Global deoffshorization (Part 1). Offshore company and account with a Latvian bank in 2016



    Continuing a series of blog posts by LAWBOOT Lawyers & Consultants about registering companies and opening bank accounts for IT businesses, we will talk about significant changes in the world of classic offshore companies and Latvian banks.

    Many scandalous events occurred in the financial sector of Latvia over the current year:

    1) Dismissal of the head of the Latvian financial regulator,
    2) Criminal prosecution of PrivatBank Latvia,
    3) Visit of American auditors,
    4) Statements by the OECD regarding Latvia's failure to properly control the banking sector and accusation of corruption.

    The mass of news resources insists that correspondent banks servicing dollar transactions for Latvian banks may deprive the latter of their ability to conduct dollar transactions.

    Such events had a negative impact on business, including in the field of IT. For example:

    1) Latvian top banks have ceased to open accounts for classic offshore companies (Belize, BVI, Marshall Islands ...),
    2) Commissions for dollar transfers to a number of countries have increased,
    3) The control of payment details, contracts and invoices has been strengthened,
    4) When opening a corporate or personal account, Latvian banks began to request the tax number of the beneficiary in the account,
    5) Some Latvian banks increased the cost of opening an account.

    Latvian banks were the most popular solution for entrepreneurs from the CIS.



    What ways out of the situation we offer our clients:

    1) To open a tax-free company in Hong Kong, for this I recommend reading the articles of LAWBOOT Lawyers & Consultants :

    Registering a company in Hong Kong for IT business (Part 3). Let's talk about working with counterparties (customers) from the USA.
    Registering a company in Hong Kong for IT business (Part 2). Let's talk about the director.
    Registering a company in Hong Kong for IT business.

    Hong Kong is not a classic offshore, and Latvian banks even recommend replacing the Client's offshore company with a company from Hong Kong.

    The Scottish partnership is also suitable (but there are certain problems with the introduction of a public register of beneficiaries of such partnerships)

    2) Open a company in low-tax jurisdictions, for example Cyprus, Malta, Ireland. Write to us to find out the cost and registration procedure of such a company.

    3) Open a bank account for an offshore company in Cyprus. Fortunately, while there are large Cypriot banks that are ready to accept classic offshore as clients. At least today (April 05, 2016), one of the banks agreed to open an account for a company registered in Belize.

    4) Open a bank account in an offshore bank. This option is not suitable for every type of business, and trust in such banks is doubtful.



    We see that despite global deoffshorization and serious changes, there are always ways and solutions to corporate and administrative problems of business. The main thing is to know in advance about the onset of change and have a prepared action plan.

    We offer at least to subscribe to our blog, and even better to contact our specialists and discuss forms of cooperation.


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