Comment by SkyAndSand
2 years ago
> Because of the US FATCA law you may have trouble opening a bank account in some countries (smaller entities simply can’t be bothered with the paperwork the US demands on accounts for “US Persons”, a term which has specific meaning). In practice this just means you have to deal with larger banks.
You mean opening a bank account personally or for the company? Because for the company I'd simply use Wise or Mercury and be done with it.
Australian here. When I open a commercial bank account (i.e., company) here the FACTA regs mean I have to jump through a bunch of hopes to prove I’m not a US person, and neither other the other shareholders. And then I have to re-prove it every few years after it’s opened.
Commerzbank terminated my contract after 14 years as a loyal customer (and plenty of money in the account) — they refused to say why, but my best guess is they were culling Americans.
I think getting a German bank to open a business account for a U.S. startup would be a nightmare at best.
Totally agree, but why would you need a corporate bank account in Germany? You could simply use the US bank accounts?
You usually need a local bank account. For example, in the NL I need an NL bank account for taxation purposes for my NL business.
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Last time I looked it's hard to use something like Wise as your bank for your payroll.
Wise has been great for managing my personal payments, but I still have personal bank accounts in a couple of countries where I hold property because it just makes things easier there.
Wise is not very business friendly yet (they're probably busy planning their next rename), better to use Airwallex
I believe they are referring to the concept of corporate personhood. FACTA applying to "US persons" means it applies to corporate accounts too.