Five Reasons to Incorporate a Company Offshore Account

Five Reasons to Incorporate a Company Offshore
Account

by: ED SAUNDERS

When it comes to the term ‘offshore’ used in conjunction with company
incorporation, the term ‘offshore’ generally refers to any jurisdiction other
than one in which the company incorporated will conduct the majority of its
activities.

Usually such a jurisdiction has some degree of taxation or reporting benefit
attached that makes it attractive to the company owner, and the concept of
incorporating a company offshore will bring at least one of the following five
benefits to a business owner: -

1) Ease of Operations – depending on the
jurisdiction and the type of business activity to be conducted under the company
name to be incorporated, the operating restrictions, auditing and accounting
requirements and standards to which the business and its employees and directors
must adhere are often far less restrictive offshore than onshore.

Exceptions to this rule are financial services based companies in many
jurisdictions for example, who have to comply with extra regulatory legislation
for the protection of the company’s clientele.

The advantage of easing operations particularly for a small or start up company
is a reduction in operating costs and in the amount of time a company’s
directors have to dedicate to form filling and report filing.

2) Reporting Simplification – this ties in with the
first benefit; in the majority of offshore jurisdictions favoured for company
incorporation the company activity reporting requirements are often far fewer
and simpler as the business activities entered into by the company are conducted
outside of the jurisdiction in which it is incorporated.

Furthermore personal information relating to the company’s directors and
shareholders need not be declared in all cases or the extent to which personal
information is required is far less intrusive.

3) Taxation Reduction/Negation – the reduction in
taxation liability is one of the main benefits associated with investing
offshore, opening an offshore bank account or incorporating a company offshore.

If you set up your company in a low or no tax jurisdiction you could potentially
save yourself substantial amounts of money legally. Often the rules are that if
the company incorporated in a particular jurisdiction never derives an income
from the local economy it can operate tax free.

It’s therefore possible to use an offshore company in an overall international
business structure and ensure profits are posted in the offshore jurisdiction
and so no tax is liable! Many international corporations operate in this way and
actually negate their tax liability fully.

4) Asset Protection – by operating a company
offshore, i.e., outside the jurisdiction in which the company operates, it is
sometimes possible to position assets away from the reach of any potential
litigious action and also to shield business transactions from the eyes’ of the
competition.

5) Personal Privacy Protection – the level to which
a director or shareholder’s personal information is required, held, visible or
investigated offshore is likely to be far less invasive and intrusive than
onshore. It is also possible to appoint nominee directors and secretaries for
offshore companies in many jurisdictions thus keeping the true company owner’s
identity shielded.

The information contained in this article cannot constitute advice. Each
individual’s circumstances are unique and whether or not offshore company
incorporation is something that could benefit your business can only be
determined with personal advice.

Do You Think That Your Workoad Is Hampering Your Killer Marketing Activities?

Do you think that your workload is hampering
your killer marketing activities?

by: E.SAUNDERS

You need an extra effort not the extra workload. Today when competition is high
and consumers have many options to choose, an extra effort towards improvement
of your product, managing your customers and taking care of other aspects of
your business will give you advantage over your competition. You need to
multiply your time may be you can keep your margin low, but will give you more
volume and increase in your turnover.

Most SME’s start well during there initial stage of launching the business but
looses its consistency do to pool of workloads on its day today life. It is
often seen that hiring more employees gives extra load on limited earning
resources resulting less revenue than expected. You need to put more efforts on
Marketing and concentrate on your other activities so that you can do business
with an ease. Outsourcing is one of the solutions for small and medium business
entities too, that give them more opportunity to utilize there valuable time on
marketing and other efforts. (Provided they get an honest an able outsourcing
partner.)

Outsourcing is hiring a third party service provider to participate as a team
member in your organization and share your workload. You may need to outsource
your projects to save your time and get an expert professional to do the job for
you. It is helpful to you in terms of, managing and multiplying your time so
that you can focus on other important activities of your business needs. This is
another effective tool to stay ahead with your competitions. By sharing your
workload you get enough time to manage your business and think of its better
promotions. You can outsource many things mainly your daily business activities
i.e. accounting, document processing, Web site maintenance, Secretarial work, or
other works need manual operations as well as marketing services. Below are some
reasons to give an idea about benefits of outsourcing.

1.You save time in finding, interviewing and
selecting the new employees by hiring an agency or search for your own.

2.You save time on providing them proper training
as well as they need to adjust with your work culture too.

3.You can save your time, which you need to do all
time-consuming paperwork requires hiring a permanent employee to your
organization.

4.You do not need to buy extra equipments for your
existing setup.

5.You save cost in your daily office expenses as
well as recurring employee charges i.e. Taxes, Insurance, Medical, leave and
many more.

6.You can utilize your time in better way and can
deliver better output for your business.

7.If you are a contractor, you can hire a
subcontractor and focus on more orders.

8.If you are marketing professional you can double
your marketing efforts and can have a wider reach.

9.You will be giving the extra efforts, which all
are needed in present competition, to develop your business and getting more
volume of works.

10.You will be getting a professional who has
expertise in his own field and can deliver you better output.

There are many more reasons why you need to outsource your projects. Today time
management is an important aspect of your business. There are many instance of
SME’s growing to a large business houses simply multiplying there existing time.

Do You Need Accounting Software For Your Small Business?

Do You Need Accounting Software For Your Small
Business?

by: E.SAUNDERS

If you’re anything like me then you dislike with a vengeance doing your accounts
and taxes.

So how can you make this process easier, less painful and cut your accountancy
fees?

Well buying an accounting software package is one way.

First of all you need to decide whether you are going to keep your accounting
records manually, that is using pen and paper, or whether you are going to
computerize the process.

If you decide that computerizing the process is the way to go then you need to
decide whether to buy an accounting software package, for example Sage or
Quicken, or whether a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel will suit your needs
better.

As a general rule if you are a cash business that just
needs to record income and expenditure then you are better off using a
spreadsheet.

So, should you choose an accounting software package? Yes if:

· You have customers to whom you extend credit and you buy goods in the same way


· You process in excess of 50 transactions per month

· Your business is an Incorporated Company (Limited Company in the UK)

and

· You are computer literate or are willing to learn!

Before choosing the accounting software, speak to your accountants – they will
be familiar with the various accounting software packages on the market and will
be able to advise you. Most accountants use software in their office to process
the bookkeeping for their clients and will have a working knowledge of the
accounting software package they use. It may be cheaper for you to use the same
one they do, because they can advise you how to get it up and running and will
be on hand to answer questions, plus at your financial year end when your
accounts need preparing it will be less expensive, believe me to have a
compatible program.

I also recommend doing some research yourself, you may be
able to obtain a demonstration disk or download of the most popular accounting
software packages and this will give you an idea of how they work and if they
are user-friendly.

The cost may also be an issue, so you need to decide on your budget. But
consider how your business is likely to expand - you may outgrow that budget
accounting software quickly and end up buying the more expensive one anyway.

Accounting software providers may also try and up-sell you a maintenance
contract. Save your money! In my experience the established software providers
will not have bugs in their systems. They will also try and upgrade you to the
next version on a regular basis, but if the software is doing everything you
need then there is no need to upgrade.

Of course, you could also pay someone to do your accounts for you, either your
accountant or a bookkeeper – the payoff being you don’t have to do it yourself
and it frees you up to actually run your business!

Company/Employee Handbook As Organisational Improvement Tool

Company/Employee Handbook as Organisational
Improvement Tool

by: E.SAUNDERS

A business is only able to grow as fast as the internal organisation is able to
process higher volumes of sales. But how to get an optimal internal
organisation? Well, you will need to adapt your internal organisation over and
over again. It’s a never ending story. However, a Company/Employee Handbook
could assist you to achieve the best internal business organisation.

This brings up the question, What has to be included in a Company/Employee
Handbook? Everything what has influence to your business operation. First of
all, it has to be outlined which areas the Company/Employee Handbook will cover.
As it has to do with internal operation, here is a list of items you should
include:

- Company Background Information (Name-Development, Foundation date and place,
History-Milestones, Vision)

- Owner and/or Manager Bios/Profiles

- Listing of Officers and Board of Directors

- Employment Roles (Job Roles, Job Descriptions)

- Description of the main products and services (just use your marketing
material)

- FAQ (about internal subjects only)

- Company timeline (What, when, where)

- Office procedures (Workflow-Information, Working Procedures)

- List of persons to know (Bank Contact, Tax Advisor, Laywer, Main Suppliers,
etc.)

- Overview of agreements (Rental, Leasing, etc.)

- Internal Policies (Dress code, Phone usage and answering, Voice Mail
Procedure, Parking,

Business Cards, Drug Policy, etc.).

The above list shows which information should be included.

The following list
shows which departments should be included:

- Distribution

- Inventory/Warehouse

- Marketing (How Follow-up’s are handled, Lead-Generation, etc.)

- Customer Support

- Research and Development

- Accounting

- Human Resources

- Purchase/Procurement.

The above two lists just show, how complex it could be to setup a
Company/Employee Handbook. But it don’t have to be complex, just start partial.
Only include the information which are already available and use the help of
your employees. The benefits of having a Company Handbook are numerous, your
employees will save time, it will be easier to improve procedures, because the
procedures will be broken down into small sections of the whole precodures.
Everything is clearly described, so nobody needs to ask over and over again. In
case of holiday or illness of an employee, others could jump into the job,
because they could be trained faster.

As employer, you could hire employees with lower education. And your employees
will love it, because they know where to look, when they have questions and they
could improve their working environment as well. But the most advantage for the
owner is, that the organisation will be able to work properly, when the business
grows and when the owner might sell the business one day, it might get sold
easier, because of the proper organisation.

When installing a Company Handbook, you will find procedures you could automate.
Automating the operation as much as possible will also be a big benefit, because
employees and employer are able to focus their workforce on more important
topics, such as improving the sales volume. Furthermore automatization will
reduce to cost of operation as well.

A Company/Employee Handbook is a bit like a Business Plan, but far more
detailed, because it will contain information on every internal procedure. Only
the financial part of the business plan will not be included, but if you like
you might include some financial information you like to share with your
employees. As you describe your procedures just do it as a numeration or
listing. The description don’t have to be very well formed, it’s just important
that everyone who will read it, is able to understand what has to be done.

Remember, a Company Handbook is a living system, if you and your employees are
not updating it regularly, it will be death one day, because it will only
contain old stuff. So keep all people within your business engaged in improving
the Company Handbook, because it will improve your business internal
organisation as well. While starting to write the content of your Company
Handbook, concentrate on job roles at first, afterwards write down job
descriptions, in case a job role has been given to employees twice (Accounting
Staff, etc.). Job Roles need to include the duties and the responsebilities of
the described job.

Job Roles, Job Descriptions and Workflow-Descriptions of special procedures
don’t have to be the same, but take care that the information is consistent,
that means that it is written in a stream. This way the entire Company Handbook
will be of benefit for everyone. When rereading something on your Company
Handbook and you still have questions, than the entry is not finished.

Last but not least, your Company/Employee Handbook should be available everytime.
To do this, think about an Internet or Intranet Solution, depending on the size
of your business. Keep it simple and slim, and you will have many benefits from
it. Good Luck.

Choosing A Business Tax Service

Choosing A Business Tax Service

by: E.SAUNDERS

There are a number of ways that you can find tax services companies. The yellow
pages is a good place to start for companies in your area but, depending on
where you live, the list of names may be extremely long. It is a good idea to
ask your friends, colleagues and business partners to recommend the tax services
that they have found helpful and efficient in the past. Then you can call the
tax services professionals that you have on your list and discuss your
requirements.

The first step in finding the best tax services for your needs is deciding what
level of help you require. Perhaps you simply need someone who can file a simple
tax return but has to wade through your slightly disorganised accounting
documents, or maybe you have a number of employees and need

assistance sorting out their tax withholdings or you may even want all of these
tax services, and more. The size of the tax services company may also be an
issue. You may want one person to be able to perform all of your tax work,
especially if you are only a small business owner or you may want a team of tax
professionals and you want to find tax services that have a number of
specialists available. Once you have identified the type of tax services then
you can begin your search more easily. Your available tax services budget is
obviously going to be an issue but you should try to allocate as much money as
possible to ensure that you can afford the best possible tax services. Remember
that you can incur heavy fines if you have incorrectly filed your tax return or
are late paying any type of tax that your business is liable for.

Apart from professional qualifications and references one of the most important
points to consider when assessing which of the tax services companies you want
to use is whether you feel comfortable with the person you are dealing with. At
the end of the day you are going to trust them with your financial records and
it is essential that you feel that you can depend upon the person.

Every business, at some time, needs the help of some type of tax services at
some stage. Large organisations usually have their own tax services department
with accountants and tax lawyers but small companies often have to hire tax
services on a regular basis to help keep their tax returns and other issues in
order. It is important to know how to find the best tax services, no matter what
type of business you are involved with.