GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - So what's the deal with all those companies being registered in Cyprus?

- Fucking Around & Business Discussion (https://gfy.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26)

Quote:

Originally Posted by VenusBlogger (Post 19252331)

I see many companies also registered in GIBRALTAR or PANAMA...

Yeah many adult companies register in Cyprus.

Gibraltar is where I had my first bank account like 15 years ago. I flew out there every few months to bring my iBILL and CCBill checks. Back then it was super easy to open bank accounts, a lot has changed in the past 15 years.

Nathan, your #2 is wrong. Electronic services, such as programming like we do for instance, are considered to be done at the location of the buyer - so in our case for instance we don't have VAT for non-eu customers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by k0nr4d (Post 19252411)

I am talking simply end user B2C transactions! Not B2B. And only online services. Like memberships and such.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan (Post 19252040)

This is not to be considered any tax advise,

Advice. :winkwink:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan (Post 19252040)

there are just a bunch of half-truths in this thread which confuse people and insinuate things...

1) Cyprus tax wise is good for two reasons: a) 10% corp tax, b) 17% VAT (15% is lowest in europe)

2) EVERY COMPANY in the world has to pay VAT for transactions with european customers! It is better to have a company based in europe which do transactions with european customers since you can then optimize VAT. Anyone that thinks they do not have to pay VAT: do not come crying about getting into trouble with the authorities in europe when your company works out well and gets too big for them to overlook it.

3) There is much more to tax optimization than a single company in a single jurisdiction. Americans with a company in Cyprus for example did absolutely nothing to optimize taxes, all you are most likely doing is evading them.

4) Manwin is in the middle of yet another restructuring which happens regularly since the structure needs to be optimized after each acquisition. We are phasing out Cyprus and moving those operations to Dublin because even though Dublin has considerably higher VAT and considerably higher corp taxes than Cyprus, as a whole in the structure Dublin is better because Ireland has better tax treaties with the US.

5) Banking is no reason to stay in Cyprus, at least not for our industry. It might be easy to get an account when small, but at a certain size you can not. 95% of Manwin's bank accounts are located in Germany, because Germany's banking system is very robust, very good technically for interfacing to it and the rates for international wires are very favorable also.

6) Although this does not fit this thread 100%, but since I talked about bank accounts above and people have claimed things regarding Manwin and Austria in regards to bank accounts: We have 0 direct operations in Austria, neither a company nor bank accounts. The reason you find filings in Austria regarding M&A transactions simply is because under Austrian law we have to file there, even as a foreign entity. That's simply how M&A works and there is no conspiracy there.

Any transaction we do, unless it is very small, HAS to be filed in Austria _BEFORE_ we can do it or we break Austrian law and risk having the transaction invalidated in Austria. Which, considering we have no operations there might not matter right now, but THINK AHEAD. Who knows what happens in the future, you do not want to have a problem in a jurisdiction you might have to go into at some point!

Tax optimization and company structure is not to be taken lightly! It is rather complex and complicated and should not be done by an ACCOUNTANT, but by a real legal tax specialist and likely by more than one.

Have fun.

Excellent post.

I had no idea about the Austrian headaches. You should buy them and put your headquarters in an old castle. Then line the street up to that castle with wax heads of those you have put out of business or acquired, like Dracula did, but use wax and not real heads because you're actually a nice guy and probably wouldn't really behead people in real life even if you thought you could get away with it, which at this point I'm pretty sure you could. So yea, wax heads just for that finishing touch. That would be pretty bad ass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by k0nr4d (Post 19252411)

So be it, Konrad...

http://i.imgur.com/OGPZt.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan (Post 19252423)

I am talking simply end user B2C transactions! Not B2B. And only online services. Like memberships and such.

Single point of entry VAT numbers are very useful in these situations :2 cents:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan (Post 19252040)

This is not to be considered any tax advise, there are just a bunch of half-truths in this thread which confuse people and insinuate things...

1) Cyprus tax wise is good for two reasons: a) 10% corp tax, b) 17% VAT (15% is lowest in europe)

2) EVERY COMPANY in the world has to pay VAT for transactions with european customers! It is better to have a company based in europe which do transactions with european customers since you can then optimize VAT. Anyone that thinks they do not have to pay VAT: do not come crying about getting into trouble with the authorities in europe when your company works out well and gets too big for them to overlook it.

3) There is much more to tax optimization than a single company in a single jurisdiction. Americans with a company in Cyprus for example did absolutely nothing to optimize taxes, all you are most likely doing is evading them.

4) Manwin is in the middle of yet another restructuring which happens regularly since the structure needs to be optimized after each acquisition. We are phasing out Cyprus and moving those operations to Dublin because even though Dublin has considerably higher VAT and considerably higher corp taxes than Cyprus, as a whole in the structure Dublin is better because Ireland has better tax treaties with the US.

5) Banking is no reason to stay in Cyprus, at least not for our industry. It might be easy to get an account when small, but at a certain size you can not. 95% of Manwin's bank accounts are located in Germany, because Germany's banking system is very robust, very good technically for interfacing to it and the rates for international wires are very favorable also.

6) Although this does not fit this thread 100%, but since I talked about bank accounts above and people have claimed things regarding Manwin and Austria in regards to bank accounts: We have 0 direct operations in Austria, neither a company nor bank accounts. The reason you find filings in Austria regarding M&A transactions simply is because under Austrian law we have to file there, even as a foreign entity. That's simply how M&A works and there is no conspiracy there.
Any transaction we do, unless it is very small, HAS to be filed in Austria _BEFORE_ we can do it or we break Austrian law and risk having the transaction invalidated in Austria. Which, considering we have no operations there might not matter right now, but THINK AHEAD. Who knows what happens in the future, you do not want to have a problem in a jurisdiction you might have to go into at some point!

Tax optimization and company structure is not to be taken lightly! It is rather complex and complicated and should not be done by an ACCOUNTANT, but by a real legal tax specialist and likely by more than one.

Have fun.

Thanks for the info, Nathan!

As always my threads are full of excellent info. I should be paid to post here.

NewNick until they change the VAT law in 2013 and all of the EU will function like external corps right now, so you always pay VAT rate of the customer's location.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan (Post 19252661)

NewNick until they change the VAT law in 2013 and all of the EU will function like external corps right now, so you always pay VAT rate of the customer's location.

Indeed - but the administration is reduced to one VAT return, instead of one for each member state.

And, for those who might be interested in such things, VAT fraud is so much more straightforward......

50 Cyprus shell companies ?

It ain't the taxes, I can say that much.

I dont think it comes as a shock to anyone here.

These games are being played for a reason, the constant "restructuring" is just manwin-ese for the more colloquial "hiding shit"

Hiding money these days is hard but certainly not impossible, hiding who is behind the money is easier and the way to do it is to create such a jumble of companies and ownerships that the trail can't be followed.

One thing I have learned over the past few weeks is that there is an awful lot of highly suspicious activity going on in Cyprus, and to a lesser extent, Seychelles,, Gibraltar and other places where people can hide.

Almost every company is loaded with Russian names and evidence of money laundering is everywhere, It would appear that the once 100% American porn business is now pretty much wholly owned by Eastern European Mobsters.

The stuff I was working on for instance has now caught the eye of the feds. Another thing I feel pretty sure of is that guys like Fabian and Constantin Luchian are the fall guys, when the shit goes down, itll be them that catch it. We may never know who really owns porn but one thing I do know is that we wont like them, but in the end we will kiss their asses too because we have grown accustomed to living off their scraps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirty F (Post 19252640)

As always my threads are full of excellent info. I should be paid to post here.

Seriously, you don't? Figured you did. Hit up Theo and tell him you want my rate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWB (Post 19253669)

Seriously, you don't? Figured you did. Hit up Theo and tell him you want my rate.

I'll prob get banned :1orglaugh

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornopete (Post 19253704)

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

lol! You get banned for farting while reading gfy.

I seriously wonder if there are any people here (excluding scammers, cheaters, bots etc) who got banned as much as i did.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornopete (Post 19253716)

Does AaronM still post here?

But c'mon sometimes you just go looking for it.

I know, and i'm not complaining.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pornopete (Post 19253725)

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

:1orglaugh:321GFY