Dr Werner & Partner is a specialized law firm for setting up companies in Malta but more importantly to provide the advice around those company services.
BEPS, CRS, etc. important for company set up in Malta
In these days the company setup and the company maintenance is important, yes. But overall it makes 10% of an actual structure – 30% is compliance and the rest is international and domestic tax advice, more specifically: the does and the don’ts. “These days” means the reality of BEPS, of CRS, of FATCA and of the 4th AML directive – to number a few framework changes. “These days” means as well a growing negative conception of anything regarding “tax optimisation” throughout politics, the general public and most importantly the media. The hysteric echo of the Panama papers is just one example.
Setting up a company in Malta takes time
You cannot simply setup a company anymore in countries like Malta, Cyprus, Ireland etc – it’s just not possible. Anyone who tells you differently wants to sell you something which will not work in the long term, this way or another. Don’t get me wrong, even the authorities and banks still tell you that it’s super easy and that it “should not take too long” “not more than average” etc – that is all blabla. It will take long because it HAS to. It’s too many vital things to regard that you cannot possibly do fast if you want to do it right. Everything is documented these days and you can trace any mistake back 10 years and more, so of course everyone tries to safeguard whatever is proposed in the most secure way and that takes time. The 60% mentioned above is not to be taken lightly, you have to screen a structure from all possible angles because laws and treaties and regulations and what else not have many different angles and there is plenty of room for interpretation by judges and by inland revenue departments. You need to be sure of what you’re doing and build a case for each client that is legally and commercially sensitive. That not only takes time to do, it takes time to learn, it takes time to study and it takes people to know and to do it.
These days the compliance on one hand and the advice on the other is what makes every setup complex – the sum of compliance and advice is the price you pay for optimising taxes.
We analyse each and every client at the beginning and we tell most of the people that call us or that write to us that they should not setup a company in Malta – for the simple reason that it just makes no sense. Freedom of movement in the EU is a very nice spirit but most people underestimate what it actually means to MOVE – they only want the freedom.
