Wise business trading address

[aragon]

Looks like Wise have added a new address information requirement for business accounts, or at least this has been my experience after trading successfully for almost 2 years. We are now being asked to provide the business's trading address.

Your trading address is usually where you work every day, or where customers contact you. An office, co-working space, shop, studio, or home are common examples.

A trading address should not be the registered agent address, a virtual address or an address provided to you by a business formation agency. Neither can it be the address of a warehouse or a similar facility not owned by the business.

Has anyone gone through this before, and how did it go? Was your trading address in the same country as your registered address?

How do online businesses substantiate a trading address? Not sure what to expect or answer. Any suggestions?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Usual nonsense on “substance”. They want to see an utility bill, contract or whatever that shows the company’s physical presence. If you don’t have anything, buy it online. Useless to discuss with them, just feed them with what they want to see and remember that you are - like everyone - at risk of having your account closed at any time.

 

[aragon]

Thanks, Carlo. This was my worry. I think many online businesses don't have much in the way of trading expenses that are also tied to physical trading locations. Everything is online and scattered around the world. It's as if banking is becoming impossible despite commerce becoming more and more virtual now.

Will try update here as I go through it. If anyone else has already done this with Wise, would love to hear from you.

 

[Sols]

How do online businesses substantiate a trading address? Not sure what to expect or answer. Any suggestions?

It's right there in the message from them: "or home". If you physically work from home, that's the address you give them.

No need to commit fraud and lie (or produce false proofs of address) to a financial institution when a perfectly good answer is available.

Yes, account closures are always a risk. That's why you should have at least one back up account at all times. But it seems a little unnecessary to exacerbate the situation by deceit. That's turning "You don't fit our risk appetite" into "You have committed a crime, we'll file an SAR now and report you".

 

[JohnnyDoe]

It's right there in the message from them: "or home". If you physically work from home, that's the address you give them.

No need to commit fraud and lie (or produce false proofs of address) to a financial institution when a perfectly good answer is available.

Yes, account closures are always a risk. That's why you should have at least one back up account at all times. But it seems a little unnecessary to exacerbate the situation by deceit. That's turning "You don't fit our risk appetite" into "You have committed a crime, we'll file an SAR now and report you".

“Trading from home” or any other type of legit and true explanation will not work. Banks do not listen/understand, they just tick boxes. Feed them with what they ask, don’t waste your time trying to be honest with whom is dishonest and criminal (all the banks).

 

[Sols]

“Trading from home” or any other type of legit and true explanation will not work. Banks do not listen/understand, they just tick boxes. Feed them with what they ask, don’t waste your time trying to be honest with whom is dishonest and criminal (all the banks).

I can only tell you from my own personal experience and that of many others I have helped or work with, across dozens of banks and EMIs, that it does work — most of the time. It might take some patient explaining and re-explaining, though.

 

[aragon]

I think a big concern in this case is that the trading address and business address would be in different countries, which I believe will be very problematic. Even if Wise do accept it, the next concern becomes the risk of triggering "permanent establishment" clauses in tax treaties just because a financial institution has the two differing address details in their misleadingly phrased records. Wise could be calling a home address a company's trading address, which is arguably untrue.

Agree about honesty, however on balance the risk of loosing access to company funds and a transactional bank account would be quite devastating to this business. It's difficult to find Wise alternatives involving the currencies needed for this business, and for sure more costly.

 

[Forester]

sols said:
I can only tell you from my own personal experience and that of many others I have helped or work with, across dozens of banks and EMIs, that it does work — most of the time. It might take some patient explaining and re-explaining, though.

Well, agreed.

I think a big concern in this case is that the trading address and business address would be in different countries, which I believe will be very problematic. Even if Wise do accept it, the next concern becomes the risk of triggering "permanent establishment" clauses in tax treaties just because a financial institution has the two differing address details in their misleadingly phrased records. Wise could be calling a home address a company's trading address, which is arguably untrue.

Agree about honesty, however on balance the risk of loosing access to company funds and a transactional bank account would be quite devastating to this business.

But I agree with this, too. Fully understandable.

It's difficult to find Wise alternatives involving the currencies needed for this business, and for sure more costly.

Could you share what currencies do you need? Perhaps there might be an alternative...
(Disclaimer: I do not trust Wise – or to be exact, I warn everyone that any Wise account can be frozen anytime for unclear reasons... /no money losses usually but funds frozen for an unspecified time/.)

 

[Risehigh]

Wise acting strange lately, just blocked an account + its phone number lol

 

[aragon]

Could you share what currencies do you need? Perhaps there might be an alternative...

EUR and GEL.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

EUR and GEL.

Wise doesn’t allow payments from Georgia!

 

[aragon]

Wise doesn’t allow payments from Georgia!

They allow the holding of GEL, and the payment of GEL to Georgian accounts.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

They allow the holding of GEL, and the payment of GEL to Georgian accounts.

Cool, but you can’t receive money from Georgia.

 

[Forester]

Cool, but you can’t receive money from Georgia.

Maybe @aragon does not need it...
Concerning Wise replacement, in such a case (yes, GEL makes trouble) it is perhaps worth trying Moneycorp (Welcome to moneycorp). They handle GEL (https://www.moneycorp.com/globalassets/documents/currencies-list.pdf) and are (IMO) reputable...

 

[Millers]

Hi @aragon please could you provide feedback on how you resolved the request from Wise, as I have a similar situation.

My Wise business account is registered in the UK, and is an address supplied by the formations company. Actual trading address (my home) is in another country. Reason for having registered my Wise business account in UK is that I required a debit card for the account. Wise doesn't yet offer debit cards for my home country, although does allow me to hold an account.

I am concernded about the point raised by another poster, that if the registered address and trading address are in different countries it may trigger an issue?

So am interested to hear your experience, as to whether you ended up providing them a home address, or an alternate.

 

[aragon]

Hi @Millers I have been meaning to update this thread. It has been 3 months since the company had to declare its "trading address" to Wise. The decision was to declare the address of the director's private residence in another country, ie. to be as truthful as possible.

The process was uneventful, with Wise seemingly just saving the information and everything continuing as normal, with regards to transactions on Wise's platform.

So it has been no problem, for now. The real test will come after a year or two, I think. And the company will probably have created a backup plan by then.

 

[Millers]

Hi @aragon , thanks for the reply. I will adopt the same approach and I will report back on how things fare. I have no issue declaring my private residence to them, I just didn't want it to result in creating a problem with registered and trading address being 2 different countries. I will also look into a Plan B, should trading and business address be required to be the same country in future.

 

[clemens]

Looks like Wise have added a new address information requirement for business accounts, or at least this has been my experience after trading successfully for almost 2 years. We are now being asked to provide the business's trading address.

has been like this for me the last 4 years using them. No question asked.

The more I read about people getting troubles with Wise and what they are doing or what they get surprised about, the more I understand Wise and why they shut down accounts.

 

[Millers]

Update on my situation. Provided Wise with the directors home address (different country to registered address), and no issue at all. For now. Apparently just a new requirement that business accounts must have trading address. Just a pity that didn;t request this via a notification on one's account as opposed to a somewhat threatening mail - ie if you don't respond we'll close your account. As other posters have commented it might present an issue in future that trading address and registered address two different countries. Will make contingency plans in case.

 

[Neptune]

I have the same issue (i.e. WISE asking to declare the Trading Address of my UK Company).
My "Trading Address" is in another country and I am a little bit worry that if I would declare this address if it could triggering "Permanent Establishment" clauses in regards to tax treaties.
I wonder, if I would declare the same address as the company's registered address, what is the possibility to ask for a proof (i.e. Utility Bill, rental agreement, etc.).

I would greatly appreciate if could share your opinion or knowledge on this matter.