I have recently started researching a post about payment gateways for WordPress businesses, especially those based outside of the United States and still without access to the top payment gateway – Stripe.

Stripe is unfortunately not yet available in Malta, and many other WordPress businesses have the same problem.

Luckily, I stumbled upon a post today by someone who has already gone further with his research, so I’ll just link to his post below. If anyone has further notes to add, I’d be happy to take the conversation further.

AYNUR NURIEV: The Best Payment Gateways for Startups

Many online businesses use 2Checkout to collect payments for their products, as an alternative to PayPal or other payment gateways.

If you’re one of the many online businesses that sells in USD but has its local bank accounts in another currency (such as Euro) you will be losing money every time you transfer due to exchange fees from your bank.

A better alternative would be to set up a TransferWise Borderless account then link it up to 2Checkout as your bank account, using the USD account details provided by TransferWise in your Borderless account. Note that 2Checkout only allows one active bank account at a time, so if you already have a bank account set up, you will need to remove that bank account and add the TransferWise one.

If your team is using Apple software and you want them to use some particular paid software, you are going to face an important decision.

Should they download the software using their personal Apple ID or the company one?

In practice, it is much easier for everyone if the employees use their own Apple ID. The question is, then, how will they pay for the apps?

One option is for them to pay using their own funds and then claim reimbursement to the company.

An even cleaner way to do it is for the company to buy a gift code for the employee using the exact amount of credit needed to buy the app. This is delivered instantly, and the employee can then buy the app on his own Apple ID using the credit applied.

My favorite site for buying these credits is StartSelect.

Here’s my experience of using Banqia. It’s been an infuriating experience that drove me to write this article in the hope that others will read it before they try using Banqia.

Note that this is a review of Banqia and not Bankia, with a ‘k’. The latter is a Spanish bank, and the similarity in names actually poses the first problem for Banqia. I expect them to be forced to change their name shortly as it causes market confusion being so similar to the other established bank’s name.

Anyway, let’s talk about Banqia.

This is what they promise:

EASY EUROPEAN IBAN ACCOUNT OPENING.
It takes just 10 minutes to open a free Banqia current account. Get access to Banqia App and manage your financials from anywhere.

Banqia is a modern advanced alternative to traditional banking. We have broke down banking complex structures to the simplest levels.

BANQIA is the first fintech company offering designated IBAN accounts to individuals and businesses. The current account, complete with IBAN, the ability to transfer money instantly via SEPA & SWIFT, but also to receive Settlements for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum & more directly to your Banqia Bank Account, We are Crypto Business & Non EU residents friendly !

Site Riddled with Spelling Mistakes

For a company that is supposed to be managing your money, it doesn’t inspire confidence to see silly spelling mistakes dotting the whole site.

As you can see above, in just one paragraph there are two amateurish spelling mistakes.

Non-existent Customer Support

They claim customer support hours from 9am to 7pm. However, when I tried to access their chat 9 times out of 10 it would be offline.

Chat always offline, and some more spelling mistakes…

I also sent them several emails through their support system which were never answered.

In the footer of the site, they even state different opening hours than the header. Go figure!

[Read more…]

Andorra is an attractive proposition for many individuals who have high incomes and are seeking a more tax-friendly jurisdiction to reside in.

In a previous post, I wrote about what I think is the best combination of personal tax residency and corporate tax residency in Europe at the moment, but in this article, I’ll focus specifically on residing and doing business in Andorra.

The new Andorran tax framework has been approved by the OECD and triggers the development of the tax conventions, the first of which have been established with France, Luxembourg and Spain.

Companies in Andorra pay a nominal rate of 10% on corporate revenues. As for individuals, they pay a 10% rate. There is an exemption on the first €3.000 of savings income. There is no wealth tax, inheritance tax, donation tax or property tax.

The strategy of accumulating non-distributed profit in an Andorran company owned by nonresident shareholders is very usual in order to avoid individual taxation in the countries where the shareholders have their tax residency.

The second step to make is some years later, when the shareholders can become Andorran tax residents for one year and perceive the accumulated dividends with a total tax exemption. This is because there is a total exemption for dividends delivered by an Andorran entity to a resident shareholder.

If they decide to re-enter their origin countries as tax residents, they can repatriate their capital without any taxation, due to the fact that the obtained revenue was once subject (but exempt) to the Andorran Personal Income Tax during the distribution year.

A similar strategy can be employed whereby the company owner lives anywhere he wants and withdraws money from his company based in a low tax jurisdiction, but he would only withdraw enough money to sustain himself year by year. The accumulation of profits is allowed to happen in the holding company. When he needs a big lump sum of cash to make a big purchase, he would move to Portugal for one year, where he would withdraw the cash from the company as a dividend, and pay zero tax. The next year he would be free to move back to his previous country or any other country without any questions and be able to repatriate the money to that country.

With that aside out of the way, let’s continue talking about Andorra. If you don’t want to actually move there and spend most of your time in this tiny state, you can become a non-lucrative resident. This is the more common way of having residency in Andorra, as it gives you most of the important benefits without requiring you to live there. It does come with a few requirements though, and you have to have some decent savings to be able to achieve this type of residency. Here are the requirements:

• Deposit at the INAF (Andorran National Finance Institute) worth 50.000€, recoverable and non-remunerated; Deposit at the INAF worth 10.000€ for each dependent;
  Availability of enough resources for the titleholder and dependents’ sustenance in Andorra;
  Purchasing or renting a dwelling in Andorra;
• Medical, disability and old-age insurance with coverage across Andorra (underage and people over 65 years- old only need medical insurance);
• Minimum of 90 days’ residence per year;
• 400.000€-worth Investment on Andorran assets

Andorra is, therefore, a good option for those with a high net worth. You will find many cyclists, for example, who take up residence in Andorra.

For company owners, I think residing in Portugal is the best right now, although it does require you to actually live there. If you’re more into traveling and being a digital nomad, then Andorran residency is actually better since it only requires you to be physically present in Andorra for three months a year.

I’ve visited Andorra several times and it’s indeed a beautiful place to live in, with the main disadvantages being the colder weather and relative isolation, with the nearest airports in France and Spain being a good drive of around two hours away.