Tom Ruscha Bowman Offshore Bank Transfers: Start an Offshore | Page 4

As I mentioned earlier, inflation or hyperinflation in your home country could drastically reduce
the value of your wealth. Having an offshore company with an offshore bank account can keep
your business assets insulated against this threat.
If you own a patent or trademark, registering it in the name of an offshore company can allow
you to buy and sell these rights. Having these registered under an offshore company also makes
it easier to grant these rights to third parties.
What type of offshore company should you set up?
Low taxes, secure business assets, and insulation against unrest at home–starting an offshore
corporation is probably sounding pretty good right about now.
But starting an offshore corporation isn’t as easy as going online and signing up. Speaking with
an expert will help you figure out which type of offshore corporation strategy will work best for
you.
Maybe a Limited Company in Hong Kong is the right move for your offshore corporation–
foreign profits aren’t taxed and local Hong Kong profits are only taxed at 16.5%.
A private limited company in the UK or Australia might make sense for you, or even an offshore
PLC in Singapore (it won’t get you to 0%, but it will reduce taxes). Each type of offshore
company and each jurisdiction have their own unique strengths and appropriate uses.
And certain offshore company types are only available in specific jurisdictions. For example, if a
SARL makes sense for your business, you’ll be setting up in a French-speaking country. (It rarely
does make sense, though.)
Low tax or no tax?
As tiny tax havens become impossible to deal with, people are actually moving into strategies in
places like the US. There are ways for non-residents with LLCs to legally pay no or low tax. Same
result, different structure–and another reason why a little expert advice is the right way to go.
What are the best countries for an offshore company?
Your goals will determine the best place for setting up an offshore company.
One business might do well forming an offshore corporation in a country with no accounting or
audit requirements and zero tax.
A slightly larger, more diverse company might be better off going to Hong Kong or Singapore
and paying a small amount of tax to get the benefits of a great international reputation.
A company seeking to raise venture capital funds might go somewhere else entirely.
While it is often possible to pay zero tax, sometimes it makes sense to pay a little tax. You won’t
see me whining that I was able to legally reduce my taxes from 43% to 1%. The savings have put
a rather substantial sum back into my pocket.