A nominee Shareholder or Director is a third party who allows his/her name to be used in place of the real or beneficial owner and director of the company. The nominee is advised particularly in those jurisdictions where the names of the officers are part of a public record. The name of the nominee will appear and ensure the privacy of the beneficial owner. More detail is available on request.

This Certificate is issued by the Company Registry to verify that a company or a corporation actually exists, has paid all its statutory dues, has met all filing requirements and, therefore, is authorized to transact business.

Beneficial owner is the true owner of a company. It is one who ultimately controls and manages the affairs of a company, and receives the profits.

Yes, all countries in Europe allow non-EU residents to expand their business into Europe.

This is required to import goods into the EU and to trade in the EU.

This is required to import goods into the EU and to trade in the EU.

You will require apostilled set of documents if you plan to open a bank account in a country other than the country of incorporation. Most banks require the company charter documents to have an apostille guaranteeing them to be authentic documents. 

Our choice would certainly be Latvia. Being a link between East and West, Latvia is a most attractive financial and trading location to facilitate business operations based in both CIS and Western countries. 

• Member of European Union
• Fixed low corporate tax rate of 15%
• Latvian companies can have a European VAT number
• Highly sophisticated banking system within Eastern Europe
• Centralized location between Russia and Western Europe
• Relatively low incorporation and maintenance fees
• Russian-speaking accountants and bankers 

Please see our Terms of Business at http://www.ibc.lv/en/top/terms-business/. The bottom half provides a step-by-step description of a bank account opening procedure.

The fastest timeframe is 1 week once all necessary forms have been completed. The standard timeframe is 2-4 weeks.

Yes, we assist our clients to open both types of accounts, depending on their needs.

Yes, US companies are accepted by banks in most European countries except the Baltic states.

Any deal involving some sort of value transfer would be considered a commercial activity of a company. Examples: agreements, loans, sale of goods or services.

In order to give you a price quote regarding report preparation we need to see your bank account statement or have a detailed description of the commercial activity during the fiscal year.

Nowadays most EU jurisdictions provide a possibility to check the status of companies incorporated in their registers. It might be the case that your client or partner wants to do business only with companies which submit financial reports and appear active on registers. In that case your company would look much better in the eyes of potential clients, suppliers and government institutions.

Minimum prices start at £ 650 – 700 for UK companies and US$ 1000 for Cyprus companies. Preparation cost is based on the number of transactions per year and complexity.

Report preparation and submission usually takes somewhere around 2-3 months.

It is best to follow the same approach as above, i.e. consider the general points (see below), and then come to see us for a personal consultation and professional advice:

• Complexity of registration (can the company be registered remotely or personal visit needed?)
• Where your trading activities take place
• VAT registration and tax rates
• Bureaucracy
• Accounting/renewal costs
• Prestige factor
• Timeframes 

New alternatives and routes are coming up all the time, and there always is an aspiring match for every enterpreneur. To discuss the specifics of your business operations, you can visit our offices personally or work with us remotely. Together, we will select the legal form and structure of company that will be tailored to meet your needs: solutions are always available!

This is a term we use to denote a company that we have already registered in a certain jurisdiction and that we keep „on shelf” in our offices, ready for immediate sale. When buying a shelf company, you can save time and hassle.

Below we list some factors which usually serve as incentives for clients to open a company either within the European Union or offshore. They are very general, but still quite helpful.