the best privacy for UBO ?

Verified Anony

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May 28, 2025
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Hi,

I live in one of Asian country.
Contrary to international trend, the government continues to raise taxes annually.
I am suffering from high corporate tax rates and individual tax rates.

My business is ecommerce without illegal elements like cryptocurrency or gambling.

Therefore, I want to establish a corportaion in the country that best protects the secret of UBO.
I read here that many of you recommend Switzerland and Seychelles.

1. Is Switzerland a better option than Ireland for my privacy?
If so, can you tell me why?

2. I would also like to transfer my funds to a Swiss-Irish-offshore company to lower taxes legally. I want an optimal solution with a nominee director and a nominee shareholder. The company intends to establish at least three, including Switzerland. Is it impossible to keep my secret because of bank account information sharing?

If privacy is guaranteed, the annual maintenance cost of 8,000 Euros (approx.) is not a problem for me.
To open a merchant account in Switzerland, I can visit Switzerland any time.

Please help.
 
The company intends to establish at least three, includingSwitzerland.
>>I would like to establish at least three companies, including Switzerland.
 
Forget Switzerland.....banking secrecy is over for foreigners trying to operate accounts there. In fact this goes for every bank. All company registers will eventually be open to public as to who the UBO is also. I know some people may recommend opening a offshore company and bank account in Puerto Rico to avoid reporting but don't waste your time with that..it won't last.

You may simply want to really consider paying your taxes or taking up residency in a low or zero tax country. Any other solution will only be temporary until the loophole is eventually closed.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.
 
for banking I agree with @Martin Everson but for company registration I don't, I really don't agree! There are plenty of legal and gray area methods to avoid your name to be public available on a company registry in most offshore jurisdictions.

The implest known is to appoint nominees!
 
diablo said:
for banking I agree with @Martin Everson but for company registration I don't, I really don't agree! There are plenty of legal and gray area methods to avoid your name to be public available on a company registry in most offshore jurisdictions.

The implest known is to appoint nominees!
Click to expand...

Is there any recommendation in EU jurisdiction? I need a company in EU, to raise the external image of the company.
 
Martin Everson said:
Forget Switzerland.....banking secrecy is over for foreigners trying to operate accounts there. In fact this goes for every bank. All company registers will eventually be open to public as to who the UBO is also. I know some people may recommend opening a offshore company and bank account in Puerto Rico to avoid reporting but don't waste your time with that..it won't last.

You may simply want to really consider paying your taxes or taking up residency in a low or zero tax country. Any other solution will only be temporary until the loophole is eventually closed.
Click to expand...
UK - How to hide money & property ownership?
"But you can setup a Swiss AG, bypass the UBO regulations and buy property via the AG. Find a Treuhand that setups a new AG for you so your identity will not be shown in the incorporation docs. The whole stup will cost you approx 5-8K CHF per year (nominee director), so you better buy a very expensive house"
Did I misunderstand?
Here, Switzerland is supposed to hide the owner on paperwork.
 
diablo said:
for banking I agree with @Martin Everson but for company registration I don't, I really don't agree! There are plenty of legal and gray area methods to avoid your name to be public available on a company registry in most offshore jurisdictions.

The implest known is to appoint nominees!
Click to expand...

Nominees won't help you long term. We are moving towards an open state. The UK already has in its company registry the ability to see online the UBO/Controlling Person. Others will follow....think long term.

Dutch chamber of commerce's first step, new government should open company register ”“ Open State Foundation

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.
 
Verified Anony said:
UK - How to hide money & property ownership?
"But you can setup a Swiss AG, bypass the UBO regulations and buy property via the AG. Find a Treuhand that setups a new AG for you so your identity will not be shown in the incorporation docs. The whole stup will cost you approx 5-8K CHF per year (nominee director), so you better buy a very expensive house"
Did I misunderstand?
Here, Switzerland is supposed to hide the owner on paperwork.
Click to expand...
I don't think you misunderstood the situation in regards wot Switzerland it is indeed possible to hide the UBO this way. @Milky Moon is right.

Anyway, towards who do you seek privacy? government, tax office or simply business relations like partners and customers?
 
Verified Anony said:
Is there any recommendation in EU jurisdiction? I need a company in EU, to raise the external image of the company.
Click to expand...

Just pick the EU country with the lowest taxes and that is able to provide paperwork in a language you understand.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.
 
I still believe Cyprus will stay as it is today, the same will many of the other offshore jurisdictions. Otherwise there are still methods to hide UBO if you think out of the box!
 
Verified Anony said:
UK - How to hide money & property ownership?
"But you can setup a Swiss AG, bypass the UBO regulations and buy property via the AG. Find a Treuhand that setups a new AG for you so your identity will not be shown in the incorporation docs. The whole stup will cost you approx 5-8K CHF per year (nominee director), so you better buy a very expensive house"
Did I misunderstand?
Here, Switzerland is supposed to hide the owner on paperwork.
Click to expand...

So you think in 2018 one can setup a Swiss AG and have nominees that the UK will not ask Switzerland who the beneficial owners are? You think the incorporation agent when they get a call from FINMA (Switzerland) to pass on details on who owns the company they will not do this? You think the Swiss would refuse to aid HMRC by citing secrecy? This is 2018 when you sneeze at the Swiss they give you their underpants size.

We live in a different world now. If you want to avoid taxes you need to up and leave and move to another country. 12,000 millionaires a year have left France for example. The rich are not messing around with tax structures any longer. Buy a plane ticket.

Wealth tax forces 12,000 millionaires A YEAR out of France | Daily Mail Online

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.
 
@Martin Everson you're wrong regarding Switzerland. First take a look on the Website of FINMA to understand what they do. OP nowhere mentioned that he plan to run a regulated financial/insurance Business.
In Switzerland you can have wonderful solution, but the pocket must have the right fit.

@Verified Anony
1. with proper setup and the right Provider the Swiss solution provide much more privacy.
You mostly look for a fiduciary solution, where the director will act as UBO this way he ("you") get as benefit a strong bank secret (that still exist for swiss residents).
Depending on your requirement and money ready to spend on such setup you can optimize it.

2. Already explained on 1. plus the right Provider will mostly suggest in your case to go with two companies a Holding plus a operation company, this gives multiple benefits.
 
superman said:
with proper setup and the right Provider the Swiss solution provide much more privacy.
You mostly look for a fiduciary solution, where the director will act as UBO this way he ("you") get as benefit a strong bank secret
Click to expand...
This sounds like a dream nowadays no matter that it's an expensive solution.
Let's put aside that I can't imagine how the contract with such a "proxy" person looks like and how to make this safe. This is probably doable.
What I don't see at all is how you can actually benefit from such an arrangement - how can you basically use the products of "your" company (held by some one else as official UBO). If the answer is that you just keep all the profit or purchased assets in the company that seems like a very fragile structure with a single point of failure and I wouldn't be sleeping very well with that.
 
void said:
This sounds like a dream nowadays no matter that it's an expensive solution.
Let's put aside that I can't imagine how the contract with such a "proxy" person looks like and how to make this safe. This is probably doable.
What I don't see at all is how you can actually benefit from such an arrangement - how can you basically use the products of "your" company (held by some one else as official UBO). If the answer is that you just keep all the profit or purchased assets in the company that seems like a very fragile structure with a single point of failure and I wouldn't be sleeping very well with that.
Click to expand...

You are the shareholder. You are the owner. The nominee is 'just' a director that is visible in the public registers, and is controlled by you.

Treuhands specialise in managing companies for others. These are not some shady people but lawyers or accountants. There is a whole industry.

Note these structures are not anonymous, the veil can be pierced. However if you do no business in your 'tax country' or do it at 'arms lenght', you normally will have no problem., if you use a holding and ops structure you are two levels away from the tax man ...
 
"director will act as UBO" made me think he was referring to some arrangement where such a lawyer is a real UBO for banks etc.
If not then I don't see any difference from much less expensive setup like Seychelles company with nominee director.
 
Have you ever tried opening a bank account for a seychelles based company with a nominee director and shareholder?
 
void said:
This sounds like a dream nowadays no matter that it's an expensive solution.
Let's put aside that I can't imagine how the contract with such a "proxy" person looks like and how to make this safe. This is probably doable.
What I don't see at all is how you can actually benefit from such an arrangement - how can you basically use the products of "your" company (held by some one else as official UBO). If the answer is that you just keep all the profit or purchased assets in the company that seems like a very fragile structure with a single point of failure and I wouldn't be sleeping very well with that.
Click to expand...

There exist many solutions. Swiss Holdings are widely used exactly for this. As Milky says there is a real industry for such solutions and as already mentioned they can be extended in many directions, regarding how to get the money very creative solutions are done trough Insurance companies which is nice but not cheap, then there are flows with "help" of lawyers and many more. All this is not some kind of shady stuff. On top of all there still exist a small number of Banks who assist as much possible to make the client happy and to still stay somehow "compliant".
 
With a US company you can hide UBO and also US banks doesn't report accounts to IRS and other countries, except when you earn 10USD of interest or more in a year.
 

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