Offshore Company without bank account

[Sarahhh]

Hi there,

I am incorporating a Nevis company and I was wondering if the company itself is active without having a bank account. I mean, the first years my company won't have any revenue, so a bank account won't be necessary.

My question is, can I still use it? Is it legally active without a bank account?

I want to use it to put the business info in my price comparator website, so it looks more professional.

Can anyone give me some insights?

Thanks!!

Cheers

 

[Sols]

You don't need to have a bank account for a company to be active. In some jurisdictions, you need to deposit the initial capital in a special bank account but that's not the case for Nevis companies.

But if you process any kind of transactions through the company, it's far better to have a bank account than for example use your personal bank account for company money.

If you believe your company will need a bank account one year from now, start the process well in advance. You will struggle to find a bank for your company. Plan for the process to take six months.

 

[Sarahhh]

You don't need to have a bank account for a company to be active. In some jurisdictions, you need to deposit the initial capital in a special bank account but that's not the case for Nevis companies.

Sols, you are my new SuperStar! Thank you so much for your comments!

I'll start way in advance, that's for sure, I just don't think I'll monetize the website in the first 20 months or so..

Again thank you

 

[user9823671]

You are very very unlikely to find a bank that will open a business account for your Nevis company that will be able to use online payment systems (paypal / stripe / 2cho et al)

 

[MrSoolmaan]

I agree with user9823671, it will be very difficult if not impossible to find a bank that will open an account for your Nevis company. Maybe a virtual bank account, but impossible to link paypal or creditcard payment gateway to it.

It's no problem to run your business without a bank account. You can use your Nevis company to hold the IP and possible trademarks when you feel your company is ready to generate revenues, you could decide to setup a company in a more reputable jurisdiction so you can open a bank account.

 

[Sarahhh]

Thanks for corroborating it! Will do as you say, the agency already told me it would be very unlikely :/

Cheers!

 

[MrSoolmaan]

At least your agency seems to be honest. Many agencies will say that it's no problem to open a bank account for your offshore company, but when you try and it's not possible, they will often offer to introduce you to the bank for a fee, but they already know it's not going to work.

 

[neweraoffshore]

You can run your company with cryptos, however it's unlikely to find customers, paying you by cryptos.
The old famous jurisdictions like Belize, Cayman, Nevis etc. don't work anymore. Even if you get a bank account for you company you will run into problems as your customers will refuse to pay to a Nevis company as for example most EU tax authorities decline invoices, so your customer has to pay full taxes on the invoices as it was a personal withdrawal. So even virtual / EMI accounts will not help you if your Nevis company is on the letter head.
Nevis is even at the "non-cooperative" list.... so it's even high likely that even if a customer wants to transfer money to you, his bank will stop the transaction to a bank located in Nevis.
OECD Tax Haven list: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/147404/7 - 01 EPRS-Briefing-621872-Listing-tax-havens-by-the-EU-FINAL.PDF

Next time choosing a jurisdiction I would recommend you to choose a jurisdiction not on this list. I always recommend the USA. There are other good jurisdictions, too.

Maybe you also want to read this thread, too: [FOR EU CITIZENS] Problems when going Offshore - List

 

[happyjohn]

You don't need a bank account to have a ctive company. But it is difficult to have a company if you don't have any options to receive or send money.

 

[Mark Rucken]

You don't need a bank account to have a ctive company. But it is difficult to have a company if you don't have any options to receive or send money.

Unless you use it as a holding or just for some pormo stuff ... which is not uncommon these days. Bank account for Nevis company is not easy to get, so you better start working on it ASAP because it might take you 6 months to get it.