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