UAE offshore with nominee director and shareholder?

[Lunita]

Hello,

I'm studying a plan to create my perfect company since a while now (sending invoices to a lot of South American company paying 0 taxes), and I've always been skeptical of offshore because of the CFC rules...
But what if I put both director and shareholder from somewhere else? Could that work or can you see problem anyway?

If it's ok, I saw that gws offer this service, has anyone used them? Are they any good?

 

[Gediminas]

Hi,

You won't avoid information exchange just by having nominees. The UBO will have to be disclosed in any case and this is the most important information.

Or you want to find a "nominee UBO", usually close friend/relative/etc.

 

[Spinat]

It is not going to be possible to hide you behind the UAE corp like that. As the other reply said, you need to use nominee UBO which is illegal but widely used by people.

I refer to Homeless people, Mexico, Balitc Countries or places similar

 

[MarkusM]

Guys, there is a lot of misconceptions about CFC rules and UBO .... and with your messages i think you create even more.

He didn’t want to “hide” his company. He want to be able to use this company without to trigger the CFC rules.
If the tax authorities from his home country find out that he is the UBO of that company, what is the problem? I really can’t see any issue!
Are you not allowed to invest in companies outside of your country, or what??
People who join this forum, come to find a solution, but instead , they become even more confused!

 

[forlac]

another thing is that the arabs will chop your hands if they notice and you ever have to come to their territory, better don't **** with them

 

[MarkusM]

another thing is that the arabs will chop your hands if they notice and you ever have to come to their territory, better don't **** with them

Yeah... even worse ))

 

[TacitusKilgore]

Guys, there is a lot of misconceptions about CFC rules and UBO .... and with your messages i think you create even more.

He didn’t want to “hide” his company. He want to be able to use this company without to trigger the CFC rules.
If the tax authorities from his home country find out that he is the UBO of that company, what is the problem? I really can’t see any issue!
Are you not allowed to invest in companies outside of your country, or what??
People who join this forum, come to find a solution, but instead , they become even more confused!

I really don't think they are creating misconceptions.

To avoid triggering your country's CFC rules you need to read them and find out what the rules in your country actually are.

The problem with modern CFC legislation - and when I say problem, I mean a problem for people like you and I - is that it actually looks beyond legal ownership of the company. If you have a nominee shareholder they most likely hold the shares on bare trust for you, which makes you a beneficial owner of the company, albeit indirectly. So in any case this will make your relationship with the company a CFC one. HOWEVER, if you have a friend who is this "UBO" but you still pull the strings and make decisions on behalf of the company, in some countries you are still the one who Controls the Foreign Company (hence CFC).

It is quite frustrating for people like us but it is done by countries to discourage tax evasion/avoidance. If your country has this sort of rigorous CFC legislation then effectively the only way you get around being taxed on the company's income is non-disclosure to the government/tax authority which is almost definitely illegal.

So it's probably best to really study the CFC laws in your country.

Also to address your question regarding investing in a company overseas: in my country (Australia) if you (including your associates) own 50% or more of a foreign company, whether directly or indirectly, you will need to declare the company's income even if you genuinely don't "control" or make business decisions on behalf of the company. There are other tests as well but Commonwealth countries are pretty strict with the CFC rules. In Australia non-disclosure to the tax authority will not always get you caught, but if you are caught they fine you a s**t-load and make a huge example out of you to scare everyone else into compliance!

 

[Cony]

I also believe that the answers are not creating misconceptions.

I'm a resident of Chile and this are the rules here:

Under domestic CFC rules, taxpayers resident of Chile are subject to tax on passive income derived by controlled foreign companies, whether such controlled is direct or indirect, and includes a legal, economic and the facto control tests.

About the "passive Income" it also says

• Transactions between the CFC and taxpayers resident of Chile, provided they are related parties and payments are: deductible from the tax base in Chile; and subject to tax in Chile with a rate lower than 35%.

The definition of related parties is very broad, it means that if a person has a participation (even 10%) in 2 companies one from Chile and one abroad they are related, but also "

• Parties resident in a jurisdiction with a preferential tax regime, unless such jurisdiction has a tax information exchange agreement with Chile;"

Last time I checked UAE was part of the jurisdiction that in Chile is considered with preferential tax regime, they do have an agreement with Chile but it is not active at the moment (like USA).

I know that Argentina as a similar approach (a bit less aggressive than Chile), and therefore I assume that to do business with south american company the UBO is quite important, I also think that at the moment the UAE are ok, but they are at least risky (in my opinion their reputation and agreement may change at any time, i'm not saying that they will change, just that they can change).
Clearly it would change if someone doesn't do business with people of his own country, in that case UAE is a pretty solid choice, the alternative as someone said choose an UBO from a different country assuming the legal consequences of doing something like that.

P.s.
Country member of the OECD are not considered with preferential tax regime so in my opinion here and in several others South American Countries

p.p.s.
I din't put any links because I'm not sure if it does violate the forum rules, but if someone is interested it would be a problem to provide them