Lowtax | Bullion & Precious Metals Offshore Business

Bullion & Precious Metals Offshore Business
goldagents Posted on: 19/06/2010 Posted at: 16:18:25	We buy and Sell Precious Metals and are looking for an effective Structure We had thought of setting up an individual Offshore Company (IBC or otherwise)in an Offshore Jurisdiction (please advise what you think is best) which doesn't trade. This Offshore Company would have 'nominee agent' agreements with seperate limited companies in each of its trading centres eg UK France Germany Ireland USA Australia. These 'nominee agents' act as Management Companies in each country for all bullion sales and trading on behalf of the Offshore Company, they charge a fee for this service to the Offshore Company of between 5-10% of turnover of the Offshore Companies Trading Revenue.The other 95-100% is remitted back to the Offshore Companies Bank Account weekly as its revenue after deducting the Management Fees. 1) What sort of Company and Where? 2) The trading is generally all online, servers in Luxembourg? 3) The trading is Global? 4) Are Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco or Madeira suitable? been told that Luxemborg has a new entity an SFC or something which can hold assets inc precious metals but like all the other jurisdictions too 5) Been told Netherland Antilles good as a new base for servers? 6) Should the Offshore Company stand alone or hold all the equity in the 'nominee agent' companies or should they themselves also be stand alone? 7) Bullion is shipped from Mints and other Dealers to us for security and we distribute but we'd like to have it sent direct to one location (Secure Freeport facility and distribute worldwide from there to save VAT, so the bullion would be shipped from mints and other bullion dealers worldwide to us at one vault facility where we'd ditribute it globally but avoid VAT. The VAT is a problem because eg Silver is VATABLE in UK but not Gold Coins and that makes UK Silver prices higher than US...a market disadvantage. 7) The owners currently reside UK but would move to Monaco for domicile purposes...eg UK & Travelling Tues-Thursday then Monaco Fri Sat Sun 8) Just looking for a lawful, honest but tax efficient and asset protected way of trading. 9)Assuming framework of above is set up...the owners then want to protect themselves and remain anonymous after transfer of their interests in above Offshore Company and have their shareholdings held by anonymous nominees or open if their domicile is low tax eg Monaco. 10)The Offshore Company will be used as a vehicle to buy assets, property, bullion and precious metals Can anybody suggest a way forward as we're totally confused by conflicting advice.. implementing strategy with next 3 months so just sounding out to see who know whats best? Obviously August will be the month we contact chosen advisors and move forward on this Thanks and thanks lowtax.net
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A Hilton

Posted on: 19/06/2010
Posted at: 22:05:00

I am not sure why you would like to have a nominee company in each country if all the trading is done online? I would say all you need is a Malta Trading company that takes care fo all the European buisiness for you. The shipping and handling can still be done from one central European location. You will be taxed 35%, but receive a refund which brings your tax liability down to 5%. Servers can also be used from Malta. You can use a payment facility which allows credit cards, but also Bank Transfer in 190 counrties worldwide including the fats transfer options available in some countries. The trading company can be held by either a Maltese Holding and if you prefer confidentiality, you can use a regulated nominee shareholding for the same. If you want it 110% water tight, you could use a Maltese Foundation to hold the shares in the trading company. Recent changes in tax lawas of the Maltes foundation have made this a valid option. http://eu-hub.com/the-private-malta-foundation and http://eu-hub.com/Requirements-Malta-Foundations . The only one issue that is not solved is the VAT. I don't see how you save VAT by sending from a Freeport into Europe. Duties and VAT are due once the goods enter the European Community. Unless you don't declare them or each shipment is of low value. info(at)eu-hub.com www.eu-hub.com Eu-Hub Malta Limited skype: euhubmalta

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etreasurer

Posted on: 22/06/2010
Posted at: 18:01:50

Hi - we're seeing a great number of bullion based businesses contacting us, and though this can not be taken as being advice, some general thoughts to consider are as follows: 1 - Is your model based on sale and physical despatch of bullion or do you provide allocated/unallocated accounts? If the former where you locate servers is irrelevant for the purpose of establishing tax nexus, if the latter it can be important. 2 - Ultimately most jurisdictions and service providers will cost the same and provide similar levels of service. So the key consideration for you should be the marketing impact of your choice of jurisdiction - as you will be aware often buying physical gold is a flight to safety investment and trust is important - and some jurisdictions lend themselves better to a trust proposition 3 - Note that some merchant banks class bullion services as high risk - so the payment types you will need to offer will be skewed towards bank and ACH. Given the higher ticket size you should make sure you investigate the total costs of operations before picking the jurisdiction - not just the fees of intermediaries. Hope this helps, www.etreasurer.com

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Tears of the Moon

Posted on: 04/08/2010
Posted at: 12:30:22

Hi Goldagents, I have an answer to your VAT issue. Buy your bullion from ABC Bullion in Australia. The Australian govt. charges no VAT, sales tax or GST on 99.99% pure Gold, and 99.9% pure Silver & Platinum. Bullion can be couriered to you (or your customers) directly or to reduce costs further we can vault and insure bulk bullion for free or numbered allocated bars for a small fee. Check out our website to see how easy it is to open and operate an account: http://www.ausbullion.com.au/bullion.html

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Tom

Posted on: 08/09/2010
Posted at: 19:11:30

Hi, this situation needs to be carefully assessed and walked through, You need to take a multi jurisdiction view. You will get confliting advice as there are conflicting rules. Fundamentally you need to be careful of the underlying fact that controlling and managing an offshore company for the purposes of avoiding tax from the UK is always hpoing to be open to interpretation, that nots to say it isnt possible or widely done. You will need third partys to make this structure effective and be very careful who you choose. Finally, be aware the offshore rules are constantly changing, and your vehicle needs to be able to accomodate this. I am a retired tax consultant who lives abroard and is also a bullion collector. It seems it may be worth having a chat, if you want please email me please feel free ib2@hotmail.co.uk

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Anonymous

Posted on: 31/12/2010
Posted at: 16:33:29

Hi there if you trade into the EU, you cannot have such nominee agrements with some of these countries (like Italy, France, Germyn Spain etc.). So you cannot run such solution. In the precious metal sector, due to some VAT fraudolent scheme, there's a lot controls. We have 5 years experience in Platinum/Palladium/Gold trading and in our opinion these are the best solutions: - Malta - Estonia Your clients can be resident in Switzerland or Monaco (it does not matter) If you want we are at disposal Alex info@trust4trust.com

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