What country would fit for low taxes if i'm not resident?

[Chiky]

I'm looking to make an LTD or LLC offshore (or similar, still looking up), so I'm looking for possible countries where I can set it up, and how to do it from here.
The thing is, the main goal is that it has to be supported by Kickstarter, as I plan to launch campaigns there. It would also be nice to move to that country in the future, using the company as an easy way in if possible.

The company would be to produce board games, so probably the opperations (manufacturing for example) would be done outside the country as well.

I live in costa rica, and everything here is a pain in the a*s, and as the goverment is currently pushing a tax for money transfer, I was also wondering if all opperations and money transactions could be done virtually from the country where the company would be, without needing to send anything to CR.

Which country do you recommend that is tax friendly for foreigners, as well as easy to make an offshore company there?

If you ask me for which ones I'd choose (withiout knowing anything at all about taxes there) I'd go with Sweden (1st choice), then Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Denmark, or Germany. Still, I'm not sure at all if what I want to do can be done in any of those.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

Chiky said:
If you ask me for which ones I'd choose (withiout knowing anything at all about taxes there) I'd go with Sweden (1st choice), then Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Denmark, or Germany. Still, I'm not sure at all if what I want to do can be done in any of those.
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All of those are terrible in terms of taxes and bureaucracy.
I have no idea about Kickstarter not about how they would be treated in CR, but if I were you, I would have a closer look at US LLC's, Estonian companies (e residency), UK Ltd./LLP.

 

[pedrosilvam]

The easiest country one can register a company is UK. All those tax haven you have to pay higher fees, and some you'll need to go there or hire an agent. USA is also an option but I think all states demands you to pay a minimum tax every year. British Columbia is maybe the only province in Canada you can incorporate without appointing a canadian as a director and the fee is $350. So, UK with their 12 GBP fee is unbeatable. You can avoid corporate tax in UK (19%) by paying yourself a salary.

 

[pedrosilvam]

But you probably won't get a real bank account in UK. Your only option will be Transferwise. But bear in mind that what makes you to have to pay tax in your country isn't the action of transfering the money to your local bank. The fact that you have money abroad is enough for the IRS charge you all the due tax. They probably won't know about it, but it's always good to know that it's illegal to have money outside your country without reporting to IRS.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

pedrosilvam said:
USA is also an option but I think all states demands you to pay a minimum tax every year.
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No, at least not if it's a disregarded entity and there is no ECI, i.e. physical presence in the US. As far as I know at least - always check with a CPA.

pedrosilvam said:
You can avoid corporate tax in UK (19%) by paying yourself a salary.
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That is true to a certain degree, but then he might have to pay tax on the salary in Costa Rica. Or maybe not. It depends on whether Costa Rica would view the salary as local or foreign income, since Costa Rica uses a territorial taxation system.
There are also transfer pricing restrictions, which means that if you suddenly sell 100,000 times as many games as before, you can't just increase your salary by 100,000 times.

pedrosilvam said:
But bear in mind that what makes you to have to pay tax in your country isn't the action of transfering the money to your local bank. The fact that you have money abroad is enough for the IRS charge you all the due tax.
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This is true for many countries, but Costa Rica is not necessarily among them. Costa Rica uses territorial taxation, so foreign income is free from tax.
The critical question is how that is defined: Is it enough for the company not to be registered in Costa Rica and only sell to foreigners, even if it is managed from Costa Rica? Can you only receive dividends free of tax or are salaries also exempt?

And then there is one more thing:
Costa Rica has signed very few tax treaties, there is no treaty with the UK. That means that if Costa Rica should decide to tax the company after all, you wouldn't get any of the taxes that you paid in the UK back and it's quite likely that you would have to pay the same taxes once more in Costa Rica. So it's extremely important to talk to a tax lawyer in Costa Rica about how they treat foreign-registered companies.
It might make sense to go with a company from a country which Costa Rica has signed a tax treaty with.

 

[Chiky]

Thanks, I'll investigate which countries Costa Rica has tax treaties with.

 

[JustAnotherNomad]

You don't have to choose a country with a tax treaty, it's only relevant if something “goes wrong”.
You could also look into both US LLC's and UK LLP's - they are supposed to pay tax where the members/partners are. But maybe Costa Rica would great them as foreign companies, and thus wouldn't tax them.
Talk to a good tax lawyer from Costa Rica who has international experience.

 

[JohnLocke]

JustAnotherNomad said:
Talk to a good tax lawyer from Costa Rica who has international experience.
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Do you have any recommendation ?

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[JustAnotherNomad]

I'd start by checking Legal500.