Offshore and Tax Minimisation Thread

Cynllo

Administrator
Test Account
The sphere of offshoring has been under attack since the 80s and has reached a crescendo in the last 1-2 years. Various bodies, including governments, under coordination of international bodies have been placing pressure on offshore banks in particular. This pressure is not to stop terrorists or criminals, but to reap higher tax revenues from the cash cows of failing welfare states, mainly The Anglosphere and primary EU countries.

This action has pushed up the risk appetite of said banks, who in the past routinely opened accounts with 500-10,000 balances to require larger and larger sums, with more limits and fees. The activities you are allowed have also been reduced. For example certain types of transfers in may be blocked and you will probably be blocked from brokerage. This owing to they don't want any exposure to the wrath of foreign authorities. Offshore banks are turning into roach motels that you will find it harder to get money in and out. Many may be cut off from the primary fiat systems of EUR, GBP, USD etc. If you have offshore accounts, be prepared to find your money is one day inaccessible.

There is also growing pressure on major actors in international transfers e.g. electronic money accounts, affiliate brokers, freelance brokers etc. In particular they want a tax ID, which they are moving towards total, automatic global awareness of. This is an issue if you are a digital nomad, as despite not being tax resident anywhere, you will increasingly be required to enter a tax ID and residential address (which you may not have).

I would no longer recommend any offshore setup that is not both expertly planned and where you keep your primary residence in a tax-free jurisdiction or one where you are transparent.

Instead I would recommend making it your goal/priority to settle in a jurisdiction you are comfortable with the arrangements for tax. If you have more than one source of income this will generally require you setup a onshore business presence somewhere. Although the extent of that could be low, it cannot be a shell without a serviceable address etc. The exception is if you are a freelancer, i.e. you have a stream of different clients or you work remotely. If you are paid regularly by more than one company you will run into issues with compliance.

If you are a business (as described above) you will want to move somewhere where you will intend to stay for the foreseeable future. For no-tax jurisdictions you have several Caribbean countries: Cayman, BVI, The Bahamas, Anguilla, St Kitts; in Europe: Monaco and Sark and a few gulf countries, notably The UAE; and Vanuatu. There are a number of low tax countries, such as The Isle of Man, The Channel Islands, Puerto Rico, North Mariana Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Georgia, Mauritius, Lichtenstein, Cyprus, Gibraltar and Barbados. Depending on your arrangements you may be able to add others. For any of these options you should have considerable capital at hand unless you are a UK citizen in the case of their offshore dependencies or a US citizen in the case of its commonwealths. If you are a UK citizen Alderney is a good fit, with low taxes and an open property market. The Isle of Man is also good. Once settled there you can pay negligible to low rates, depending on your arrangements, for sensible government, protection of private property and no globo-madness.

If you are a freelancer, you still have quite good options. The issue will be (particularly if you are paid by large companies like CJ, Amazon etc.) is you will increasingly have to provide a tax ID to vendors and money services providers. Your options for banks are also slim and you will likely have to rely on EMIs (like Payoneer, TransferWise). I recommend you open as many personal accounts as you can (in any circumstance) and not hold much money in one place. It's always possible one will get shut down or frozen. You can continue living anywhere as a global nomad, but the gold standard appears to be Georgia, which provides solid and likely durable footing for a digital nomad (see). Barbados also offer a 1 year tax-free visa for $2,000; and you can get freelance visas in the UAE, but the cost can be quite a lot more. I think the entry point for freelancers in The UAE should those making $50,000+ / year. The benefit of Georgia is you can setup a bank account easily there and I would also recommend setting up an account in Armenia, which is also easy.

The benefit of Georgia and Armenia is that they are not part of the common reporting system, which shares account details with the countries of their holders. I think Georgia is actually scheduled to join this and Armenia might be also in a few years. Having an account in a non-CRS country is useful, but they will likely become rarer, harder to get and eventually subject to CRS. They also tend to be in less stable countries.

So if you are starting off with online/remote work a good start is either Georgia or Barbados. Live frugally and stack as much as you can. Hopefully make some on investments. Once you have good capital and need a real, onshore business presence, then move to your preferred location and setup a business. The UAE offers a lot of advantages and will remain one of the freest countries in term of economics. However, it's about the same price to incorporate an onshore company in the UAE as a more durable offshore one. You will be paying a minimum of $4,000 per year for renewal, but could be more like $10,000. The best place to incorporate is Dubai's DMCC, which is one of the highest reputation places to setup a business. They also offer occasional 3-year 50% discounts. Corporate bank accounts are becoming harder to open in The UAE (due to external pressure from the usual suspects). Having a company in Dubai helps, rather than one of the cheaper zones, some of which are out in the desert. In other jurisdictions you should be able to get renewal at much more modest rates of about $200, but will likely come with taxes.

Another option is to live as an expat in a country with a primitive tax system where you will likely go unreported. That cannot be any OECD country. But, again, be very careful with where you keep your money, as the powers that be will be cutting away at your ability to hold any accounts outside of your country and outside of excessive regulation. There are all sorts of games you can play to try and keep ahead, but they cost money and have risks, which is why I recommend getting an onshore setup, with the prospect of freelancing on solid ground prior to this.
 
Lot's of good information.

It reminds me of one thing many companies do. They transfer their IP (trademarks, patents, copyrights) to holding companies they own in countries with better tax rates. They then license the IP from those holding companies and are able to shift a massive amount of income out of high tax countries into lower ones.
 
An overview for United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This is the go-to country for paying zero tax, owing to it being financially connected. If you are incorporated or based in a country like The Bahamas or Panama, you may find your cards are declined, bank transfers are blocked or companies refuse to deal with you. Like Singapore and Hong Kong, the UAE doesn't have those issues. But unlike Hong Kong and Singapore, UAE has no income, capital gains, inheritance, or corporate taxes for the most part.

The only other countries that fit that bill are in the region, but the others are not that developed for welcoming foreigners quickly. So over the last several years the UAE has been the largest magnet for migrating millionaires per capita, by a very long way.

In the last year or so a 9% corporate tax on profit over about $100k was introduced, but that is only for "mainland" companies. That is, companies that are majority owned (at least by proxy) by natives. But it is still easy to avoid that with dividends. The reason for this is the world's most powerful man Biden decreeded there should be a minimum global corporate tax. This is them skirting the rules and likely part of the reason they have gone BRICS.

Beyond that there is 5% VAT or sales tax on domestic sales. If you have a UAE company you don't pay that on international sales. And there is a threshold of about $100,000.

So, in terms of buying imports it is typically much cheaper than many other countries. E.g. if you buy a laptop in the UK, there is 20% VAT and a 10% import duty. In the UAE it's just the 5% VAT. So a laptop in the UK that sells for about $1,000 will be about $750 in the UAE.

To settle in the UAE and open a business you need a residency visa. These can be obtained via three means - 1) buying a property for more than $250,000, can be by mortgage, higher sale price gets longer visas; 2) a freelance visa; 3) opening a company.

The cheapest freelance setup costs about $3,000 and then about $2,000 each year. Every three years you need to renew the visa at about $300.

I'm not sure what the cheapest costs for a company is, but it's likely about $5,000 per year. There are different zones to register a company in. Some require an annual financial audit.

The most popular zone to open in is called the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC).
It is based in Jumeirah Lake Towers (JLT), which is adjacent Marina, and like a cheaper, quieter version of it. It's a nice area, but if you buy an apartment there, the interiors aren't that good.

Opening Remotely

Reading that getting a bank account in UAE has become more difficult (due to the banking cartel), I decided to incorporate in Dubai, and the DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre), which is said to be the most prestigious and best. I was also told this was the only free zone, which can be opened remotely, since I was not a UAE resident.

I opened with an agent, who have transparent pricing. They were good overall and were always quick to reply to emails, but I didn't feel they wrapped it up too well. I have a flexi-desk (an alleged share in an office I have never been to), but they never told me anything about that. When I asked about opening a bank account, they didn't seem to want to help, just gave me a link to a bank and I think they might have not given me all the required documents as they should have.

You can try and incorporate and get your visa yourself, but I would recommend going with them or another agent. I don't think it would be difficult to do yourself, but you will be left doing a lot of research.

Opening remotely required I make one or two calls with a DMCC rep., sign a few forms, and hand over a few details. I was surprised there was no deeper querying. No query was made as to why I had been "based" in a backwater country known for corruption. This stage took about a week. After that I would have been ready to proceed with a visa.

I think the agent's fee for incorporation was about $3,000.

Arriving in UAE + Incorporating

I arrived in UAE during the plandemic. I was taken by the agent for my medical test and then to have my hand-prints and photo taken. I was surprised that no one ever asked me what I am doing, if I have a criminal record. Nothing. After about ten days I had the visa and the incorporating process was continued.

The first thing you will want to do is get a UAE SIM, which you can getat the airport. I think the cheapest is a Virgin one. I got one that has 6GB / month for about $135 / year. I don't believe you will be able to proceed without a UAE SIM.

It seems all UAE employees or resident need health insurance. I just got a cheap one (care up to $50K) from Noor Takful for about $300 / year. But going forward I may switch to Marsh, who have some good options. This was another aspect the agent failed on. They told me to get insurance from one of two sites, but neither had the option to do so for new residents. After spending a few hours going round in circles, the agent told me to email the insurer and it was soon complete.

Soon the company was registered and I received the incorporating documents. These were copies. When applying for a bank account you may need to get stamped and certified copies.

The DMCC has a portal, which makes it easy to manage most aspects of the business. If you need to renew or order something, you can initiate it on there; and within 1-2 working days you will get the result. You will likely need to order a company stamp from here.

I found The DMCC and other government entities to be very streamlined and easy to deal with.



Opening Bank Accounts

DMCC companies require bank accounts. You are meant to have opened one within 90 days of registration, which I doubt many people will be able to fulfil. There was a request to submit a confirmation of account opening or bank statement with the minimum capital in, but I didn't submit it for about four months. After I submitted it I never heard anything about it again.

DMCC companies are required to keep a minimum balance in their bank. This varies, but is usually 50,000 AED, which is about $13,500.

Opening an account in UAE is difficult. Many small companies had their account terminated in recent years, because the cartel has made the cost of compliance too high. There are only 3-4 banks that are specifically tailored for small business. Seach for - UAE SME bank.

The best to apply with is Mashreq NeoBiz. This is a "branchless" version of Mashreq (one of the largest banks). However, I did go to a Mashreq branch to get a bank statement and it was provided. This bank account was opened very quickly after I got all my documents. No KYC. I think it was opened with about a week. The downside of Mashreq and NeoBiz is that they require you either have a personal address in UAE or a real office (not a shared/flexi-desk). I had neither, and had to sign a letter saying I would have one within 90 days, and if I didn't by then they would close the account. I think you might be able to get away with having an internet bill you pay in a friend's house or a long-stay contract with a hotel that you could maybe get out of. NeoBiz is like a normal bank. I have seen it incorrectly refereed to as an EMI. NeoBiz has accounts in AED and major currencies. I have had no issues using it. No KYC requests.

I also signed up for RAK Bank account. This was the mother of all KYC mountains. I also have a personal account with them, which was the most cumbersome of my personal accounts. I think this took two visits to their office, and about 30 emails fishing out all manner of documents with explanations. A lot of this was due to me moving in some large sums from the old company. At no point did they query why I was based in a backwater or if it was an offshore company etc. They just wanted to see the money flows. They obviously went through these very thoroughly as I was queried on a few things that were difficult to understand. They also made me crack out the brokerage reports that were attached to the account, and didn't query why this Caribbean piece of paper company with a bank account in the Caribbean had made a 400% profit on Canopy Growth Corp (TSE:WEED)! I thought the KYC would not end. They sent me a request for more details, which I did not understand. I said I don't understand. The next email I got was to tell me my account was open. I've not had any issues or KYC requests, with large sums being dripped in over a few months.

Both these accounts come with a cheque book, card, online and mobile banking. The NeoBiz website is a bit of a slop shop, while the RAK Bank one is quite nice but slow.

If you incorporate in a free zone that does not require a bank account, you can try Bankera (EUR only) and Curencie (whatever it's called in Hong Kong) and Airwallex. You should be good for all of those.

Setting up in UAE should probably be a permanent decision. It's not going to be quick.

Renewal

The agent contacted me asking if I wanted them to renew the company for me. I did it myself and it was easy enough. Every year you will need to keep your lease up to date. You can do this in the portal. You also need a new establishment card, which costs about $500; update your business details; update your insurance (from $300+) and renew your licence. The licence is generally something like 25,000 AED (about $7,000), but if you pay it forward five years then it's 20% off. DMCC companies also require an annual audit, the price of which will vary. You will need to keep your visa up to date too. I think that's about $1,000-1,500 every three years.

Costs

It cost about $17,000 to setup, but then it only costs about $7,000 / year to maintain (if you renew the licence for 5 years) + inclusive of health insurance, phone.
 
All these measures should never have been necessary, taxation should never have become so expensive, so predatory or so complex.

I never used to have an issue with tax when I imagined that it went towards roads, railways, bridges, schools, hospitals etc.

Then I realised that it went more to 'redistribution' which also includes towards single mothers that some of us should have married, to the lazy and towards expensive wars which are geographically and practically irrelevant to the national interest of our countries. We are coerced through taxes to support agendas of interest groups we hate.

If they would stop all that taxes would surely come back to levels we would be happy to pay but in the mean time there every reason to look at minimisation and offshore options.
 
An option is to buy Bitcoin, move to a tax-free jurisdiction, and cash out there. I know back in 2019 when I was there, Vietnam had its own exchange which requires no KYC and you could sell for cash by simply meeting one of the company's representatives in person. For bigger sums, you had to go through the KYC process. Could be a way to fly under the radar.
 
Great information everyone.

I was originally attracted to Georgia several years ago for the tax system, banking/business freedom/stability, and low cost of living. As a digital nomad I traveled around the world a fair bit but kept going back to Georgia. I really fell in love with the place and can't more highly recommend it. It has many more advantages beyond the above-mentioned ones. For example, Covid restrictions were ordered by the government but almost universally not followed. When the government issued fines for non-compliance, almost no one paid and so the government was forced to forgive the fines to save face. It's truly a free country--not because the government or law says so, but because the culture and people are ungovernable while also being kind/hospitable/Orthodox (not ungovernable like Afghanistan where it's dangerous to visit or live). The government in Georgia is not God like in most other places in the world.
 
Great information everyone.

I was originally attracted to Georgia several years ago for the tax system, banking/business freedom/stability, and low cost of living.

Can you sumerise the setup?

UAE has been forced to institute a corporate tax due to a proclamation from teleprompter reader Biden.

It's still not clear what this tax is, but it's 9%. What are the get outs and thresholds - I don't know. I think I can probably get out of it, particularly as I have had two years of paying myself most of the company income as a salary.

If everyone has to pay a flat 9%, it's going to nuke the place.
 
If you were perfectly happy where you were living, you would not move somewhere else just because the tax was lower.

However when there is a mounting list of dissatisfaction, the tax can be a final straw that breaks the camels back.

Forced redistribution and paying for unwanted wars and 'agendas'.

Interesting list of tax as percent of GDP around the world with introductory commentary:
https://www.uhy.com/western-europea...tax-burden-40-higher-than-the-global-average/
A catch-all metric, not just income tax, but the whole stinking lot of it, death tax, corporate tax etc.
Western Europe is higher than Brics which is higher than emerging economies.
 
If you were perfectly happy where you were living, you would not move somewhere else just because the tax was lower.

However when there is a mounting list of dissatisfaction, the tax can be a final straw that breaks the camels back.

Forced redistribution and paying for unwanted wars and 'agendas'.

Interesting list of tax as percent of GDP around the world with introductory commentary:
https://www.uhy.com/western-europea...tax-burden-40-higher-than-the-global-average/
A catch-all metric, not just income tax, but the whole stinking lot of it, death tax, corporate tax etc.
Western Europe is higher than Brics which is higher than emerging economies.
Ultimately it's about how much one gets back out of the taxes they pay, which includes guarantees of old age care. Some enjoy highly developed societies, ideal roads, manicured parks, abundance of services and facilities, others do not need this. Citizens of the first world countries do not lose their right to government paid care in old age or disability situation even if they move away and stop paying taxes when they are younger. One might feel they are well off and set for any number of years but life plays crazy numbers sometimes, stuff like disability and property loss, devaluation of investments, so it's good to have protections of high tax 1st world citizenship while living in developing country lower tax jurisdiction. (but then one pays the highest tax not measurable by any money, living in foreign alien culture, among foreign language)
 
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