I have incorporated a company in Ireland and I wanted to share my experience here. First of all, the irish law requires a secretary when there is only one director. This means that for every single official paper, it has to be counter signed by the secretary: (opening a bank account, submitting tax paper to the Irish authorities)
In my case, my agent forced me to choose bank of ireland even if I wanted to choose AIB. By the way, I didn't like bank of ireland, they didn't use emails. you had to call them or they called me when there were an issue. For example, one of my pro credit card payment has been rejected and even if I mentioned on the form of bank of ireland that my preferred way of communicating was the email, no one tried to send me an email. They tried to call me and I thought it was a spam call or that it came from a website support team.
The Irish law and administration is more complicated than the Cyprus law even if you are a native english speaker. For example, in ireland there is a withholding tax if you can't prove your fiscal residency. If for instance, you pay tax nowhere or if you live in a country with no tax treaty with ireland, they apply a 20% withholding tax on your dividends on top of the 12,5%
I thought, well; it is ook i am a european, and then I discovered it is much more difficult than I thought to justify my fiscal residency.
With hindsight, I understood how Google succeeded in setting up in Ireland, they hired local people. If you have enough money to pay your own people in Ireland, it is a great jurisdiction, if you have to hire agents it is not going to be the same. I had problem with my first agent. They didn't counter signed my tax paper. I hide to change the agent very quickly before the tax deadline.
Then, all professional services in Ireland are outrageously expensive: VPS server (no power, no storage and expensive), mobile phones (40 euros / month for basic mobile phone subscription). that is the same for everything in ireland. Everything is overpriced. the telecommunication companies are sharks. It is very expensive to stay in Dublin. I guess one night is like 90 euros in a basic hotel. For sure, in Cyprus things are cheaper.
Ok in Cyprus, you have to hire a auditor at the end of the year but there are ways to reduce the number of invoices in your bookkeeping to lower the audit costs. People in Cyprus understands that you don't incorporate in Cyprus to live in Cyprus. The bank representatives are better in Cyprus than in Ireland. They are welcoming and they understand why you are in cyprus. You aren't in cyprus to sell products to cyprus people.
I have understood in Ireland that few people understood the offshore thing (bank, agents). It is more like a vague opportunity for them. It is difficult to give you striking examples but it is about many small issues and when you put them together it gets big and uninteresting.
Also for non european citizen, there is a special process for you if you don't have a nominee. I think it is always cheaper to have a nominee.
CRO - Company Officers
In my case, my agent forced me to choose bank of ireland even if I wanted to choose AIB. By the way, I didn't like bank of ireland, they didn't use emails. you had to call them or they called me when there were an issue. For example, one of my pro credit card payment has been rejected and even if I mentioned on the form of bank of ireland that my preferred way of communicating was the email, no one tried to send me an email. They tried to call me and I thought it was a spam call or that it came from a website support team.
The Irish law and administration is more complicated than the Cyprus law even if you are a native english speaker. For example, in ireland there is a withholding tax if you can't prove your fiscal residency. If for instance, you pay tax nowhere or if you live in a country with no tax treaty with ireland, they apply a 20% withholding tax on your dividends on top of the 12,5%
I thought, well; it is ook i am a european, and then I discovered it is much more difficult than I thought to justify my fiscal residency.
With hindsight, I understood how Google succeeded in setting up in Ireland, they hired local people. If you have enough money to pay your own people in Ireland, it is a great jurisdiction, if you have to hire agents it is not going to be the same. I had problem with my first agent. They didn't counter signed my tax paper. I hide to change the agent very quickly before the tax deadline.
Then, all professional services in Ireland are outrageously expensive: VPS server (no power, no storage and expensive), mobile phones (40 euros / month for basic mobile phone subscription). that is the same for everything in ireland. Everything is overpriced. the telecommunication companies are sharks. It is very expensive to stay in Dublin. I guess one night is like 90 euros in a basic hotel. For sure, in Cyprus things are cheaper.
Ok in Cyprus, you have to hire a auditor at the end of the year but there are ways to reduce the number of invoices in your bookkeeping to lower the audit costs. People in Cyprus understands that you don't incorporate in Cyprus to live in Cyprus. The bank representatives are better in Cyprus than in Ireland. They are welcoming and they understand why you are in cyprus. You aren't in cyprus to sell products to cyprus people.
I have understood in Ireland that few people understood the offshore thing (bank, agents). It is more like a vague opportunity for them. It is difficult to give you striking examples but it is about many small issues and when you put them together it gets big and uninteresting.
Also for non european citizen, there is a special process for you if you don't have a nominee. I think it is always cheaper to have a nominee.
CRO - Company Officers
