Setting up an Ireland offshore

[danielb]

Hello,

I own an LLC company in Israel.

It turned out to run operations from here,
particularly taxes and working with European banks,
so we are looking into setting up an Offshore in Ireland.

What we need it to be able to do to start:
1. Open a bank account(preferably fire.com)
2. Connect to credit-card merchant accounts

The reason we chose Ireland is it's in the European Mastercard zone, and fire.com looks really great.

1. From my memory, setting up credit card processing requires a European address and contact in Ireland,
Is that it or is something more necessary?
Do we need to appoint a local director or is a contact alone enough?

2. Who should we talk to set up the company? the guys I found online don't look trustworthy.

3. How much would it cost to open the company? And what annual costs should we expect?

The company will be a fully-owned daughter company of the Israeli LLC,
and will in the near future be separate in operation and teams.

Some details: The business is in the cloud-storage business, which makes it medium-to-high risk. Keep that in mind, but has been running for several years already with a clean record and credit card processing history.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Martin Everson]

Is this just an advert for Fire or is this a real problem you have

Hosting business especially cloud hosting is considered high risk but a track record will help. Hopefully you are not operating from occupied territory either as Ireland may not take too well to this sort of business going forward. You may well be advised to look outside Ireland (see link). In terms of creditcard processing you can search the forum. There was a thread where someone from India mentioned a ton of merchant providers he had tried and you can give them a go also.

Ireland moves towards banning Israeli goods from occupied Palestinian territories

 

[danielb]

Hey,

Not an ad, just a company looking into how this would work (-:

We have no operations in disputed territories, so I do not see this being a problem.

Do you know the answers to the other questions?

I am mostly concerned with liabilities, costs and what form of local presence is required for opening a bank account and a merchant account - answers I've found so far have been vague.

 

[Martin Everson]

Do you know the answers to the other questions?

I am mostly concerned with liabilities, costs and what form of local presence is required for opening a bank account and a merchant account - answers I've found so far have been vague.

You have to read the forum like I said. You are not the first person to ask this question. Then approach each company or bank and ask for their requirements directly. Me approaching a bank or Merchant provider will not be same as you approaching as our situations are different.

 

[danielb]

Me approaching a bank or Merchant provider will not be same as you approaching as our situations are different.
_______

That is true, thank you.

I got hold of one of my preferred account providers, and they said the following:
"
Ireland as part of the EU is workable, but the business, business banking and owner residence must reside in Ireland.
"

Clearly, the issue here is a resident owner for the company.

How doable is it to have a lawyer, or somebody else, be listed as the company owner?
How would that work?

 

[Martin Everson]

I got hold of one of my preferred account providers, and they said the following:
"
Ireland as part of the EU is workable, but the business, business banking and owner residence must reside in Ireland.
"

Clearly, the issue here is a resident owner for the company.

How doable is it to have a lawyer, or somebody else, be listed as the company owner?
How would that work?

They seem to want a full resident company and ownership setup.

I don't know about Ireland but if you speak to a UK corporate agent and explain you are a non-resident in need of a merchant account setup they can help you. I remember in UK such setups are sold with nominee director, shareholder and secretary. However in 2018 I don't know if they still offer this as compliance has become extremely burdensome.

 

[danielb]

Ok so the words I need to look for is "nominee shareholder" . Thank you, that is what I've been looking for.

 

[JohnLocke]

Ireland as part of the EU is workable, but the business, business banking and owner residence must reside in Ireland.

This is what most of the PSP's want to day. However, have you looked in real MAP's like Global Pay, WireCard, Global Collect as well as PSP's like Verotel, CCBILL, Websitebilling and similar services? most of them will allow you to process credit cards for a company setup in country X while the owner lives in country Y !

 

[danielb]

This is what most of the PSP's want to day. However, have you looked in real MAP's like Global Pay, WireCard, Global Collect as well as PSP's like Verotel, CCBILL, Websitebilling and similar services? most of them will allow you to process credit cards for a company setup in country X while the owner lives in country Y !

Yes, I am actually in contact with some of those companies right now.

From what I've gathered, the requirement comes from Visa and basically says: the people in charge of making money decisions(pricing, how things are sold etc') must be at the mentioned address when such decisions are made. Doesn't sound like a requirement to permanently live there.

We can move many of the business activities to israel, and only officially run business activities and decisions relevant to the Irish entity from a rented office listed as the corporate address. Regus seems like a workable option for that (259EUR/seat + conference room + call forwarding + mail forwarding)

Did I miss anything or does that cover the legal bases?


As for the visa document I'm referencing:
https://www.visaeurope.com/media/im...on-of-your-merchant-business-vbs-73-40136.pdf

 

[happyjohn]

@danielb what agent do you use for the Irish company setup? Interested in the same. Do they do accounting and tax filing for you as well?

 

[danielb]

@danielb what agent do you use for the Irish company setup? Interested in the same. Do they do accounting and tax filing for you as well?
________

You're smart for asking, it turned out to be an absolute mess.
Most the agents online seem impossible to work with.

Expect initial costs around 4000EUR just for starters, and another 2500EUR to get things going with accounting end-of-year.
Many of the irish offices are hard to reach and want you to be physically present.

One place I was referred to was TaxAssist Dublin, but they require meeting in person.
The quote for the company setup, plus all annual taxes was under 3kEUR.

You will need a local company secretary, that is around 500-700EUR annual.
If you want to hire a local director, you should expect to shell out 4000EUR annually.
The alternative is getting a bond, which is 2000EUR for 2 years, which keeps you from having to get a local director.

Because of how complicated the process is, I just ended up going with Deloitte, which are considerably more professional -> even though they cost more.
For around 4000EUR - 1200EUR setup of company with all the steps, 700EUR secretary and 2100EUR bond you can have them take care of the entire process.
You can stay with them if you need a high-end tax company, or go to the local providers after a while to get more affordable tax services, which seem to start at 1200EUR/year at the lowest end. You will file your first annual returns after 6 months, regardless of the creation date.


Anybody else here went through that process?

 

[Martin Everson]

wow thanks for sharing

What merchant did you go with in end? If you went to all that effort to do things properly then probably worthwhile going with wirecardbank.com in Germany to maintain the quality.

 

[danielb]

I've actually not finished the process yet,
Already paid and the process is in play, and I'll know all the details hopefully before the end of next week.

As for merchant accounts -> I would appreciate some input.
The business does deal with online files and user file transfers. Not every merchant would work with that.

I'm waiting on BlueSnap, but would appreciate any other options -- who would you guys recommend for medium and high risk, recurring payment online services?

 

[LisaSimpson]

danielb, i would discourage you to run an Irish company. I have an Irish company myself. I think the Cyprus is better. I am going to post a thread Ireland VS cyprus

 

[bountymounty]

danielb, i would discourage you to run an Irish company. I have an Irish company myself. I think the Cyprus is better. I am going to post a thread Ireland VS cyprus

What's the major problems with the Irish company? just wonder..!?!

 

[LisaSimpson]

What's the major problems with the Irish company? just wonder..!?!

Explanation here:
Ireland vs Cyprus for offshore company formation