Jean Galea

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Where to Buy and Sell Websites – The Best Brokers and Marketplaces

Last updated: February 18, 20213 Comments

There comes a time when you need to sell your baby, I am referring to your website/s of course…

So in such a time, what do you do, where do you begin? Here are the sites I recommend you visit. This also applies to when you’ve got some cash on hand and want to make an investment in an existing website, rather than building something from scratch.

Make sure you read my beginner’s guide to buying and selling websites if you’re not familiar how the business works.

Investors Club

investors club

Investors Club is the newest platform of the bunch, but I really like the idea behind it. Basically, it’s a pay-to-join club where all members will be able to browse all the details of the properties available to buy. There is no need to apply and sign NDAs for every project, as happens with other platforms, since the buyers here are all serious and paying money to be in the club in the first place.

There is also the possibility of investing in websites and having the Investors Club team manage the project for you, making this an ideal platform for beginner investors as well.

QuietLightbrokerage

This broker specializes in sites valued at 60k to 5 million USD. They provide an excellent guide on calculating the value of your website.

[Read more…]

Filed under: Business

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί The Best European Corporate and Personal Tax Structures in 2023

Last updated: March 06, 202356 Comments

Contents

  • The Case for Being Based in Europe
  • Tax planning VS Tax Evasion
  • The Best Option – Personal Residence in Portugal and Corporate Residence in Malta
  • Setting up the Maltese Companies
  • Personal Residency in Portugal
  • Negative Perceptions of Malta and Portugal
  • Place of Effective Management
  • Alternative 1 – Residing in and running a company from Andorra
  • Alternative 2 – Opening a Company in Estonia
  • Alternative 3 – Residing in Cyprus + Company in Malta
  • Alternative 4 – Italy
  • Alternative 5 – Greece
  • Alternative 6 – Residing in Gibraltar
  • Alternative 7 – Residing in Sark
  • Other Alternatives
  • The Non-Optimized Alternative
  • Extra tip: Opening a company in the United States
  • Flag Theory
  • On Opening Bank Accounts
  • Conclusions
  • Further reading

flag theory

With the growing trend of digital nomadism together with location-independent workplaces, we are seeing an increasing number of high network individuals (HNWIs), freelancers and company owners realize that they have the luxury of choosing a country to be tax resident in and (for company owners) also deciding which country to base their company in.

I’ve personally taken a strong interest in this topic as I’ve spent several years as a digital nomad, before adapting my lifestyle to family life with kids, thus slowing down my travels and using European countries as my base.

I am not a qualified tax consultant; all the information you find below is based on (countless hours of) my own research and chats with lawyers and accountants. Always make sure you talk to several good tax lawyers before you make any moves. Tax structuring and personal residency are topics that should not be taken lightly, and any solution found should take into consideration your current as well as possible future needs (e.g. family, change in job, fluctuations in overall net worth, personal interests and hobbies etc.).

If you’re looking for consultancy on European tax structuring, head straight to my contact page, or read on for more information about the options available.

Before we start, I also want to mention that I run an online community for open-minded people who want to share their journeys with other deep thinkers, investors and entrepreneurs. If you like my con

The Case for Being Based in Europe

I love the diversity and culture of the European continent, and while I have traveled all over the world, I keep returning back to Europe as a base for living and conducting business.

Provided you can pull it off, residing in one European country while owning companies in other European countries typically brings the best flexibility and tax advantages.

Tax laws tend to change quite frequently, as do the relations between countries. For example, the big countries tend to have a blacklist of countries they consider tax havens, and of course, you don’t want to base yourself or your company there. I believe the European Union currently provides the best flexibility in moving around and building an efficient tax strategy, not to mention the best quality of life.

No EU country can blacklist another country, so you have the security of countries playing nicely. You would perhaps be surprised to know that within the EU tax rates vary between countries in a very significant way.

As of 2023, I believe the best tax setup for most working individuals and families to be comprised of Malta for the corporate setup and Portugal for personal residence.

When coming to this conclusion, I’ve not only considered tax rates but also various other factors that affect one’s quality of life, as I believe that while tax optimization is an important exercise to protect your wealth, it should never occur at the expense of lifestyle.

  • Lowest effective corporate tax rate in Europe – Malta (5% with a trading and holding company structure)
  • Lowest personal taxation in Europe – Portugal (0% under the NHR programme)

[Read more…]

Filed under: Business

πŸ’³ Linking Virtual Bank Accounts and Cards to PayPal (Revolut, Wise etc)

Last updated: August 15, 202256 Comments

 

One interesting way of saving money on conversion fees when withdrawing money from your PayPal account is to link up a virtual card or virtual bank account.

These virtual cards and bank accounts are provided by companies like Revolut, N26 and Wise.

Let’s say your PayPal account is in Euro, but you also have several other currencies such as GBP and USD. With Revolut and Transferwise you can open accounts in these currencies too. Therefore, when you want to withdraw GBP from PayPal, you would withdraw to your Revolut/Transferwise GBP account, thus no conversion would take place.

This has already been tried and tested by several users, and I managed to link up my Revolut card without any problem myself.

However, this is not to say that PayPal approves of the practice 100%. Here’s what they said when I asked them about it:

If the system allows you to add this bank, you can use it, but also PayPal does not take responsibility in case of missing funds during withdrawals, as we cannot communicate with virtual banks in order to locate missing transactions etc.

We usually do not advise merchants to add Virtual Banks/ Cards, but technically you can if you wish.

I also asked them if they would be able to help in adding the virtual bank accounts, since not every version of the PayPal interface (depending on your country) will let you add these accounts. Here’s what they told me:

we cannot manually add any virtual bank accounts/ cards to the PayPal accounts. This is due to the risks that are associated with them, therefore if you are able to add it yourself you can, but we cannot add them on your behalf as this function is not available to us.

So the bottom line seems to be that if you’re using PayPal for personal use and are ready to take a small risk, you’re allowed to withdraw money from (or send money to) your PayPal account from a virtual bank account like the ones provided by Revolut and Wise.

As always, I welcome the sharing of experiences on this matter, just leave a comment below.

Buying Crypto with PayPal

Did you know you can now buy crypto with PayPal? That’s right, you can use Binance since it accepts PayPal deposits. Just hit the links below to get started.

Binance-Banner

You can also read my full review of Binance to learn more about this crypto exchange.

Buy Bitcoin with Binance

This withdrawal method is extremely popular at the moment, as people worldwide seek to get themselves some Bitcoin or Ethereum due to their extremely bright future price prospects.

Update October 2020:

This time PayPal have not outright said that they don’t work with TransferWise, but specified that the limitation is with Mastercard for my country.

As your PayPal account is from ____, you can only complete a withdrawal to the following financial instruments:

– Bank account.
– Visa card.

Currently, MasterCards are not eligible financial instruments for withdrawals in ____.

Due to the challenges and complexities associated with the worldwide financial network, we cannot offer a firm date or timetable for expansion of specific services. We can promise you that we are working hard to enhance our service within the nations where we are offered.

Update October 2019:

TransferWise have confirmed that the debit card they provide does not allow receiving funds from PayPal. This could actually be a limitation to receiving funds from anyone and not just from PayPal. In any case, it is unusable for the purposes of linking to PayPal in order to effect withdrawals.

PayPal have also confirmed that they are unable to accept TW bank accounts:

Thank you for contacting PayPal. My apologies for the late reply.

I have review bank statement provided by you and I can see it isΒ  Transfer Wise account you are trying to add. Please note that Transfer Wise is a virtual bank, therefore we can not add it for you as we do not support virtual bank accounts.

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing PayPal.

Note: If you have any questions after reading this and the several other articles relating to PayPal on this site, please leave a comment or contact PayPal directly. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I am unable to offer any advice over email so all emails related to PayPal will remain unanswered.

  1. Are You Losing out from PayPal’s Exchange Rates?
  2. πŸ€” Which PayPal Account is Best for You?
  3. πŸ’Έ Changing Your PayPal Withdrawal Currency
  4. Accepting Credit Card Payments via Braintree in Europe
  5. Braintree vs PayPal Fees, Which One is Cheaper?
  6. πŸ’Έ Understanding PayPal Cross Border Fees
  7. How to Withdraw From PayPal into a Maltese Bank Account
  8. πŸ’³ Withdrawing Money From PayPal for Non-US Accounts
  9. Which PayPal E-Commerce Checkout Service Should You Use?
  10. πŸ€” Should You Open Separate PayPal Accounts for Each of Your E-Commerce Stores?
  11. πŸ†š PayPal VS Wise Borderless
  12. πŸ’³ Linking Virtual Bank Accounts and Cards to PayPal (Revolut, Wise etc)
  13. How to Change Ownership of a PayPal Account
  14. How to Buy Bitcoin and Crypto With PayPal

Filed under: Business

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

Last updated: March 11, 20225 Comments

These are my top tips, based on my experience, on how you can improve your English pronunciation.

Decide which flavour of English you want to concentrate on

The three big ones are American English, British English and Australian English when it comes to pronunciation. Most people will want to learn American English as it is the most widely used, and frankly, for business use, that’s the best one to learn. In the future, we might need to learn Mandarin, but for now, the US is the world leader in business and innovation. So go with American English pronunciation unless you have some specific reason to learn one of the other two. A typical reason might be acting in a movie where your character is supposed to have a British English accent.

Methodologies. Books, Courses, One-to-One Training?

There are several resources available to you for helping you improve your English pronunciation. An important factor is your budget. There is no doubt in my mind that the most effective strategy is to go for personal one-to-one training, which can be done online using Skype. It is unfortunately also the most expensive option. Refer to the recommended tutors list below.

Recommended Books & Audio CDs

  • American Accent Training – Ann Cook
  • Tree or Three? Student’s Book and Audio CD: An Elementary Pronunciation Course – Ann BakerΒ (British accent)
  • Ship or Sheep? Book and Audio CD Pack: An Intermediate Pronunciation Course – Ann BakerΒ (British accent)
  • English Pronunciation in Use – Mark Hancock

Recommended Online Video Courses

  • Rachel’s English
  • Pronunciation Workshop

Recommended Tutors for Private Lessons

  • Geoff Lindsey (30-minute sessions via Skype)
  • Tom KelleyΒ (1-hour lessons via Skype)
  • Pronunciation ProΒ (several packages to choose from)
  • Susan Ryan

Filed under: Business

The Cheapest Way to Pay Remote Workers in the Philippines for a European Company

Last updated: April 23, 20203 Comments

 

Working remotely is becoming more and more popular, with lots of European companies outsourcing part of their workloads to labor in the Philippines. The big question is how to pay these remote workers at the end of every month.

The current methods I know of are:

  • PayPal
  • Bitwage
  • Payoneer
  • Bank transfer

There are many other services but they mostly seem to cater for US companies rather than European ones. For example, Xoom does allow economical transfers of money, but the source bank account or debit/credit card should be in USD, else you will be hit by a conversion fee from EUR to USD, apart from the eventual fee to convert to Philippine Pesos.

So far, the most straightforward service remains PayPal. It is possible to have both a USD and a EUR balance within PayPal accounts, so this gives the best level of flexibility when paying remote workers in the Philippines.

On the other hand, Payoneer is a strong competitor, with the slight disadvantage that you will have to sign up for a Payoneer account and supply some company documents for them to verify the company before being able to put payments through.

To test things out, I sent a payment of around $1000 to the Philippines with both PayPal and Payoneer. I used USD for the PayPal transfer and Euro for the Payoneer transfer, but the value was the same, I just calculated the Eur value using that day’s exchange rate. After calculating all fees, conversion to currencies and receiver’s bank fees, Payoneer comes out the winner as long as you send in Euros. Compared to PayPal, the receiver saved at least $35-45 after all is said and done with a Euro payment. If I had done it in USD the receiver would only save about $8-10.

Have you found any great services for transferring money from Europe to Filipino remote workers? Let me know!

Filed under: Business

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