What You Need to Know to Start an International Corporation

When you start looking for European Company Formation In Hong Kong company formation options that will provide tax or operational benefits you narrow the list pretty quickly generally to:

The good news is this means other jurisdictions, particularly other European jurisdictions are fairly familiar with Gibraltar companies banking abroad and relative to a lot of other offshore jurisdictions gaining banking for a Gibraltar company can be relatively easy.Unfortunately, even though this is the case the available jurisdictions that accept non-resident companies with strong banking are few and diminishing so it's becoming more and more attractive to be able to bank locally in spite of an asset protection argument against doing so but that's for another post. The common places to look would be Malta, Andorra, eastern European jurisdictions or Caribbean jurisdictions. There are a few gems in there but a lot that aren't particularly attractive.Gibraltar actually has a pretty strong reputation as it is what might be called a mid-shore jurisdiction competing within the global incorporation landscape on reputation as much as on tax and other features. This is very helpful in some parts of the world but in Asia it is a very unknown as a result hands on experience has shown in spite of a much better reputation it can be more difficult to open a bank account for a Gibraltar company in say Singapore than for say a Marshall Islands company as illogical as that might seem. Opening accounts in jurisdictions such as Singapore and Hong Kong is certainly possible but typically more of a hassle than doing so with some of the more well-known tax havens or by contrast more of a hassle than opening an account in a European jurisdiction where Gibraltar companies are more common.Incorporating in GibraltarWhen actually forming a company in Gibraltar be prepared for a fairly rigorous process, this is not like opening a company in say Delaware or Anguilla where essentially just providing the name of the company and owners is good enough. In order to safeguard their reputation that Gibraltar agents will require details about the nature of the business comparable to what's required to open a bank account and may decline applications based on certain types of business, which might negatively impact the reputation of the jurisdiction. If you're aware of this in advance and have prepared the process can be relatively smooth but expect some hassles as compared with more traditional offshore jurisdictions. The end result if you're not prepared is incorporations can drag on months rather than the optimal two week formation time if you are organized and prepared.When forming the company be sure to clarify you are forming a non-resident company (unless for some reason you want the company to be resident locally). Forming a local company certainly isn't the end of the world, while they will be subject to a 10% tax and audited financial statement requirements when the sales volume exceeds a certain threshold there is a quasi-territorial tax system in place that means depending on how operations of the business are structured the net effective tax rate might be quite low.All companies in Gibraltar are "limited".Management and ControlFor a Gibraltar company to qualify as non-resident it must have foreign management and control. What's the problem with this? It might not be a problem, it might mean the company can have essentially stateless tax residency much like how Apple Inc.