

Yeah for 5K you can do it....you can also open a parent company in Belice and transfer the price from the romanian company to the Belice one.....So you will have to pay less less taxes

Thanks man! Much appreciated! Yeah now I got the idea how to lower corporate tax, now looking for a scheme who to lower income tax by residing in Italy or Portugal for example. Any ideas? PM me, pls if u have any info on that

 

[negon]

- Cyprus (account fees cost an arm and a leg)

Seems you changed your mind!

 

[Bilbo Begins]

What about living in Andorra instead?

Yeah, but the problem is that all our production is in Italy, and it cant be managed remotely for now (less than 183 days a year). And this makes us tax residents in Italy as I may assume. So it looks that for now the only option is to form a company of lower jurisdiction and play around with source income in order to lower tax on it.

 

[Bilbo Begins]

Seems you changed your mind!

Hahaha, looking for all possibilities. Are you saying that forming a Cyprus company with all paperwork + bank account is feasible for 5k?
Do you know a reliable formation service that I can contact?

 

[aceshigh]

I would avoid Hong Kong due to the high coast of the Audit Fee's and the fact it normally requires a personal visit to get a bank account opened.

 

[JohnLocke]

You will pretty much face the same costs if you choose Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta or the UK! If not in setup costs then in ongoing costs. With the other countries you listed in your initial post you will face huge problems to get any reliable payment service provider.

If I'm wrong feel free to post here! For the general interest to people reading this thread, it would be great if you took the time to come back here and post about it, once you have found a working solution.

 

[Bilbo Begins]

I would avoid Hong Kong due to the high coast of the Audit Fee's and the fact it normally requires a personal visit to get a bank account opened.

Yeah, agree on that

 

[Bilbo Begins]

You will pretty much face the same costs if you choose Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta or the UK! If not in setup costs then in ongoing costs. With the other countries you listed in your initial post you will face huge problems to get any reliable payment service provider.

If I'm wrong feel free to post here! For the general interest to people reading this thread, it would be great if you took the time to come back here and post about it, once you have found a working solution.

Yeah, will do for sure! Thanks a lot for this great forum.

 

[devnull]

Both good options. UK banking hard for non resident, not necessarily high deposit, but difficult to open an account. You can open an EUR account in another country. Transferwise doesn't work with Stripe. Irish company more expensive to run than UK but tax is lower.



What are those planned EU-US regulation that would affect non EU companies?



You can do accounting yourself for Singapore and audit is not required. In HK you need audit.

Also interested in it.

You just need to "accounting", can it done in any style and report the turnover to the SG government just easy as that?

For PayPal, i think PayPal for SG or HK are easy to manage, while it seems in other countries like UK, it is not easy to open PayPal or some countries like Belize/Seychelles are not even supported by PayPal anymore.

 

[devnull]

I made thought about your first post.

Why not just cyprus company? Even as offshore or non-dom, you will get PayPal and Bank for the company easily, if the business plan is clear enough.

For me, my goal in 2019 is clear enough, i will be non-dom resident of Cyprus and setup a fresh company there.

 

[JohnLocke]

Just take into consideration that you need to provide your personal info to PP if the nominees are not willing to provide the same.

 

[sheenue]

Yeah, will do for sure! Thanks a lot for this great forum.

Hey man! How's it going? Which option did you choose?
Coz I have HK company and little problems with the bank account, I'm here right now, but it's not so easy even with personal presence.