What type of company to form? LLC, IBC, PLC, GBC, SARL, ETC? Someone knowledgeable

[Kakarot]

I'd like to know what is best type of offshore company to form, the options I'm aware or are:

IBC – International Business Company
• PLC – Private Limited Company
• LLC – Limited Liability Company
• GBC – Global Business Company
• SÀRL – Société à responsabilité limitée (French) or Sociedade anónima
de responsabilidade limitada (Portuguese)

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Which one is your preference and for what reasons?

And if i missed any important ones, please add them.

thanks.

 

[CaptK]

There is no simple answer and that is too long of an answer. I'm sure if you Google and research you will find more information.
All these are pertinent to their jurisdiction so without understanding what your goals are it's impossible to answer.

 

[Sols]

What do you want to achieve?

Different types of entities have different characteristics but unless you want something very unusual or specific, you're most likely fine going with whatever is the most popular in the relevant jurisdiction.

 

[Kakarot]

Hi Sols,

I'm a canadian citizen, but nomad, I shuffle around asia for last 4 years -- i run a trading company trading mostly cosmetic products, herbs and crops -- nothing illicit.

I have a BVI LLC, and am not tax resident anywhere at present, always moving somewhere new on regular basis -- until 2020 that is.

the issue mostly is hard to get a decent transactional bank account. And I'd want multiple ones for safety against any sudden closes.

my clients are mostly all USA companies, i get wires from them, and need to pay my factory suppliers in China.

I'm doing about 350,000 revenue per annum this year I estimate the way things are going in 2021, and maybe profit around 150,000 usd -- this is first year where I'm modestly successful, previous years I was barely just squeaking by making enough to live on -- but now I'm making much more suddenly in 2021 -- so now i need a solution to move the money. Bitcoin transfers. paypal, Western union etc - is a pain in a*s. I cannot grow if I cannot find merchant accounts to move the money. And BVI isn't the best LLC to get bank accounts from what I know...

I've heard so many horror stories from people relying on fintech/emi's having accounts closed. So I don't want to go down that road with big money.

To grow my company further and process money clean -- i feel like i maybe need a better jurisdiction for my company than BVI perhaps, and perhaps I need to somehow get tax residency somewhere where it doesn't break me.

Of course I will still chase as little corporate and personal income tax as possible.

So I don't know what to do. Delaware LLC? UK LLP? UAE LLC and then i got the tax residency too? Singapore and HK sound like headaches and too much accounting and paperwork.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinions of what's the best combination of jurisdiction for the company, and jurisdiction for the bank,, and where to seek tax residency -- I know there's no one size fits all -- but I'd bet MOST people trying to do this, are smaller like me, and basically trading something -- commodities, electronics, whatever -- they are probably mostly a trading company needing transactional bank accounts they can rely on.

So I just mean, I would guess even though there's no one size fits all in this stuff -- i suspect most people here are something like me.

I know there's plenty of big players too with their multi-million trusts etc -- but I think I'm more the norm, and more the newbie type who doesn't yet know the best tricks yet, and the best mixes of countries, banks etc one should use.

 

[Sols]

Sounds like the real underlying question is rather different than that of a type of legal entity.

Unless you really want to do and manage all of this yourself, I'd suggest speaking with one of the major corporate service providers about setting up a company, for which they provide local directors, and arrange for banking. You'd lose the convenience of having direct access to the company bank account and it will add costs, but there's a certain peace of mind that comes with having your affairs in order and funds sitting with a reputable financial institution. The local directors will establish the company as resident there.

The go-to names for something like this would be Appleby, Vistra, Walkers, BDO, Conyers, and maybe Dixcart. Look at Isle of Man, Caymans, Gibraltar, and such. Even BVI can work. If you want something in Asia or South Pacific, have discussions also with Asiaciti and Southpac.

As for yourself, you'd be wise to establish residence somewhere as well. The aforementioned service providers can sometimes help with that. But you can arrange for that yourself. There are also many other places offering digital nomad visas, see this thread: Countries with Digital Nomad Visa

 

[Kakarot]

thank you that is helpful i'm msg those firms. Appreciate the insight.