There are a lot of myths, misconceptions and high expectations concerning this issue. We decided to separate the truth from the fiction so that you know: is a law company really able to provide the services listed on its site, or is it giving you impossible promises.
We are talking about classic tax-free jurisdictions: the Seychelles, Belize, BVI, Saint Vincent, the Marshall and Cayman Islands - in a word, all those states that are on the regularly published “black list of offshores”.
For some time now, European banks have been trying not to deal with offshore companies. Why? Banks are forced to comply with the requirements of their regulators (central banks of the country of registration) - and those, in turn, comply with international AML conventions and the like.
Therefore, if you are offered, without additional conditions, to open an account for a Belizean company with a bank in Germany or Finland, this is hardly possible to do. However, some banks are prepared to bear the risks associated with servicing offshore companies. Naturally, not for free.
A number of banks in Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein offer opening accounts for classic offshore companies on condition of placing a large deposit or investing in affiliate investment funds. We are talking about amounts from 0,5 to 1 million euros. It is clear that such a requirement greatly narrows the circle of offshore companies that can afford an account with a European bank.
There are other inconveniences. Offshore services in European banks, as a rule, are more expensive than the average tariffs on the market. In addition, banks may impose certain restrictions on the number of transactions per month. This is done so that too frequent transactions to / from offshore jurisdictions do not attract unnecessary attention of regulatory authorities. Therefore, banks either directly prohibit offshore companies from conducting more than 1-2 operations per day, or set high tariffs. It is obvious that if it is planned to conduct active economic activity through an account with a European bank, this can be quite expensive.
Practice shows that international business is gradually abandoning its presence in the “tax havens” in favor of low-tax jurisdictions. If you are sure you need to open an account for an offshore company in European banks, on their terms, then this can be done, for example, at banks such as the LGT, Liechtensteinische Landesbank, Valartis Bank, Union Bank (Liechtenstein), Credit Suisse, AP Anlage & Privatbank (Switzerland) and other banks in Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
