Seychelles IBC - Bank account in Singapore or HK

[blabla]

Hi

I am leaning towards opening a Seychelles IBC for my international trading company.
- USD 5m-10m revenues per annum
- USD500k profit per annum

I travel quite a bit between my Europe and African countries (where I spend most of times). I am not considered resident in my European home country give little time I spend there. And in the African country where I spend most of my time, there is little or no supervision on personal income tax. I am therefore exempted of personal profits, and what matters in the setup is corporate tax exemption.

Seychelles appear to be the right jurisdiction to incorporate due to absence of corporate tax for IBC and low return requirements. But need to solve the banking part which is important for my business to have access to advance and stable banking institutions (opening L/Cs and access to other banking products)

Another consideration would be to open a US LLC + bank in the US. Would anyone recommend this direction in my case?

Thanks

 

[Offshore Seychelles]

offshore in seychelles with a combination of a switzerland bank should be the perfekt solution for you. banks in switzerland with your revenue and a deposit should not be a problem

 

[onemansomewhere]

With revenue which you have, you can have a bank account almost anywhere..

I believe, there are better jurisdictions like Seychelles, with the same level of privacy..

 

[blabla]

What about the US (NY or Delaware)? I am thinking being onshore can also help with access to some of the banking services.

 

[jasobrave44]

i am not really sure however i do believe that there is this bank in HK that is fairly easy to open and doesn't deep dive too much into your revenues, transactions, source of income, etc! may be UOB HK but I will need to double check for you.

 

[onemansomewhere]

i am not really sure however i do believe that there is this bank in HK that is fairly easy to open and doesn't deep dive too much into your revenues, transactions, source of income, etc! may be UOB HK but I will need to double check for you.

Good luck.. there is none bank in HK which is not examining source of income and accounts deep.. I know what I talk about.

 

[onemansomewhere]

What about the US (NY or Delaware)? I am thinking being onshore can also help with access to some of the banking services.

US is quite good option, if you have no customers nor suppliers in the USA.

 

[blabla]

Ok for Switzerland is there any agent who can help with the account opening for a reasonable fee?

 

[blabla]

US is quite good option, if you have no customers nor suppliers in the USA.

Any agent who could recommend?

 

[Offshore Seychelles]

1.

What many incorporation agencies won't tell you is that even if your company is totally anonymous in the USA, even to other countries, it will be very difficult or impossible for you to get an associated shareholder account (bank account) in the world with a company in the USA. Also not in the otherwise so well-known tax havens like the Caribbean, the Seychelles or Cayman Islands. This is due to the strong laws of the USA for tax evasion. All foreign banks that "dare" to get money from US. Persons or even companies to "hide" money will be pursued and punished with all severity. Many foreign banks therefore prefer to decline when they see that the applicant is a US company or person and to open an account in the USA itself is a little more difficult and in most cases, a personal journey to the place requires! And even if you should manage to open a shareholder account with a US company abroad (for example in the Caribbean), you would then again be subject to the laws of the OECD-Agreements (automatic exchange of information) and anonymity would be over again, since the automatic exchange of information does not originate from the respective commercial registers (in this example from the state of Delaware), but from the location of your shareholder account!

2.

In the USA there is a law called "Trading with the Enemy Law". This law states that you can expropriate any foreign investor, citizen etc. The Americans have made permanent use of this law. In the first and second world war, even during the Vietnam war! During the Second World War even French investors, real estate and company owners were expropriated and this only because France (which actually had an alliance with the USA) was defeated and then occupied by Germany and was thus classified overnight as "enemy"! This law could be circumvented at most by an appointed American as a "trustholder", who is registered on paper as a shareholder for the company.

3.

Participation in a US company means that non-resident, non-taxable foreigners are also subject to US tax evasion laws (FATCA). For example, any member of a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in, say, Wyoming or Delaware must take care to comply with the due dates for filing the FBAR report. Once a year, all foreign assets outside the USA, sorted by banks, must be entered in this report if they exceed the combined total of $10,000.

 

[James Turner]

There are numerous option open to you using more reputable locations. Have you considered a Hong Kong Company as an option. Trading outside HK it will be subject to 0% corporate tax rates and is considered reputable by more countries than some of the other locations mentioned here, including the USA. Not that the US is not reputable (although some may disagree), but banks globally really do not like US Companies so banking options are extremely limited. HK on the other hand allows banking to be arranged in most reputable countries and will probably work for you.

Happy to discuss all locations in more detail if you feel it would be helpful.

 

[AMD]

Hong Kong company setup is, expensive, complicated and expensive to maintain. You have to do audited accountants and the China man most often scam you with the pricing.

 

[James Turner]

Hong Kong company setup is, expensive, complicated and expensive to maintain. You have to do audited accountants and the China man most often scam you with the pricing.

HK is a little more expensive than some locations, but also considerably cheaper than some. I do not consider it complicated or particularly expensive to maintain when you look at some locations where true complexity exists. The auditing process for accounts, while it is called an audit is not particularly complex and certainly not to the standard of audit you would expect for example in the UK. In reality it is a basic filing. We're not Chinese, but to be honest I have found most Chinese people to be quite reasonable and certainly not to scam people. It is a bit of a broad suggestion that most often the Chinese will scam you which is quite honestly not the case. I am sure there are some out there that will of course!

 

[jasobrave44]

No, I remember the name of the bank that is pretty interesting for your any types of businesses. Registering in HK is a breeze guys, with the virus and lockdown you don't need to go there to get everything set up. Yes, depending on who you know for the audits, some have prices way above the average! Just be careful. HK set up is not expensive, not complicated, I had my company set up in 2017, since then I haven't faced any issues. I second James Turner on most of his answers.

You can message me if you have more questions or want to know the name of the bank, as strange as it is I didn't receive any emails from the previous replies to your questions!

 

[Farmacy]

While my turnover is less for less than the OP, my profits are similar. I already have a Hong Kong Company and I'm currently not liable for personal income tax as I haven't lived in my home country for years now and tend to bounce around the world on tourist visas and when I do return I will pay myself enough for the personal basics there and pay the tax.

However, currently where is the best place for me to open a bank remotely and to avoid tax?

Hong Kong bank and apply for offshore exemption?
Or
Have an offshore bank in a country of secrecy for my Hong Kong Company and not disclose this information with the Hong Kong IRD?

If anyone can help me with my situation to optimise tax, have my money somewhere safe and to have access to it- multi currency-debit card etc. I'm very happy to pay for professional assistance for the help with getting this all sorted.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Regarding US vs. HK: I’m assuming anyone considering a company there is living in a country where payments from the company would be tax-free.
Assuming you could open a US account for the company, or an EMI account (TransferWise for example), from where you could make payments to your personal bank account, what would be the advantage with HK?
Ok, so you don’t have to declare foreign assets. But that probably only applies to company assets? Other than that, there are almost no accounting requirements in the US?
Whereas in HK, you must have proper accounting? And opening bank accounts isn’t necessarily easy with a HK entity? How much is the accounting for a HK company?
For me, it seems like a US LLC actually is superior to a HK company, unless maybe if you have many customers in Asia?

 

[Farmacy]

Regarding US vs. HK: I’m assuming anyone considering a company there is living in a country where payments from the company would be tax-free.
Assuming you could open a US account for the company, or an EMI account (TransferWise for example), from where you could make payments to your personal bank account, what would be the advantage with HK?
Ok, so you don’t have to declare foreign assets. But that probably only applies to company assets? Other than that, there are almost no accounting requirements in the US?
Whereas in HK, you must have proper accounting? And opening bank accounts isn’t necessarily easy with a HK entity? How much is the accounting for a HK company?
For me, it seems like a US LLC actually is superior to a HK company, unless maybe if you have many customers in Asia?

Accounting through our company formation corp in Hong Kong - they charge depending on the amount of revenue.

Isn't the tax rate significantly higher in the US than HK? Or are you tax exempt if you're outside of the US? We don't operate at all in the US but our payment processor is in the US and pays us in USD. Would incorporating in USA be beneficial for us then, I'm sure there are more banking options in the US (opened remotely) and all my incoming payments come from the US. Just interested if I'll be able to pay less tax in the US.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Single-member US LLCs without operations in the US (remote work is ok) are disregarded for tax purposes. That means that they are taxed as if the member had earned the money directly. If you live in a tax-free country and you only deliver services from abroad, it means that your US company will not pay any US taxes at all.
And these companies are easy to set up and cheap to maintain. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

But if the shareholder/member is a company, branch office tax may apply, so be sure to talk to an accountant first. There may also be some additional reporting requirements.
But in general, the reporting requirements should be minimal - as long as there are no US operations (employees, work being done on US soil etc.).

 

[sullyferdinand]

No need to go with Seychelles, there are jurisdictions with better reputation than that one
As they said above, with that revenue you shouldnt have an issue to open a bank account

More troubles than benefits you will have with a seychelles ibc
And with your revenue, shouldnt be an issue to spend 1-2k extra for your setup

HK, Quebec for example

 

[wheelspin]

No need to go with Seychelles, there are jurisdictions with better reputation than that one

Which one do you have on your mind?