Written by Peter
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
When considering moving your online business offshore in the sentence the physical location of your company and the legal aspect of it, then it isn’t only the offshore jurisdiction you will have to look at. Many Offshore companies are incorporated where the banking options are limited, this often involve huge reconstructions of the entire organization and company structure once it comes to online payments.
An Offshore Company Formation for instant in the British Virgin Islands or in Belize can have fatal consequences when it comes to apply for a Merchant Account with any bank in the US or even Europe. Many clients don’t face this problem in the beginning while many Payment Service Providers around claim to take on businesses worldwide, often this is true, but the huge rates and fees that follows with the merchant account and payment processing are take a large margin of your profits.
When considering an Offshore Company in offshore jurisdictions like Belize, BVI, or the Seychelles, it should only have the purpose to conduct offline business or be part of a Offshore Holding Company structure which later on will be used to setup a offshore company in an jurisdictions which is “online payment friendly”, in can be of great benefit to have a Offshore Holding company and later register a offshore company for instant in Cyprus which can apply for the merchant account. The benefits are huge tax savings, privacy protection and securing funds, furthermore it is easy to “roll out” another online business for which another offshore company formation is taking place.
When you apply for a Merchant Account for instant with a Cyprus company, you will need to have a few things in place before you apply, following the below will save you time an unnecessary questions from the Acquiring Banks and even the risk to get an decline from the bank.
Beside the Offshore company Formation itself you should also have a bank account for the company, this can also with benefits be opened as business bank account in Cyprus and be used for the Acquiring Bank to transfer your money to. A Cyprus Bank Account comes with advanced Internet Banking in English and you have access to your funds all around the clock, you can send International Wire Transfers directly from the e-banking platform and you can access your account balance.
Further, you will need to have your website ready and to be compliant with the general terms and regulations from the card association, this includes, the Visa and MC logos need to be on the website, your Terms and Conditions for when a sale take place need to be clear visible on the website and very important you will need to have the companies name, address, country and e-mail and/or phone number visible on the website. If the business requires a license, the license need to cover the jurisdiction where the company is registered and within the Acquiring Banks jurisdictions.
CCLOGIC LLC is an Offshore company Formation Agency service, which manage the setup of Offshore Companies, opening of Offshore Bank Accounts and Merchant Accounts for clients worldwide. We have many years of experience in this field and help clients on a daily basis to archive their goals.
