Possible place to incorporate for segregation of wealth

[lostsoul]

Hi guys.

Living in S. America, have business here, short story my country taxes worldwide income but only if i receive it in my name.
As long as the income remains in an Offshore Jurisdiction i can enjoy no taxation on my side.
I have plans to become an expat in the future, travel more than i do now, maybe live in different places.
So ive been looking to an Offshore Company to segregate my investments, think it like an offshore penny bank for my personal savings.
Instead of having a lot of $ in my name ill have a lot of $ in an offshore account.

All money will be invested in mutual funds, equity, bonds. Mostly in US market thru brokerage accounts.
Can be other markets too, but the banking needs to be somewhere i could trust to move 500k USD from one account to another at least.
Or that i could keep money there in case i needed liquidity.

Have been reading the Forum with lots of horror stories about banking and also have consulting several people around.
Including private banking people who work with this on a daily basis, registering agents.
People that want to sell their fish in the places they make $ and are used with, hard to belive usually.

Based on these people recomendatins and my own research ive came to these 4 jurisdictions as possible:

UAE
BVI
Cayman
Bahamas

Could anyone who have worked a similar Setup give any light on this matter ??
Thankyou.

 

[reesek]

UAE is the best value for money you can get these days but you need to travel there every 6 months

 

[anotherone]

do y know the costa rican status? They don't tax income from overseas in costa rica
Applied to individuals as well as legal entities, i.e., corporations for income originated from a Costa Rican source. Costa Rican Laws do not tax income derived from a foreign source.

 

[reesek]

Malta too.
If you want to proprietary invest, these two would be the best.

 

[lostsoul]

Thankyou reesek and anotherone for the feedback.

When you say i should travel there every 6 months is to have tax residency in UAE ??
Or this is related with using an FZ structure instead of a RAK one ??
Ive heard its not so easy open a bank account in UAE for a RAK company.

Tax residency for me its not a problem today, i would only have to pay taxes on earnings if i bring the money back.

UAE is on top of my list, then BVI and Cayman in a 3rd.
I have offshore bank accounts for my main business, brokerage and offshore bank accounts on my name.
But its very bad in terms of tax efficiency compared to having my savings invested thru an offshore company.
I doubt its true but considering my situation several people ive been talking to told they can open a bank account anywhere i feel confortable with.
As my case is of private banking in the name of an Offshore company whose im the sole owner.
Even if i choose BVI for incorporation.

 

[reesek]

>> i should travel there every 6 months is to have tax residency in UAE ??

yes


its not easy but since you have prop investments as a goal it is managable

you can bank outside uae too, we can get you a euro iban which will work fine with all brokers

 

[lostsoul]

Well, i have no plans to live UAE, even as an expat in the future.
I would be only incorporating there, or BVI, or Cayman.

 

[reesek]

you dont need to live, just need to show up in their airport once in 6 months

 

[lostsoul]

The biggest problem with UAE is there is no simple setup there.
Lots of register agents telling you need an FZ if you want to have a bank account in UAE.
That they are not accepting RAK IBCs as clients since 2018.
This is a big deal breaker...

 

[Spinat]

The biggest problem with UAE is there is no simple setup there.
Lots of register agents telling you need an FZ if you want to have a bank account in UAE.
That they are not accepting RAK IBCs as clients since 2018.
This is a big deal breaker...

very true, the question is what are the alternatives for a setup you are looking for. I find it difficult, looking at the US states Wyoming, Delaware as well as Mauritius banking and company, but everything looks not like the best solution.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

What’s the issue with US companies? I would probably prefer that over Mauritius...

 

[aquarius]

What about HK, Gibraltar or Cyprus? For investment holdings they seem to tick several of the boxes with only a few negatives.

 

[lostsoul]

US/UK is pass thru, it will work if you live in a country with zero tax on your worldwide income.
But then you normally dont need an offshore, you can have the accounts in your name, nobody will care.
Im almost going on the BVI route, banks are used with opening account for investment companies from there, including US banks.
Places like Gibraltar or Cyprus have no big difference between BVI or Cayman in terms of banking options.
You will have to open a bank outside of the jurisdiction for these too.
My best shot was UAE but this FZ setup makes it expensive in the long term, and its not a very stable jurisdiction also.
Tax can happen there easily than in an island where their profit is based on Zero Tax Policies thru an annual fee from almost a half million companies.

 

[aquarius]

US/UK is pass thru, it will work if you live in a country with zero tax on your worldwide income.
But then you normally dont need an offshore, you can have the accounts in your name, nobody will care.
Im almost going on the BVI route, banks are used with opening account for investment companies from there, including US banks.
Places like Gibraltar or Cyprus have no big difference between BVI or Cayman in terms of banking options.
You will have to open a bank outside of the jurisdiction for these too.
My best shot was UAE but this FZ setup makes it expensive in the long term, and its not a very stable jurisdiction also.
Tax can happen there easily than in an island where their profit is based on Zero Tax Policies thru an annual fee from almost a half million companies.

The issue would be banking. As a structure BVI is fine but you end up with lousy banks in Belize or Puerto Rico. Not places to stick a few 100K in. As investment vehicle we are likely talking serious amounts here, either now, or accumulating over time.
The 'best' option I could find for BVI is a Mauritius bank account, still not great. Cyprus might be a bit shady as well, but my thinking was that with a Gibraltar or HK structure one would get access to some better banks. Gibraltar has a Swiss bank that takes you in from 500K.
The deposit amount is relevant here, I would assume that with 1M more doors will open than with 10K.

 

[biz1]

@blueweb @aquarius what are your thoughts about Mauritius generally? Pleasel feel free to share here or Mauritius experience! All about Mauritius thread :)

 

[aquarius]

@biz1. I only have professional experience with Mauritius when we issued corporate bonds through a Mauritius entity to get rid of the w/h tax onshore. This worked as it should and experience was positive.
Personally I have no other experience with Mauritius than the St-Regis there which was pleasant . I have no accounts there.

 

[lory]

Did you get company and bank account in Mauritius or how is the banking working for your company there?

 

[biz1]

@aquarius Stock R what

Cool how is the bond thing designed? interesting.

 

[aquarius]

Did you get company and bank account in Mauritius or how is the banking working for your company there?

If we had issued bonds from our country we would have to withhold 20% on interest payments to bondholders. At that time the tax treaty with Mauritius allowed for 0% while interest paid from Mauritius also has 0%. Thus we issued the bonds from Mauritius and lent the proceeds to our company, with repayments going in the other direction, at 0% tax. If I recall correctly it was USD 150 million.
Obviously we had a bank account and administrator in Mauritius.
As mentioned, that all worked fine and professional.

 

[lory]

UAE is the best value for money you can get these days but you need to travel there every 6 months

Why would it become the best in your eyes?