Hello there,
Since it's my first post here it would be nice to say hello - so, hello!
I have some ideas for the future (e-commerce etc.) but this is to come yet. Right now I just provide remote marketing consultancy services for companies from all over the world. I get my jobs via different sources - freelancers' sites, word-of-mouth etc.
I'm an EU citizen, currently living in Malaysia and not really planning to move anywhere from Asia (as a continent). In fact, I'm more of a tourist, living here and there, mostly on tourist visas (I still have a working visa in MY but it expires in a few months), since I don't work with the locals. I just carry my laptop around and work wherever I like.
However, I do want to avoid any taxation problems in the future, so I've been thinking of setting up an offshore company. Since I'm a newbie I was reading up a lot on Belize, BVI and Seychelles - because these three kept popping up most often. I'm just lost among all of the details, not really sure what option should I go with.
Let me describe the details a bit:
1. Payments from clients come either from PayPal (withdrawals from freelancers' sites) or from different banks (e.g. Latvia, Australia, US etc.). Would that be an issue? I read that PayPal is not available in all countries - that could be an obstacle right?
2. As I mentioned I travel a lot, though I'm not fulfilling the tax resident criteria in my home country in the EU. I do however, even as a tourist, spend more than 183 days a year in Malaysia, what alone would be one of the tax resident criteria here.
But foreign-sourced income is not taxable in Malaysia - is that enough to avoid being taxed here? (just making sure, I'm not a tax expert - yet ).
3. I do live close to Singapore, which is ultimately the country I'd like to move to in a couple of years. I read about their offshore banking and it looks promising. Would it make sense to establish an offshore personal bank account in Singapore to transfer the funds there from my offshore company?
And if so, again which country would you recommend? I read that BVI companies are quite welcome in Singaporean banks. Would/could there be any trouble with Belize or Seychelles?
The goals for me are quite simple - minimize taxation as much as possible. As privacy goes I'm not very much concerned. I would trade privacy for convenience - if going with HSBC instead of some local bank, will make it easier for me to withdraw my money and use credit cards worldwide, then I'd stick with the big bank.
So, to sum up, my idea at the moment is:
1. Setup an offshore company.
2. Link it with an offshore account in Singapore.
3. Live and travel using the Singaporean based offshore funds, using credit cards and their banking.
Does that make sense?
Many thanks in advance!
Since it's my first post here it would be nice to say hello - so, hello!
I have some ideas for the future (e-commerce etc.) but this is to come yet. Right now I just provide remote marketing consultancy services for companies from all over the world. I get my jobs via different sources - freelancers' sites, word-of-mouth etc.
I'm an EU citizen, currently living in Malaysia and not really planning to move anywhere from Asia (as a continent). In fact, I'm more of a tourist, living here and there, mostly on tourist visas (I still have a working visa in MY but it expires in a few months), since I don't work with the locals. I just carry my laptop around and work wherever I like.
However, I do want to avoid any taxation problems in the future, so I've been thinking of setting up an offshore company. Since I'm a newbie I was reading up a lot on Belize, BVI and Seychelles - because these three kept popping up most often. I'm just lost among all of the details, not really sure what option should I go with.
Let me describe the details a bit:
1. Payments from clients come either from PayPal (withdrawals from freelancers' sites) or from different banks (e.g. Latvia, Australia, US etc.). Would that be an issue? I read that PayPal is not available in all countries - that could be an obstacle right?
2. As I mentioned I travel a lot, though I'm not fulfilling the tax resident criteria in my home country in the EU. I do however, even as a tourist, spend more than 183 days a year in Malaysia, what alone would be one of the tax resident criteria here.
But foreign-sourced income is not taxable in Malaysia - is that enough to avoid being taxed here? (just making sure, I'm not a tax expert - yet
).3. I do live close to Singapore, which is ultimately the country I'd like to move to in a couple of years. I read about their offshore banking and it looks promising. Would it make sense to establish an offshore personal bank account in Singapore to transfer the funds there from my offshore company?
And if so, again which country would you recommend? I read that BVI companies are quite welcome in Singaporean banks. Would/could there be any trouble with Belize or Seychelles?
The goals for me are quite simple - minimize taxation as much as possible. As privacy goes I'm not very much concerned. I would trade privacy for convenience - if going with HSBC instead of some local bank, will make it easier for me to withdraw my money and use credit cards worldwide, then I'd stick with the big bank.
So, to sum up, my idea at the moment is:
1. Setup an offshore company.
2. Link it with an offshore account in Singapore.
3. Live and travel using the Singaporean based offshore funds, using credit cards and their banking.
Does that make sense?
Many thanks in advance!
