Holding company suggestion

RDuke said:

What are the best jurisdictions to create a holding company. A company with no economic activity, only that can hold shares, assets, money...

Should have access to first level banking with legal security and tax optimization.

Any suggestions?

Interested too. Dubai comes to mind but others probably have more experience with this.

RDuke said:

What are the best jurisdictions to create a holding company. A company with no economic activity, only that can hold shares, assets, money...

Should have access to first level banking with legal security and tax optimization.

Any suggestions?

where do you intent to invest? that will help narrow things down.

look at my answer her to a question similar to yours, might be of help to you: Best Jurisdiction For Offshore Real Estate Holding?

I would chose singapore if you're not a resident in singapore nor investing in a singaporean assets, and mainly investing offsore, it's possible to achieve 0% tax both personal and corporate with the right structure in singapore,

and great banking but with no less than 500k for corporate account and 350k for private/personal account.

It depends on what you're holding, for what purposes, value of the holdings, and where you and the companies/investments are located.

Singapore is a good option.

Other popular jurisdictions are Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, BVI, Bermuda, Luxembourg, US (mainly Delaware C corp), Cyprus, and Malta. Isle of Man and Gibraltar can also be worth a look.

Access to banking is largely driven by the overall profile. Banking in Cyprus and Malta can be extremely tedious and time consuming. But you can have holding company there and bank in for example Luxembourg or Austria, if you fit the banks' onboarding criteria.

Sols said:

It depends on what you're holding, for what purposes, value of the holdings, and where you and the companies/investments are located.

Singapore is a good option.

Other popular jurisdictions are Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, BVI, Bermuda, Luxembourg, US (mainly Delaware C corp), Cyprus, and Malta. Isle of Man and Gibraltar can also be worth a look.

Access to banking is largely driven by the overall profile. Banking in Cyprus and Malta can be extremely tedious and time consuming. But you can have holding company there and bank in for example Luxembourg or Austria, if you fit the banks' onboarding criteria.

Genuinely curious why no Dubai on the list? Doesn't fall into legal security? Or other countries wouldn't like it?

There's too many variables to answer this but I'd suggest working backwards from the banks you want to work with. The headache is always banking these days. Beyond that tax, budget, residency, privacy considerations all need to be considered. Otherwise, also consider to incorporate and bank in your home country. Might not be any need or benefit to complicating things.

JohnDones said:

Genuinely curious why no Dubai on the list? Doesn't fall into legal security? Or other countries wouldn't like it?

That list is of the most popular holding company jurisdictions I come across. UAE, quite simply, isn't.

There are many reasons why UAE/Dubai isn't as popular. One being their recent FATF grey listing. Another being many international businesses wishing to avoid the whole GCC region for reputational reasons.

Legal security is a double edged sword in UAE. It's a totalitarian theocratic kingdom. Not everyone is comfortable being associated with that.

Also, UAE isn't as big of a player in international financial services as it may come across when you read articles and websites by service providers based there. I've heard it described as an oil refinery and commodities based economy role-playing as BVI. A little hyperbolic perhaps but there's truth to it.

UAE and Switzerland among the other Benelux countries.

Speak with @Fred if you are looking for a Dubai setup, he is reputated member and knows all of it. He will make you a nice price for mentor group members 😎