28.01.21, Bosco Online Workshop «Business Set-up, Tax, Banking»: overview

On January 28, the Bosco Online Workshop “Business Set-up, Tax, Banking” was held, which successfully brought together 6 international speakers and more than 550 participants from 59 countries.

The following topics were discussed at the conference:

• Best jurisdictions for your company set-up. - Khaled Moumni, OMC GROUP INTERNATIONAL; 
• Tax planning, Company Set up, Bank Account Opening in Luxembourg. - Maria Tkachenko and Petr Ardashev, ZIFFER LU; 
• Payment Service Provider PAYSTREE LTD. Feel quick, safe and easy with us! - Igors Moisejenko, PAYSTREE LTD;  
• Poland - the advantages of the country and the tax system for business scaling in the EU (tax on withdrawn capital). - Natalia Radchenko, Legal House;  
• Tax aspects of doing business through foreign companies: Ukrainian perspective. - Anna Nevmerzhytska, PwC Ukraine.

Khaled Moumni, OMC GROUP INTERNATIONAL, spoke about the services of OMC GROUP INTERNATIONAL, which is a leader in the corporate, fiduciary and administrative services sector. The company’s task is to protect the assets of its clients in legal ways. OMC is licensed to operate as a registered agent in the jurisdictions of Anguilla, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Nevis, Panama and Seychelles. In addition, it holds five fiduciary licenses for the BVI, Costa Rica, Nevis, New Zealand and Panama.

Khaled Moumni spoke about the advantages of the BVI (British Virgin Islands) for registering offshore companies:

- British overseas territory located in the Caribbean;

- More than 50% of BVI’s revenues are generated by the offshore companies’ registry;

- Major world-wide player in the industry;

- Well-deserved position in this business as one of the first offshore jurisdictions to exist;

- Several joint conventions in tax matters have been signed, there are 21 tax treaties for today and a number of treaties are still being negotiated;

- Reliable international financial centre.

Khaled also spoke about the legal benefits of the BVI:

- No paid-up capital requirements;

- A company needs only one shareholder and director to exist;

- Good standing reputation and political stability;

- BVI are whitelisted by OECD and other global regulatory organizations;

- First adopter of Common Reporting Standard (CRS), BEPS of the OECD and FATCA regulations.

Maria Tkachenko and Petr Ardashev, ZIFFER LU, spoke about the advantages of Luxembourg for opening bank accounts, creating companies and foundations.

According to the speakers, Luxembourg has a huge number of advantages:

- Member of the EU, OECD, FATF, № 1 EU financial center (GFCI 2020), it is not on the black lists;

- Flexible corporate legislation;

- Tax efficiency (no corporate taxation for some structures and the possibility of creating “transparent” structures);

- Economic presence;

- Strategic location;

- High level of protection of property rights.

The experts also spoke about investment activity in Luxembourg and the level of its regulation by the state:

- Thanks to its developed and flexible investment and corporate legislation, Luxembourg is a European hub for investment structures.

- Regulated funds allow you to invest significant amounts of money in high-yield assets (SICAR), and also allow you to attract a wide range of investors for investments in tradable assets (UCITS). Their activities are subject to audit by government agencies.

- Unregulated structures imply significant flexibility on the main issues of their activities (distribution of profits, management) and, as a general rule, are not subject to audit by governmental authorities. Such structures are also suitable for managing family capital.

Also changes in the tax treaties of the Russian Federation with Luxembourg were discussed:

- According to the old version, dividends paid in Luxembourg from the Russian Federation may be subject to income tax in the Russian Federation at a rate of 5%, if a company in Luxembourg owns at least 10% of the shares in the capital of a Russian company and has invested at least 80 000 Euro, or 15% in all other cases, and interest paid to Luxembourg from the Russian Federation is not subject to income tax in the Russian Federation. When receiving these incomes from Luxembourg, the Russian beneficiary is obliged to additionally pay personal income tax in the Russian Federation.

- According to the new edition, both dividends and interest when paid from Luxembourg to the Russian Federation, in most cases, will be subject to income tax in the Russian Federation at a rate of 15%, and any reduced rates will not apply.

- In any case, taking into account the requirements for an economic availability, it is advisable to apply a “cross-cutting approach”.

The changes in 2021 also affected the legislation of Luxembourg:

- The income of Luxembourg regulated investment funds (in particular SIF, RAIF), which are not structured in the form of transparent partnerships, will be taxed annually at the rate of 20% on income from the lease or sale (including indirect) of real estate located in Luxembourg.

- The increase in the amount of fees and taxes levied on the contribution of real estate located in Luxembourg to the capital of legal entities increased to 3.4% of the value of the property (compared to 1.1%, which was previously charged).

- From July 1 2021, SPF is prohibited from indirectly owning real estate through participation in partnerships or foundations.

- The threshold of VAT exemption for registration has been increased from 30,000 to 35,000 euros.

Igors Moisejenko, PAYSTREE LTD, spoke about the advantages of the payment service provider PAYSTREE LTD as an alternative to banks.

The speaker named the main advantages of PAYSTREE LTD, which will definitely interest potential customers:

- Online registration;

- Convenient interface;

- Secure web interface;

- Direct SWIFT payments;

- Friendly fintech banking;

- Mobile application for iOS and Android.

Igors spoke about the services and products that PAYSTREE LTD can offer:

Accounts:

- Private client;

- Client's business;

- EU residents/non-residents;

- Individual IBAN account.

Payments:

- SEPA payments;

- SWIFT payments;

- Payment currencies: EUR, USD, RUB, CNY (opportunities for currencies will expand);

- Direct multicurrency IBAN;

- A developing network of correspondent banks and financial institutions.

Services:

- Personal service for each client;

- Payment cards for private clients, EU/EEA residents;

- Internet acquiring;

- Development of white label projects.

Natalia Radchenko, Partner at Legal House, spoke about the advantages of Poland and the tax system for scaling up business in the EU.

According to the speaker, Poland has a huge number of advantages:

- 40th place out of 190 for an easy way of doing business in 2020;

- 100% points in Doing business 2020 according to the Trading across borders criterion;

- Poland's GDP has increased 7 times since 1990;

- The only EU country that escaped the 2007-2008 recession;

- Large domestic market - almost 38 million people;

- GDP per capita USD 17387 (2019 data).

According to Natalia, registering a business in Poland has a huge number of advantages:

The most common form: Ltd (Spółka z ograniczoną odpow iedzialnością)

• Minimum number of participants: from one;
• Minimum amount of the authorized capital: 5,000 zl (about 1100 EUR);
• Minimum registration period: from 24 hours to 14 days;
• The chairman and members of the board may be foreigners;
• There is no obligatory condition for renting a real office for the registration of a company, you can rent a “virtual office”;
• There is a possibility of electronic registration of the company;
• It is possible to register without the presence of founders in the country;
• It is possible to open an account for the company by proxy;
• Relatively fast receipt of a VAT number and a streamlined refund system.

Special Requirements:

• You need to get an electronic signature for the founders;
• Electronic registration takes place only with a model charter.

Natalia also spoke about innovations in Poland: Estonian CIT (tax on withdrawn capital), which came into force on 1.01.2021.

Main advantages:

1) Until the profit is distributed, it is not subject to any tax;

2) It makes it possible to reduce the tax base for personal income tax;

3) With different volumes of distributed profit, it can give an effective tax rate from 16% to 23%;

4) Provides an opportunity to “save” on taxes for enterprises with a high share of investments in fixed assets or personnel.

Poland opens up huge opportunities for starting a business, and the following types of industry can be made especially profitable:

- Trade;

- Manufacturing;

- Service twins;

- IT and businesses with a high content of intellectual property;

- Construction;

- Food industry;

- Transport business;

- Microcredit;

- Small business;

- Alternative and renewable energy;

- Biotechnology;

- Electronics.

Anna Nevmerzhitskaya, PwC Ukraine, spoke about the tax aspects of doing business through foreign companies in Ukraine.

Which tax topics are examined by banks:

- Beneficial ownership. Whether a foreign company is the beneficial owner of Ukrainian-sourced income and eligible for reduced treaty rates.

- Permanent establishment. Whether a foreign company has substantial activities in Ukraine that require to register a permanent establishment and attribute taxable profits to Ukraine.

- Place of effective management. Whether a foreign company is effectively managed from Ukraine and should be registered as Ukrainian taxpayer.

- Residency status of ultimate beneficial owner (UBO). Whether the UBO pays taxes in proper jurisdiction, which jurisdiction should receive information under CRS.

In case of a tax violation, the tax authorities of Ukraine may apply a system of penalties:

- the amount of taxation may be insignificant;

- there is a limitation period;

- the assessment may be challenged in court.

Foreign banks may apply a different system in case of doubt:

- reject to open a new account;

- close an existing account;

- freeze an existing account;

- oblige the client to follow tax rules.

More detailed information about the event is available at the link: https://bosco-conference.com/en/archive-2021/bosco-online-workshop-28-january-2021

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