Bank account for LLC in Wyoming

Hi all,

I know I posted this thread already here but now that I became a member of the Mentor group, I was hoping people (or even staff members) would be more eager to help me with my question. If double posting in different sections (free and vip) is not allowed, please don't kick my a*s and let me know so i can report one for closure. The original post and introduction is found below, any help is appreciated!

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I'm a Belgian citizen and have had a business in Belgium since 2014. The business model is the trading of virtual ingame currencies.
To keep it brief, games like World of Warcraft (MMORPG's) also have a currency in their virtual world. This virtual coins can be used for example to buy a new sword for your character in the game itself. We buy these game coins from players and sell them back to other players obviously for a markup. After years of hard work i was finally able to get the business to a 5 to 6 million euro revenue annually.

The first 2 years of operation (keep in mind these were my first business years), I was stupid enough to register myself as a sole proprietorship, thus launching myself in the highest personal tax bracket and paying my balls off in taxes (we're talking 5 digit tax bills the first 2 years).
For a time I switched to a limited company in Belgium and obviously the taxes were A LOT less as I was able to "play" around more with expenses and have a decent company structure which gave me tax relief.
HOWEVER I sought out other possibilities to reduce tax even more and after months of research and looking at offshore structures I was gonna make a decision between an LLC in Wyoming or Delware.
Because my company is technically an "e company" I decided to go with Wyoming, thus finding an agency that would help me set it up and after a couple of weeks everything was set. I became the director of a registered LLC in USA, Wyoming in Feb this year.

Now to be fair, I thought that finding a bank account would be easier than it actually is. What i'm looking for is a business bank account for the processing of our payments (in and outgoing). Obviously we buy product aswell from individuals so there would be a decent cashflow from the account (as said before in and out). The incoming payments would ALL be coming from Payment service providers. The outgoing payments would all be for the purchase of product (ingame coins).
The payments in and out would all be SEPA payments and because they are numerous i'm looking for a decent fee on them. Some banks charge up to 45 eur per payment ingoing or outgoing and because we send 30+ payments daily I don't feel like paying a grand in fees every day. The problem that i'm currently facing is that most banks frown upon the business model and the fact that the company itself is registered in the US (even though I have a virtual office address which moonlights as our physical / operating address and principle business address).

Obviously there are the obvious choices like Transferwise but I really don't know how long they're gonna let me operate via them because as said before, our revenue is around 5 to 6 million euro on annual basis and i've heard tons of stories about LLC's getting their account blocked on transferwise. I also don't want to go for unregulated banks as the money flowing through the accounts is not something i'm willing to loose. Options like Revolut, N26 aren't an option either because they don't onboard US companies. Banks like Swedbank, some banks in Luxembourg and so on have all given me red light.

Anyone that has some suggestions for actual trusted banks or EMI's that can deal with good cashflow and aren't shy of onboarding a medium - high level risk profile?

Regards,
S.

clemens said:

It is not possible any longer to find a valid bank account for a Wyoming LLC - your best shoot would be to use TransferWise or similar EMI's that accept US companies. You may, once the COVID-19 is over, try to get a Cyprus bank account for your company, but that would require a real office setup in Cyprus for your company.

Any recommendations on similar EMI's? Seems hard to believe that there would be NO banking possibilities anymore for foreign owned American LLC's but then again I don't know much on the subject so i'm just hoping i'm wrong. Would love to hear more suggestions coming in.

Last edited: Apr 4, 2020

Admin said:

The problem is that most banks in 2020 don't take on shell companies - companies without substance. It has been discussed here a few times already. You will need to setup something real or take a visit to the banks in the USA and ask them if they are willing to open an account for your company.

There is another thread here where someone I think it was @Milky Moon claim that if you go to one of the major banks in in person in the USA you can open an account.

You will have to wait with that until we are over COVID-19 of course!

Until then, you will want to use the already suggested TransferWise or similar EMI.

Thank you so much for your response! Any EMI you could suggest?

Regards,
S.

eadeveloper said:

Mercury and TransferWise are your best shots if you want an EMI there.

I'm scared to use Transferwise due to all the complaints of locked Transferwise account linked to LLC's. Mercury is indeed a good suggestion, thanks!

Camille Württemberg said:

The fact that you have an LLC in Wyoming doesn't reduce your Belgian tax liability unless you have substance in Wyoming.

With 3-5m a year in turnover, your best bet would be to setup an offshore company with substance outside of Belgium, this would allow you to own an entity that is deemed tax resident in a low tax jurisdiction. This would also allow you to use a top Tier 1 bank such as HSBC or UBS

I may also have a cheap source of WoW gold for you.

I've sent you a PM / direct chat.

Thanks for the information! I responded to your direct chat. Apologies for the slow response.