Problems with this setup?

[heliotrope]

How about: open a Cyprus company, and pay a monthly salary from it (and social insurance contributions) but not actually trade with it. Motivation: 60d tax residence (this requires either Cyprus employment or a Cyprus company to be maintained year-round), and also rights to healthcare via the social insurance contributions.

Meanwhile, open a Singapore/UAE company or some other favourable offshore structure (need to investigate this further but e.g. Singapore requires a local nominee director and apparently Cyprus are quite lax concerning CFC, I've heard that one may pay 0%).

Upsides: Optionality. Also one avoids ATAD, and it's quite flexible in that the CyprusCo could be closed down and the SgCo used partially as a way to move to Singapore.

 

[CaptK]

What is is you want to achieve with using Cyprus over Malta or any other jurisdiction. We would require a lot more information to be able to give you our opinions.
Is your goal to get to SG?

 

[heliotrope]

What is is you want to achieve with using Cyprus over Malta or any other jurisdiction. We would require a lot more information to be able to give you our opinions.
Is your goal to get to SG?

Have a lightweight, low-requirement tax residency (i.e. Cyprus officially requires just 60 days).
Avoid mess with ATAD and so on which would accrue from using the CyprusCo too much.
Have a foothold in the EU -- for now. (British citizen, and I got residency in Cyprus under the terms of the WA, although I've spent little time there and could abandon if persuaded of the merits).
Have a good respectable company vehicle and get private indemnity insurance easily.
Have a possible option in future for moving to Sg (they will surely need to see a business plan and significant revenue).