
Ask HN: Consulting firm in an offshore country? - enclin
I&#x27;m a software consultant with clients all over the world, living in not the most stable country.<p>I&#x27;d like to open a company in a more stable country (currently I&#x27;m operating as a sole proprietor in my home-country), and Belize&#x2F;BVG&#x2F;Panama seem to be both stable and very easy to get started with.<p>Are there any downsides in having my business registered in one of those countries? Would it put off clients? Which country would you recommend?
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zhte415
Opening a company in many locations doesn't even require a trip. A non-
resident can open a UK legally limited liability company, for example, with no
trip and a single director (yourself).

What's a pain is the anti-money-laundering and related legislation related to
banking. Now, that only requires you to show your face once to a customer
relationship manager, but it needs to be in-person across the world.

I recommend first researching banking options, and can you, or example, check
with once of your local branches of a bank with a large global network,
someone like Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered, something along the lines "I plan
to open a company in XXX country, can I do the KYC with you in my home
country?"

Now, the answer may be a bit technical, as there are various risk codes that
should be aligned between relationship manager and location of customer (you).
So try it with a few options. If a UK company doesn't work because you're in
central/south America, try an Argentine or whatever nearer location in the
same global region. Banks tend to split geographical location into North
America, Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia Pacific, but
actual boundaries tend to vary a bit between institution. too. If you already
have an account with such a bank, that may make the in-person KYC unnecessary
too.

I'd recommend a country with a favourable tax regime, and a strong connection
to your country, meaning you'd be less likely to having any fund transfer
stopped (because of less red flags, again from banking policy).

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JacobAldridge
Perhaps your biggest concern is 'Reputation Risk' \- will clients not want to
work with you, because the jurisdiction of your corporation looks strange or
suspicious. That could mean terrorism or tax evasion.

One option I have researched for me, but IANAL etc and have not yet taken
professional advice and executed this plan so there may be flaws I'm missing:

1) Establish a company in Hong Kong. This may require a trip, and several
thousand dollars. But HK has minimal reputation risk, good international
banking, and experience with remote owners.

2) Establish tax residency in Panama or similar. Again, experience with
expats, and apparently a beautiful country.

It sounds like you're not looking to change Residency, just establish a
Company. In that case, I would suggest researching Hong Kong. Be sure to
research banking as well as tax and corporations law (google Streber for a
good website), as some countries may make it easy to incorporate but difficult
to bank. Good luck!

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himlion
What turned me off from Hong Kong so far is the mandatory yearly audit for
your limited which will cost $5000++ (USD, not HKD).

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JacobAldridge
While I haven't explored specific costs, I agree it's definitely a situation
where the benefits have to outweigh the costs. For the OP, there's no point
doing this if it's not going to bring in more work; for others, it may be the
territorial-nature of the HK tax system that makes it worthwhile - I'd gladly
pay a $5Kpa auditing fee if it saved me $20,000 in tax compared to another
jurisdiction. (That's a key reason why I haven't pulled the trigger yet - my
personal tax residency is such that my HK entity would be a Controlled Foreign
Corporation, and those tax benefits wouldn't apply.)

