Hi guys,
I am currently trying to figure out whether my setup would work in reality but so far the lawyers I contacted in Switzerland can not help (always referring to international tax lawyers instead or asking 5000 CHF for a 'tax ruling' from the tax office).
Setup:
a) GmbH/AG in Switzerland with local office and director (nominee). This company sells digital goods across EU (mostly Germany).
b) Hungarian company with local office and director (myself, EU citizen). This company provides the software which the company from Switzerland needs in order to sell/produce the digital goods.
Theory:
Since Hungary only charges 5% corporate tax in the field of IP-licensing I want to extract all of the profits from the entity in Switzerland with a licensing agreement. Switzerland does not have withholding tax on IP/Royalties.
Concerns:
Since I wanted to to this setup initially with a German GmbH instead of one from Switzerland I found out during the process that Germany employs all sorts of mechanism in order to prevent this setup (they call it the "Starbucks" model). They implemented what they call "Lizenzschranke" in order to prevent people like me from doing so.
So before I go and get another company I want to make sure that my construct checks out.
What you guys think?
I am currently trying to figure out whether my setup would work in reality but so far the lawyers I contacted in Switzerland can not help (always referring to international tax lawyers instead or asking 5000 CHF for a 'tax ruling' from the tax office).
Setup:
a) GmbH/AG in Switzerland with local office and director (nominee). This company sells digital goods across EU (mostly Germany).
b) Hungarian company with local office and director (myself, EU citizen). This company provides the software which the company from Switzerland needs in order to sell/produce the digital goods.
Theory:
Since Hungary only charges 5% corporate tax in the field of IP-licensing I want to extract all of the profits from the entity in Switzerland with a licensing agreement. Switzerland does not have withholding tax on IP/Royalties.
Concerns:
Since I wanted to to this setup initially with a German GmbH instead of one from Switzerland I found out during the process that Germany employs all sorts of mechanism in order to prevent this setup (they call it the "Starbucks" model). They implemented what they call "Lizenzschranke" in order to prevent people like me from doing so.
So before I go and get another company I want to make sure that my construct checks out.
What you guys think?
