TAX Planning

Foreign company taxation rules may be confusing and involve various nuances depending on the country. On the other hand, having an accountant on the staff is not always economically feasible.

Maintaining accounting records for a business that engages a group of foreign companies located in different countries is a particularly relevant issue. Surely you can search for a competent accountant in the corresponding country yourself but the evidence from past experience shows that finding common ground with such specialists is not always successful.

With SBSB experts at hand, you can rely on high-quality accounting founded on «one stop shop» principle and will be sure to receive support from qualified specialists understanding the needs of your business.

Statements preparation and submission are an integral part of any business. The process of preparing and filing returns includes an analysis of bank statements, source documents, business accounting data and general information regarding your company’s financial standing and performance. One should also be mindful of risks and think of future directions the company will follow during the next reporting period.

Our team has vast experience in multiple tax systems so our clients never hesitate to entrust us with the preparation and submission of their statements. We will prepare all necessary documents as scheduled and in full compliance with the laws of the jurisdiction where your company is registered. With SBSB experts at hand, you need not worry about the correct execution and filing of your statements, and you can rest assured that those will be submitted on time, not exposing you to any penalties.

If you are looking to protect your assets against government agencies, family members (e.g. in the event of marriage dissolution) or raider attacks and decrease the tax burden for yourself and your business, we propose you consider setting up a private fund or trust. These tools will enable you resolve various issues and ensure the confidentiality of asset ownership and protection against infringement upon your business. This is also an opportunity for leveraging an alternative inheritance method.

We will be happy to help you get a better understanding of the legal tax planning tools — private funds and trusts, and will make sure those are used efficiently. These legal structures offer effective protection of the property placed into trust by separating it from the other assets of the trustor. Furthermore, they open up extensive opportunities for maintaining the family’s standards of living in the longer term and will help the family obtain education and health care services for several generations to come.

If your goal is to assure strict anonymity of ownership and the capacity to preserve and pass on your assets with minimum tax implications, SBSB experts will gladly advise you on all related matters and help find the best solution for your specific task.

Any owner of a foreign company or person holding an overseas account should be aware that sooner or later the information about foreign accounts will become known to the tax authorities in their country of residence.

Businessmen need to always be alert as in the future foreign banks will not restrict their activities to information exchange with competent authorities of CRS contracting countries but will also require disclosure of the account funds sources and payment of taxes in the owner’s country of residence.

For this reason, one should be mindful even today of a transparent system of foreign assets ownership and the consistency between one’s actual standard of living and the incomes declared in the one’s country. We will help you figure out how tax information exchange affects your business, which countries do not use it, what the risks are and how to mitigate them.

In an environment of global deoffshorization many foreign company owners and persons controlling overseas companies may be face the challenge of submitting additional statements and paying taxes in their country even when they do not receive dividends and do not transfer the profits of their foreign companies. The rules prescribing the procedure for this type of taxation are called «rules for taxation of controlled foreign companies (or corporations)» («CFC»).

A controlled foreign company, or CFC, is as a rule a foreign company in which tax residents of another country (different from the one where the company is registered or pays taxes) hold a certain portion of shares or stocks.

Why are CFC consultations so important? As a consequence of recent changes in the legislation, the tax agencies in many countries have been granted special powers, such as obtaining data on foreign accounts and CFC from other jurisdictions (as part of automatic tax data interchange), requesting information about the taxes paid by CFC or about CFC’s assets or demanding explanations from the controlling person on all related matters.

We will give you full insight into which taxes apply to foreign company owners, which documents and returns should be filed, what penalties and sanctions may apply and whether CFC owners can avoid taxes.

Managing a business overseas is not possible without efficient tax planning which involves company operations optimization measures designed to reduce tax liabilities within the confines of the applicable laws and simplify the tax administration process.

The key features of quality tax planning services include: analysis of the current tax position, task setting and clear determination of client goals, estimation of applicability of tax benefits, calculation of potential risks, personalized approach towards the design of tax planning framework for your company and implementation of this framework.

The issues of international tax planning demand special attention and knowledge. Our lawyers and tax advisors will help you formulate an effective tax policy for your business taking into account the taxation peculiarities in different countries, select the registration country and type of foreign company, identify and compare tax rates and also adapt your business to current tax rules.

Adequate business structuring has become essential to any international business in the age of global deoffshorization and interchange of tax information. The objectives of structuring are to protect the business and assets, keep the confidentiality of ultimate owners, reduce the tax burden, optimize financing and ensure effective withdrawal from the business and/or inheritance thereof.

International structuring stages include examination of the business and its owners, development of a target corporate structure, design of an implementation plan and ultimately the implementation.

As part of this service, we undertake to identify all legal risks and provide advice on how to mitigate the same. Our primary goal is to protect your interests and rule out any negative legislative effects on your business.

This will provide a realistic estimate and give an understanding of all of your business operations, facilitating interactions with banks, reducing taxes, protecting assets and even keeping the asset ownership confidential. Our experts will help assess the risks inherent in the existing corporate structure and will provide practical guidelines on improving the same.