EU payment agent

Cyprus is by far the most common I see. Malta is a distant second.

marzio said:

I've read many threads where UK LTD was suggested as payment agent / billing company.

Is there any other EU company that could be used as payment agent? Ideally i would need EUR PayPal processing to avoid all the currency conversion problems of UK PayPal.

Cyprus, Malta, and Estonia all work well for simple payment agent operations.
Estonia is the least bureaucratic, cheapest, and offers great automated solutions to deal with IOSS/VAT, Customs Clearance, HS Code Allocation, Duty & Tax Calculation.

Sols said:

Cyprus is by far the most common I see. Malta is a distant second.

Agree, Cyprus & Malta are the most popular among UK!

EliasIT said:

Agree, Cyprus & Malta are the most popular among UK!

The reason is that while the EU directives are the same, some jurisdictions interpret them differently allowing more possibilities for setting up such structures without financial licenses.

It's usually called a Principal”“Agent Agreement. An experienced lawyer will be familiar with drafting them. Substance requirement are usually satisfied with a simple nominee director. You don't want too much substance or the agent risks being seen as the principal (the service provider).

marzio said:

I was thinking about using a UK LTD as a resident non domiciled company in Malta with a maltese nominee director or an Estonian OU with nominee director. Does anyone have experience with any of those?

Just think about which structure is cheaper, easier to open a bank account, and with less compliance burden (e.g., tax, audit).

We have opened such structures in Estonia and Cyprus. It's a typical case these days to get access to EU payment processing for 3rd countries, and even some EU-based EMI-s use such solutions.

In Estonia, such a structure could be set up even without the requirement to submit any annual reports (or audits).

marzio said:

@Don do you need a nominee director in Estonia?

you might run into some problems with zero substance, so at least a local director and office rental are recommended to avoid potential legal issues (depending on the related jurisdictions) and to ensure success with opening bank accounts.

marzio said:

How much would it cost to have a nominee local director + office rental (can be a virtual office or it has to be a real office) in both Estonia and Cyprus?

These setups usually cost from around 5k/year, but it depends on many factors.

Stripe and PayPal has no chance to see if the company is non residence so it could work very well.

Wonder why Cyprus and Malta is suggested over UK ? For me the UK LTD as the payment processors works well, never faced any issues?

From banking perspective, for the payment agent entity to be able to open bank account, it has to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the principal entity and not a totally separate entity, otherwise transactions are considred as 3rd party payments something which is not accepted by the majority of the EMIs.

From the jurisdiction point of view, any EU entity acting as a payment agent should be eligible for both bank and merchant account.

Don said:

These setups usually cost from around 5k/year, but it depends on many factors.

Any good leads or links where i can check for in cyprus for the virtual office.I know what to do for the real office but dont hve a clue on the virtual office part.

Marios said:

From banking perspective, for the payment agent entity to be able to open bank account, it has to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the principal entity and not a totally separate entity, otherwise transactions are considred as 3rd party payments something which is not accepted by the majority of the EMIs.

From the jurisdiction point of view, any EU entity acting as a payment agent should be eligible for both bank and merchant account.

can you setup accounts for a UK and Cyprus LTD ?

I mean for payment processing? how about high risk considered business can you do that?