Hello guys,
I am new here in the forum, but have been actively looking into offshore related things since the last few months. Together with a friend, I have now reached a point where I would like to take the final step into incorporating an offshore company. I am based in Austria (Europe) and he is based in Singapore and together we would like to incorporate a travel start-up, which focuses on high end travel; basically, we are booking business and first class flights, as well as expensive stays at high end hotels. An incorporation in Singapore would require a deposit of 100k SGD and we do not want to put that down.
Our plan to go offshore builds mainly on the fact that we would like to (1) avoid double book keeping and auditing, (2) save on taxes, (3) be able to write invoices and (4) enjoy anonymity – whereas the first three points are the more important onse. Our main business is coming from the U.K. and Singapore. Turnover should be around 250k+ USD pa.
We are still not sure which construction would be the best for us and thus I would like to present them here and would highly appreciate your feedback. Since most business is in done in Singapore and the U.K., we are thinking about avoiding having ties to these countries from a business and banking point of view. Incorporation and taxes are two different things and thus I would like to break it into incorporation first and then taxes.
INCORPORATION
OPTION A
Incorporate the company in a jurisdiction like the BVIs, Belize or the Seychelles, which, according to my knowledge, share quite a lot of similarities in terms of capital requirement, shareholders, directors, etc. I have also read in a few posts that the Seychelles are quite en vogue at the moment and are already #2 in terms of overall incorporations after the BVIs. Thus we thought about incorporating the company either in the Seychelles or BVIs.
The next thing would be a business bank account. Even though OCBC would be IBC friendly, “cheap” as in they require an initial deposit of 30k USD/SGD and reliable, we think it would not be such a good idea to use them, since quite a bit of business is coming from Singapore. Thus we are thinking about a bank account for EUR/GBP payments in Malta with Bank of Valletta or one in Hong Kong.
To improve the reputation of our IBC’s company location, we were also thinking about using a virtual office in London, which we would use on our website and maybe also to sign contracts with travel wholesalers. That would assure more clients to do business with us.
OPTION B
Incorporate the company in Gibraltar. Since we would be considered a small company, we would not have to keep books – an ordinary income/expenditure table should be sufficient. Gibraltar would have a much better reputation than the Seychelles or BVIs and it might be easier to open a bank account, especially in Europe. The bank account options would be the same as above.
A possible drawback might be the close ties to the U.K. and Europe. This could possible relate into tax problems, because a high fraction of the turnover will come from people based in the U.K.
To get one additional layer of anonymity we are thinking of using nominee shareholders and directors. Yet how easy or how tough is it to get a bank account then?
TAXES
Tax wise, we mainly would like to save on corporate tax. In terms of income tax, such a construct would not help much, since I, as an Austrian citizen, would still have to pay income taxes in Austria. But I was also thinking of minimizing those, respectively getting other “benefits” out of an offshore incorporation, namely by incorporating a GmbH (Ldt) and associate this company to the Gibraltar company. This GmbH then would lease a company car and would rent a flat, it would also make a bit of a turnover, but at the end of the year the whole profit/loss would be shifted over to the Gibraltar company anyways and would not be liable to corporate tax in Austria nor Singapore.
What would prevent a person from receiving an official pay of 20-30k EUR pa and pay income taxes on that while he/she pays for the things for the daily life using a company credit card? Since there is no auditing and book keeping required in Gibraltar, somebody should not have problems to get these things “into the books”.
What do you guys think? What shall we do and where do you see obstacles ahead? Maybe I oversaw another great incorporation solution, which minimizes taxes even more by taking advantage of my friend’s Singaporean citizenship.
Your input is much appreciated.
I am new here in the forum, but have been actively looking into offshore related things since the last few months. Together with a friend, I have now reached a point where I would like to take the final step into incorporating an offshore company. I am based in Austria (Europe) and he is based in Singapore and together we would like to incorporate a travel start-up, which focuses on high end travel; basically, we are booking business and first class flights, as well as expensive stays at high end hotels. An incorporation in Singapore would require a deposit of 100k SGD and we do not want to put that down.
Our plan to go offshore builds mainly on the fact that we would like to (1) avoid double book keeping and auditing, (2) save on taxes, (3) be able to write invoices and (4) enjoy anonymity – whereas the first three points are the more important onse. Our main business is coming from the U.K. and Singapore. Turnover should be around 250k+ USD pa.
We are still not sure which construction would be the best for us and thus I would like to present them here and would highly appreciate your feedback. Since most business is in done in Singapore and the U.K., we are thinking about avoiding having ties to these countries from a business and banking point of view. Incorporation and taxes are two different things and thus I would like to break it into incorporation first and then taxes.
INCORPORATION
OPTION A
Incorporate the company in a jurisdiction like the BVIs, Belize or the Seychelles, which, according to my knowledge, share quite a lot of similarities in terms of capital requirement, shareholders, directors, etc. I have also read in a few posts that the Seychelles are quite en vogue at the moment and are already #2 in terms of overall incorporations after the BVIs. Thus we thought about incorporating the company either in the Seychelles or BVIs.
The next thing would be a business bank account. Even though OCBC would be IBC friendly, “cheap” as in they require an initial deposit of 30k USD/SGD and reliable, we think it would not be such a good idea to use them, since quite a bit of business is coming from Singapore. Thus we are thinking about a bank account for EUR/GBP payments in Malta with Bank of Valletta or one in Hong Kong.
To improve the reputation of our IBC’s company location, we were also thinking about using a virtual office in London, which we would use on our website and maybe also to sign contracts with travel wholesalers. That would assure more clients to do business with us.
OPTION B
Incorporate the company in Gibraltar. Since we would be considered a small company, we would not have to keep books – an ordinary income/expenditure table should be sufficient. Gibraltar would have a much better reputation than the Seychelles or BVIs and it might be easier to open a bank account, especially in Europe. The bank account options would be the same as above.
A possible drawback might be the close ties to the U.K. and Europe. This could possible relate into tax problems, because a high fraction of the turnover will come from people based in the U.K.
To get one additional layer of anonymity we are thinking of using nominee shareholders and directors. Yet how easy or how tough is it to get a bank account then?
TAXES
Tax wise, we mainly would like to save on corporate tax. In terms of income tax, such a construct would not help much, since I, as an Austrian citizen, would still have to pay income taxes in Austria. But I was also thinking of minimizing those, respectively getting other “benefits” out of an offshore incorporation, namely by incorporating a GmbH (Ldt) and associate this company to the Gibraltar company. This GmbH then would lease a company car and would rent a flat, it would also make a bit of a turnover, but at the end of the year the whole profit/loss would be shifted over to the Gibraltar company anyways and would not be liable to corporate tax in Austria nor Singapore.
What would prevent a person from receiving an official pay of 20-30k EUR pa and pay income taxes on that while he/she pays for the things for the daily life using a company credit card? Since there is no auditing and book keeping required in Gibraltar, somebody should not have problems to get these things “into the books”.
What do you guys think? What shall we do and where do you see obstacles ahead? Maybe I oversaw another great incorporation solution, which minimizes taxes even more by taking advantage of my friend’s Singaporean citizenship.
Your input is much appreciated.
