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Opening account for company in foreign currency

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Nazli&Nelly

Hi
I just finished registering a company for doing international trading.
But I found out all of the bank accounts are in R$ and subject to IOF for transfer of amounts and also the exchange rate is not good.
Because nature of my business is large amounts of transactions  with low margin, it is almost not possible to do business, and with some fluctuation it could result in big loss.
I heard it is possible to open offshore accounts
Anybody has the information how is this possible?
How other companies active in international trading work with this limitations?

GuestPoster204

Hi Nazli  & Nelly,

Of all the countries in the world, you choose Brazil to open a business in international trading? This country collects a lot of taxes/fees especially if you move accounts around. And they are very suspicious of money laundering! Opening an offshore account would even arouse more suspicion of illicit activities. I´m sure you´ve heard of the famous Panama Papers where Vladimir Putin was even mentioned as one of the account holders.

I´ve traveled to over 160 countries around the world and I have this habit of hitting banks to ask what interest rate they pay if I were to deposit money at  their bank.
I even was in Tbilisi, Georgia and at the time I gathered that they pay 20% of CD if it matures in 3 years - almost equal to investing in Proctor & Gamble, Coke or Pepsi.
Almost the same in Belgrade, and Mongolia. Montenegro is also ok but there´s too much Russian influence. But if you´re looking for another passport due to integration soon to NATO and the European Union, this is the country. I quit Georgia because of the problems with Armenia and Azerbaijan and of course Russia. And then the resurgence of FATCA ( Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) even compounded the problem for Americans. Many banks even refuse to open bank accounts for Americans knowing that if they violate said act they would be subject to 30% withholding.

Ok, let´s get to the business of opening an offshore account:

1. You can open an account on-line but I wouldn´t recommend it. Countries would be
Belize (since you speak English), Cayman and Cook Islands.

2. Nowadays, majority of banks would like to see you personally and see who you are and what you are as you stated. So you have to hop into a plane to establish that account. Each bank have their own protocol but the most common is a photo ID, documents that prove where you live and so on.

3. Do you know which bank would serve you best? And how would you get most out of your new account? That´s why flying to the bank is imperative so would be able to know if:

a. You can keep the account open even if you´re absent most of the time.
b. You can access your money anytime you want.
c. People would have difficulty in depositing money to your account
d. You can easily move money out.

So your mission would be to find a bank that would eliminate problems and or challenges to ongoing operations.

4. You can open an offshore account  anywhere from a few hundred dollars to
millions if that´s what you want. You should avoid Hong Kong because they´re now very picky about customers because the flow of capital is immense being a financial center. Singapore is better and until now, I haven´t heard of a bank failure in that country.

Offshore accounts to avoid:

1. Switzerland
2. Lichtenstein
3. Luxembourg
4. Cyprus
5. Ukraine

If I explain why, it would take a very long time, so I would leave it up to you.

Latin America where you can open accounts in dollars (what I know, there could be more):

1. Uruguay
2. Paraguay
3. Bolivia
4. Panama
5. El Salvador (they use dollars)
6. Ecuador (their currency also in dollars).

So if you domicile your business in these countries, you would be able to use their banking system and avoid such banking fees in Brazil, severe fluctuations in exchange rates as well as the sharpened suspicion in illicit activities.

Last but not least, you can open an account with many currencies in one account to diversify and you can use that to buy or sell currencies.

So offshore account is like diversifying from stocks to real estate to bonds and precious metals like gold silver or even palladium. But this time it´s called geographical diversification...

Good luck!

robal

Nazli&Nelly

Hi Robal,

Thank you for the very good and detailed information
The fact is I am interested to live and do business here and I see some good opportunities,  Already I have other businesses in Georgia, Turkey and Iraq and opening a new one in Europe
However to do business here I needed a company and of course an account in its name.
To be honest I was not aware of this very odd regulations 😀 I could not even think about this! for example in Iraq it is hard to do business, but it seems it is easier than here!
I think It is a good Idea to expand it to other South America
I see you have lots of  informations, after I do some research can I get your opnion again?

Best

Aladent

robal wrote:

Almost the same in Belgrade, and Mongolia. Montenegro is also ok but there´s too much Russian influence.


any problem with Russia?

GuestPoster204

The facts that I stated refers to Nazli&Nelli since they´re Georgians who`s country was attacked  by Russia. They could have some deep-seated feelings about that.

Therefore all the facts should be mentioned for them to make a good decision on whether to open an offshore account in Montenegro. Geopolitical reasons are very complex issues and that could mean a success or failure of a business.

There´s nothing personal. It´s just business and they´re very ambitious and have already lot´s of business enterprises going on...

robal

GuestPoster204

Nazli&Nelli,

You´re always welcome at expat.com for more opinions!

robal

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