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!

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Flag Theory is about diversifying your life and staying protected. The Five Flags deal with residency, citizenship, banking, assets, and business. It’s a strategic internationalization process designed to increase your freedom, protect your privacy and grow your wealth in leading jurisdictions.

I learned about flag theory many years ago in my days as a digital nomad, and it has influenced my choices ever since. As I mentioned in my thoughts about nationality, I think we are moving towards a future where people actively choose where they want to live and do business.

This is totally contrary to the traditional view that you are born in a country and being patriotic to that country (even to the point of dying for your country!) forever. I think that many countries are not run efficiently and put an ever increasing burder on their citizens due to their politicians’ ineptitude and abuses, and that is not acceptable.

The modern workforce is becoming increasingly mobile, and if you’re an entrepreneur especially, you have a lot of freedom that you might not have considered before.

If you want to learn more about flag theory I suggest you open these blogs and just read as many of their blog posts as possible. I bet they will change the way you think about things in a significant way.

• Flag Theory
• Nomad Capitalist
• Tax Free Today
• Freedom Surfer
• Offshore Living Letter
• Escape Artist
• No More Tax

A good forum worth visiting on the topic is Offshorecorptalk.com.

Questions? I’d love to hear about your thoughts on flag theory.

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.

Entrepreneurship can be an exciting but lonely experience. You start off with nothing and most likely with your peers thinking you’re chasing an impossible dream, or worse, doing nothing of worth. If you manage to prove your worth and build a successful business, you’ll also lose touch with those same peers because your concerns are quite different from theirs, and they most likely start to regard you as the lucky guy.

They say it’s lonely at the top, and that certainly applies to successful entrepreneurs. You don’t need to achieve great wealth or success to start to feel that. Even the mere fact of owning a business and being fully responsible for your and your family’s financial future (not to mention that of the employees who depend on your company)

Entrepreneurs’ Organization

EO is the only global network exclusively for entrepreneurs. EO helps leading entrepreneurs learn and grow through peer-to-peer learning, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and connections to experts.

Entrance to the EO requires you to have a business that generates more than a million dollars in revenue per year, and costs around $6000 to join. It’s aimed at entrepreneurs who are experienced and successful and certainly not at those just starting off on their journey,

Although it might seem a bit elitist, I think the requirements and high fees make sense. The success of the organization depends on its members sharing many of the same concerns and dilemmas, as well as providing useful contacts and advice to each other. It’s safe to say that a beginner entrepreneur will not have the same concerns and capacity to help others that a seasoned entrepreneur at the helm of a $1m and multiple-employee business will.

There are several events throughout the year, and you get subsidized rates to first-class hotels and tours as part of your membership. You’ll find entrepreneurs of all ages and industries in the EO, which means you will also widen your field of knowledge and be able to learn from other sectors that you were previously unfamiliar with or even unaware of.

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