Insights
Notes from the work
Practical writing on the questions clients actually arrive with — how formation really works in each jurisdiction we cover, what regulators now expect, and why applications get refused.
General reading
The questions that come up whichever jurisdiction you choose — substance, banking, compliance and the evidence institutions ask for.
Forming a Hong Kong company: what actually happens
The statutory requirements, the roles you must fill, the documents that get filed, and the obligations that begin the day the certificate is issued.
Read the article →Economic substance: what regulators now expect
Registration in a low-tax jurisdiction no longer settles the question. What substance means in practice, and how to tell whether a structure has enough of it.
Read the article →Why corporate bank account applications get refused
Most refusals are not about the business being unsound. They are about a file that fails to answer the compliance questions a bank is obliged to ask.
Read the article →Hong Kong annual compliance: what is due, and when
Two streams of obligation running on different clocks, the deadlines each imposes, and the four patterns that account for most penalties.
Read the article →Source of funds and source of wealth: the difference banks care about
Two questions that sound identical and are not. What each one asks, and the documents that actually answer them rather than restating the question.
Read the article →What a Hong Kong company secretary actually does
A statutory office rather than an administrative nicety. Who may hold it, what the role involves, and why a sole director cannot fill it.
Read the article →Hong Kong, Singapore or the UAE: choosing between them
Three jurisdictions usually compared on tax rates, which is rarely what decides it. The factors that actually do, and the five questions that settle the choice.
Read the article →The Hong Kong offshore profits claim: what it actually requires
Not a status a company holds, and not about where the customers are. What the territorial principle really tests, and why refused claims fail on records.
Read the article →Surviving a bank's periodic review of your account
Opening the account was not the finish line. What triggers a review, what the letter will ask for, and why the fourteen-day deadline is not negotiable.
Read the article →Closing a company properly: deregistration and striking off
Three different endings that get called the same thing, what has to be settled first, and why assets left in a dissolved company can pass to the state.
Read the article →Adding a second jurisdiction: what changes
Permanent establishment, transfer pricing, withholding tax and substance in two places at once — the obligations that appear the moment a group spans two countries.
Read the article →Restructuring an arrangement that no longer fits
How to tell a structure has aged badly, why unwinding costs more than building, and the cheaper alternatives to tearing it down — including doing nothing.
Read the article →Jurisdiction guides
How formation and licensing actually work in the jurisdictions we cover — the sequence, the requirements, and the parts that catch people out. Each one links through to the packages and current fees.
Forming a Cyprus company: how the process actually works
Why the filing has to go through a Cypriot lawyer, where the timeline really goes, and the residency test that decides whether the structure works at all.
Read the article →The Czech s.r.o.: what foreign founders need to know
The trade licence that has to come before registration, the notarial deed, and the six registrations that stand between a certificate and a company that can trade.
Read the article →Panama corporations: the three-officer board, and what it means for you
Why the law requires a board of three, what it means when one is provided for you, and the accounting obligation owners of older companies often do not know they have.
Read the article →Swiss SRO membership: who needs it, and what it involves
It is not a licence, and it is not a registry that processes applications. What the affiliation actually is, who is caught by it, and why applications are refused.
Read the article →What a regulatory legal opinion is, and when you need one
Four things an opinion cannot do for you, and how to tell a substantive analysis from a paragraph on a letterhead that compliance departments recognise on sight.
Read the article →Apostilled company documents: when you actually need them
What the certificate does and does not confirm, when a bank will insist on it, and the two situations in which an apostille is the wrong instrument entirely.
Read the article →FINMA licence or SRO membership: which does your business need
Swiss regulation has two tiers and the wrong choice is expensive either way. The question that usually decides it, and where crypto businesses actually fall.
Read the article →Have a question these don't answer?
Describe the objective and the jurisdictions involved. We will come back with the options and what each one requires.
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