a friend is moving back to his home country (i.e. becoming back a tax resident after many years living aboard) and due to tax reason he has to decide to close the software solution company he incorporated at a tax haven or transfer its ownership to someone else in the meantime.
I'm deciding whether I should help him in this matter by receiving the ownership of the company temporally (i.e. signing the legal document to be the new director and gaining all the shares while my friend resigns his position - under a spoken agreement that I will transfer it back to him 4~6 years later).
Has anyone been in a situation like this before? Any tips and advices on what to take note of will be recommended! (E.g. documents to check for default & debts, etc) Thanks!
Also, I would highly appreciate if someone with experience can share a bit more on the worst thing that can happen when receiving new ownership of a 10+ years old company. E.g. ending up being in huge debt on some sort of deep shit (i.e. it was a scam and my friend had successfully sabotaged me despite years of friendship), becoming legally responsible for the tax illegally evaded in the past decade, etc.
Thanks!
some extra info: the company is incorporated in Hong Kong and my friend and I have different tax residencies (my tax residency is in China; My friend has been a tax nonresident for many years (grey area) and now his tax residency is in Germany).
