Europe bank account for UK company

[surimak]

can anyone advise where to open european bank account for uk company dealing in IT? company is used to protect/cover real suppliers for our customers while european bank account (ideally within EU) is needed to protect customers from "avoidable" questions from theirs tax authorities

 

[Zqq]

company is used to protect/cover real suppliers for our customers while european bank account (ideally within EU) is needed to protect customers from "avoidable" questions from theirs tax authorities

Can you please elaborate on this? What exactly do you mean?

 

[surimak]

Can you please elaborate on this? What exactly do you mean?

we have certain suppliers but we dont want them to have direct contact (or send invoice directly) with our customer


lets say that tax authorities in certain EU countries are ok with invoices from UK but if that invoice is paid to bank account outside EU then they would pay more attention than is necessary or welcome :angel:

 

[Zqq]

we have certain suppliers but we dont want them to have direct contact (or send invoice directly) with our customer

So the purpose of the UK company is to hide the supplier's name from the customer?

lets say that tax authorities in certain EU countries are ok with invoices from UK but if that invoice is paid to bank account outside EU then they would pay more attention than is necessary or welcome :angel:

Why not a UK bank account? You might need to travel there, but if you can convince the banks to accept you (and they do sometimes accept non-resident UK companies) that's going to be the best-looking structure. I have opened accounts for non-resident companies with several UK banks. Speak to Lloyds, Barclays, and RBS. HSBC is a pain to deal with, but sometimes they will comply.


If none of the UK banks accept you, you likely have a business plan and structure that won't go over well in other non-tax havens, like Germany, Netherlands, or Ireland (technically a tax haven, but not in this case). However, you can try banks there; Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, ING, AIB, and so on.


If those don't work but your business plan is legitimate and structure is fine, consider speaking to banks in the UK channel islands and Isle of Man, Gibraltar, or even Malta. I know several UK companies that bank with BOV in Malta.


Since you are worried about how your company will be perceived by tax authorities, you may want to avoid banking in places like Switzerland, Latvia, Cyprus, and so on. Those jurisdictions are often perceived to be used for hiding money. Whether this perception is right or wrong is a whole nother debate.

 

[surimak]

So the purpose of the UK company is to hide the supplier's name from the customer?
Why not a UK bank account? You might need to travel there, but if you can convince the banks to accept you (and they do sometimes accept non-resident UK companies) that's going to be the best-looking structure. I have opened accounts for non-resident companies with several UK banks. Speak to Lloyds, Barclays, and RBS. HSBC is a pain to deal with, but sometimes they will comply.


If none of the UK banks accept you, you likely have a business plan and structure that won't go over well in other non-tax havens, like Germany, Netherlands, or Ireland (technically a tax haven, but not in this case). However, you can try banks there; Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, ING, AIB, and so on.


If those don't work but your business plan is legitimate and structure is fine, consider speaking to banks in the UK channel islands and Isle of Man, Gibraltar, or even Malta. I know several UK companies that bank with BOV in Malta.


Since you are worried about how your company will be perceived by tax authorities, you may want to avoid banking in places like Switzerland, Latvia, Cyprus, and so on. Those jurisdictions are often perceived to be used for hiding money. Whether this perception is right or wrong is a whole nother debate.

if we go to basics, then yes, hiding suppliers is the main purpose


thanks for a lot of useful information, im still unconvinced in light of recent bank data sharing in-between countries..will give it serious though anyway


what do you think about Austria as last EU based country refusing to share bank data?