Comment by pentae | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pentae | Hacker News Reader

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Hong Kong is a great place to incorporate for tax advantages, but a terrible place for getting merchant processing or a bank account.

Remote openings are not possible. You can fly to Hong Kong and open a bank account in person, and they may (or may not) open one for you - but getting payment processing for a Hong Kong corporation with no processing history is basically impossible for the average person.

I have a Hong Kong company and I know many people who also have Hong Kong companies, and I speak from experience.

As for your other points about Thailand, you’d be wrong about that also - Thailand has no problem with you working independently or from coffee shops at all, it is not against the law and getting long term visas or even self-funded work permits for long stays is trivial.

As for companies, you can set up a BOI company for technology corps which is tax exempt for the first 8 years and the 4 thais for every foreigner rule is not applied, as I have.

However, in a round about way you have proved my point - living in these types of locations is preferable, but doing business here is usually not. Hence, why people incorporate elsewhere and the Stripe Atlas product nails it.

Cheers

I have not found it difficult to get a corporate bank account and merchant account in the past in Hong Kong with HSBC. Yes you have to go there in person but I don't see this as a big deal. We had CC processing and your agents should have contacts to get you set up. Things might have changed in recent years.

And no I am not wrong. If you don't have a work permit which you get by working for a Thai company, you are breaking the law as you are not allowed to work without a permit. Full stop. I have not said that working out of a coffeeshop is illegal.

Long term visa again only by working for a local company. And if you go for the fake 4 Thais emploees route, sure that can work but you can get into trouble anyways because you are effectively working around the law.

Setting up a Bord of Investors company is not a trivial thing. It can take up to half a year, you'll have to pass the interview at the HQ in BKK and show some real company prospects. This is not something for someone who does web design or coding for some foreign company out of his condo in Chiang Mai. It's for people who want to build a real physical business in Thailand. Much easier to incorporate somewhere else.

Yeah, things have changed in recent years in HK. HSBC HK has a horrible reputation now and they are very resistant to do corporate account openings and prefer your company is resident or doing business in HK.

Regarding long stay visas in Thailand - as I said, getting a long term visa or work permit is very simple you can do it through a company who will sponsor you for a modest fee. If you are interested I can provide you with links.

My BOI did take some time, you are right, but the process was relatively simple as I used an agency - but totally worth it.

Yes - much easier to incorporate somewhere else. Your experience with HK/HSBC opening a merchant account is simply not a reality anymore for the majority of people, particularly without processing history, nor is it in other countries using HK.

Anyway, this product offering from Stripe is a genuine game changer for people who want to operate from the US, want a business in a box and want to set it up remotely. I know many, many people who will jump on it.

  >> Yeah, things have changed in recent years in HK. HSBC HK has a horrible reputation now and they are very resistant to do corporate account openings and prefer your company is resident or doing business in HK.

Good to know. Though it's kinda sad as HK really used to be a great place for business. I've seen similar changes in

  >> Regarding long stay visas in Thailand - as I said, getting a long term visa or work permit is very simple you can do it through a company who will sponsor you for a modest fee. If you are interested I can provide you with links.

Yea but many such offerings are just circumventing the law and here in the south at least a couple of these companies got into trouble. And by trouble I mean the usual extortion by immigration/police. Especially companies with nominees that hold the other 51% for you are getting more and more attention.

  >> My BOI did take some time, you are right, but the process was relatively simple as I used an agency - but totally worth it.

Hehe the typical Thai way. Find someone (agency) who knows someone that makes the decision. Pay the agent a "service fee" from which a nice chunk goes to the official to incentivize a smooth process :)

  >> Yes - much easier to incorporate somewhere else. Your experience with HK/HSBC opening a merchant account is simply not a reality anymore for the majority of people, particularly without processing history, nor is it in other countries using HK.

Again said to hear.

  >> Anyway, this product offering from Stripe is a genuine game changer for people who want to operate from the US, want a business in a box and want to set it up remotely. I know many, many people who will jump on it.

Undoubtedly the offering from Stripe will be helpful for many people. Somehow I get the feeling that the US pushed other countries hard to make incorporation and especially bank account opening much harder in the guise of fighting terrorism and crime while itself trying to make it simpler. An interesting economic strategy.

> If you are interested I can provide you with links.

Yes, please.

Also may I ask, what's your view of Singapore as a jurisdiction for digital nomad incorporation? Braintree already supports it for payments, and Stripe is in "private beta"...

It's really cheap and easy to incorporate in the UK. Costs £15 and takes ten minutes [1]

The downside, if you care about such things, is that the company register [2] is freely available online too, so it's not one to go for if privacy is your goal.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/register-a-company-online

[2] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

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