Private Person interested in Offshore Co.

[fotogenius]

Hi All


First of all, great forum here with lots of usefull information. Hoping to get some answers to some of my concerns and questions.


About me:


Swiss citizen living in Switzerland and employed in Switzerland by a Swiss based company.


My plan / hobby / test:


I am planning to invest in some companies and/or ETFs and other online investment schemes


My Thoughts


Since I may actually make some/a lot of money with the above ideas I would like to pay as few (if any) taxes on this. For this reason I have thought about offshore bank accounts/companies.


Re-Investment


With profits from the above investment opportunities I plan to re-invest in real estate and other tangible products on an international scale.


These would include land and developed property purchases in the US, Brazil, Malaysia, island countries as well as possible boat/yacht purchases.


Purpose of future offshore company / bank accounts


I plan to use the company to purchase above mentioned assets and use the company bank account to manage in and outgoing funds


My Questions:


1. What offshore location would be ideal to base the company in for the above mentioned endeveaours?


2. Which location would give me a high degree of anonymity from the local(Swiss) authorities, possible future spouse and anyone else interested in my assets and finances?


3. Does money earned through the offshore company need to be declared as income under Swiss law?


4. I'd prefer to remain legal, regarding taxes etc. but would also like to save as much on taxes as possible. Anybody know in some detail how this would work for me?


5. Would it be wise to base the company offshore but have a company account in Switzerland (country of residence)


Hope you guys can provide me with some answers to my questions and feel free to mention anything else I may have forgotten!


Regards

 

[JohnLocke]

Welcome aboard, hope you enjoy your stay here and thanks for joining us.


Well in regards to your concerns I would recommend you to look into Cyprus which is not really considered offshore but has some real great tax advantages for EU citizens who are not involved into any tax evasion or other illegal stuff, as I read you then your goals are simply to minimize the corporate tax and as well the personal income tax on profits gained by the Cyprus / Offshore company.


What you will want to look into is a (as already mentioned) a Cyprus company which has the lowest tax in the entire European zone, actually it is 10% for resident companies and 0% for non resident / offshore companies. Further to the tax advantage then it is possible to make loans in Cyprus companies and make use of nominees i.e. director and shareholder which isn't allowed in many other EU countries.


A Cyprus company can be structured very well to be anonym and protect the beneficial owner from any listing on public registrars. For instant a sample structure would be to Incorporate a Seychelles Holding company that holds the shares in the Cyprus company this for asset and privacy protection further you will want to open a corporate bank account for both companies either in Cyprus or in an combination of a Swiss bank account for Cyprus company and a Cyprus bank account for the Seychelles company, or any other country which maintain banking secrecy. The key is to avoid to have a bank account in the same country as the company, exception is to have both company and bank account in Cyprus which in this specific case as I read you will not harm you if structured correctly.


I'm not familiar with applicable tax laws in Switzerland, however, I had a quick read and it seems that the personal income tax there is between 4 and 18% depending on which sort of income.

 

[fotogenius]

Thanks for your reply and I am going to consider this more intensively.


I do have another question though: Does income which is generated by the Offshore company/companies need to be declared on my tax form in my country of residence? If so, then what is the point to go offshore?

 

[JohnLocke]

Unless you can proove that the company is managed and operated abroad (this can be accomplished by inserting Nominees i.e. director / shareholder) then Yes you will have to declare tax in your country. It requires some more research on your local applicable laws to go into further details, each country have different tax regulations even though they may be within Europe.