The most popular trading scenario involving companies registered in the EU is the VAT triangulation scheme. Triangulation rules were specially devised in order to simplify cross-border trading, so that EU companies wouldn't have to register for a VAT number in each EU member state to which they deliver goods.

Although triangulation is easy to understand, it seems that for many business owners this trading model is a significant source of misunderstanding.

The first rule to remember is that the model must involve three companies, registered in three different EU member states, each with its own VAT number.

One company sells goods to another company, which then sells the same goods on to the third company. However, the goods are transported directly from the first company to the final (third) company.

Basic rules of VAT triangulation
Those making use of the VAT triangulation simplification procedure must act in accordance with 2006/112/EC, Article 141 of the EU VAT Directive, which stipulates the following conditions:

The trading scheme must include three different companies, domiciled in three different EU countries.
Each company in the trading scheme must have a valid VAT registration number.
The goods must be transported directly from company number 1 to company number 3.
Trading scenarios without triangulation simplification
The benefits of triangulation simplification depend on the transport scheme. There are two main scenarios in terms of how goods are transported between the three parties.

First scenario: attribution to sale no 1
In this scenario, goods are transported from company 1 to company 3 and attributed to sale no 1. The supply of goods arranged by company 1 is classed as intra-community and so subject to 0% VAT. Meanwhile, company 2 effects a taxable intra-community acquisition in the member state of company 3, where the goods arrive. Consequently, company 2 must register for VAT in the country of arrival of the goods and declare the acquisition there. If company 2 is not registered for VAT in that country, it will be charged VAT in its own member state.

While company 1 is involved in an intra-community supply, at 0% VAT, the subsequent transfer of the goods between company 2 and company 3 is treated as a domestic sale. Therefore, company 2 is registered for VAT in the member state that receives the goods and charges the applicable VAT in that state. Ultimately, company 3 will reclaim that VAT through its regular VAT return.

Second scenario: attribution to sale no 2
In this case, goods are transported from company 1 to company 3 and attributed to sale no 2. The sale made by company 2 is classed as an intra-community supply of goods, subject to VAT at 0%. Company 3 is charged VAT in its own member state, whereas company 2 effects an intra-community supply in the member state of company 1, where the transport chain started, also at 0% VAT. This means that company 2 must be registered for VAT in company 1’s member state, where it will declare the intra-community supply of the goods. Thus, the transaction between company 1 and company 2 is considered to be a domestic sale, with company 1 charging its local VAT rate to company 2. Later, company 3 declares the VAT deal in its own member state and reclaims that VAT through its VAT return.

How do businesses benefit from triangulation simplification?
For the purpose of simplification, company 2's acquisition of the goods in the member state of arrival is deemed to have been subject to VAT. This removes the obligation on company 2 to register for VAT in the destination member state. Sale no 2 is now subject to the reverse charge mechanism. The final customers are charged VAT on the value of the acquired goods. Eventually, company 3 will reclaim its local VAT through its regular VAT return.

Supporting documentation for triangulation
In order to set up and maintain VAT triangulation structure, you will require to provide the following documents:

The sales invoice is issued by company 1 to company 2. The valid (and verified) VAT numbers of both companies must be featured on the invoice.
In return, the intermediary trading party — company 2 — sends its sales invoice to the final customer — company 3. Both companies’ valid VAT numbers are quoted on the invoice. In addition, company 2 must refer to Article 141 simplification on the invoice.
The supply by company 1 to its customer, company 2, is not subject to VAT, because this transaction falls under the intra-community dispatch of goods rule.
An intra-community supply is recorded by company 3.
Company 2 records the triangulation sale to company 3 separately in its ECSL (European Community Sales List) return.
Company 1 records the goods as dispatched on the Intrastat forms.
Company 3 records the goods as arrived on the Intrastat forms.

Multinational companies and governments around the world are increasingly looking to Africa as a new business destination. Africa's economy has grown at a rate of around 5.3% per year over the last decade and six of the world's ten fastest growing economies are located here. These countries have a fast-growing middle class that contributes to rapid urbanization that is increasing faster than their cities' infrastructure can keep up. It is a common misconception that many economies in Africa are heavily dependent on energy production. In reality, the oil and gas sector accounted for only 11% of Nigeria's GDP in 2014, while the construction sector accounted for 20%.

When considering doing business in Africa, it is not a matter of choosing just one country or all 54; A regional approach makes more sense. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, refers to sub-Saharan countries such as Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Many companies already doing business in Africa are separating their businesses in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa due to the stark economic, linguistic and cultural differences between the two regions. Here are our top 5 African countries for doing business:

Mauritius
Mauritius is known for offering an extremely favorable business environment for investment and business growth. The process of incorporating a company and starting new business activities in Mauritius is believed to be straightforward and relatively easy. Mauritius' economy is mainly based on textiles, tourism, sugar and financial services, although recently other sectors such as renewable energy and information technology are expanding rapidly. The World Bank ranked Mauritius 49th in its Doing Business 2017 ranking, largely due to its pro-business approach to dealing with building permits, enforcing contracts and protecting minority investors. Another ranking of African countries places Mauritius first based on factors such as law and security, economy, human development and human rights.

Rwanda
Despite nearly a decade of Rwanda's civil war, the country's leaders and citizens alike have worked to achieve a healthy business climate and a strong overall economy. According to the World Bank, Rwanda is the second easiest place to do business in Africa and ranks 56th in the Doing Business ranking. This is because the procedures for registering a property, obtaining credit and trading across borders have been greatly simplified. Tourism is currently the fastest growing sector in Rwanda. According to our research, businesses can be incorporated and operating in as little as three days.

Botswana
Since gaining independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest per capita economic growth rates in the world. As the government works to diversify the country's profitable industries, the mining of diamonds and other precious metals is currently the main contributor to the country's economy. Recently, Botswana has managed to reduce the time it takes for various processes including import and export and business formation procedures. In addition, technological upgrades have reduced the average court length for commercial disputes to 625 days (from 987 days in 2008). Thanks to these improvements, Botswana ranks 71st in the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 ranking.

South Africa
South Africa's key industries are automobile manufacturing, tourism, mining and information and communication technologies. South Africa has managed to simplify its import and export procedures, resulting in less time and fewer documents required. In addition, the South African authorities have simplified tax legislation, reducing the number of hours required to prepare tax reports. The World Bank ranked South Africa 74th for ease of doing business in 2017.

Kenya
Another country to keep an eye on is Kenya, which is currently making huge investments in sectors such as telecom, transport and energy. With a tech-savvy workforce and high-speed internet, Kenya stands out as one of the top countries in Africa for tech startups, while its diversified economy, strong ownership rights, excellent tourism sector and improving infrastructure make it a great location for general start a new company. If you have further questions about company formation or banking in Africa. Please contact us now.

Depending on the purpose of the website, there may be different features that should be pointed out in order to create the technical basis of the website. For example, if a company wants to promote some new products in the market in order to increase sales by selling the goods online, an intelligent content management system is required to make online sales efficient. If the goods are exclusive and above the average price compared to other of their prototypes on the market, the content of the website must reflect the level or standard of the products.

This means that the website has to have an appealing interface. If the range of products is quite large, the website not only needs to have a nice interface, but also a fairly intuitive design to make it easy for potential customers to navigate. Therefore, the site must include tools and features that span attractive design, cleverly chosen and arranged content, and promising online marketing tools, as the goods must be made salable.

Essential characteristics of a good corporate website

When it comes to the look and feel of a website, the first thing to do is choose the domain name of a successful website so that people can easily identify it. SEO would also be helpful as Google recognizes the content and structure of a website when it ranks for the search. In this case, wire framing can occur through the entire content of the site. The integration of social media can make the website recognizable and also increase the SEO: Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram etc. This can also go hand in hand with the creation of a mobile-ready or mobile-friendly version of a website.

Clear navigation is another feature that a good corporate website must have. The navigation strategy is a call to action that defines what website owners expect from users on the website. For example, place an order, send an email, become a member, visit the company, receive services a company can provide, etc. When it comes to standard website content, it needs to include some features such as: B. Logical roadmaps. For example, from a visual point of view, it is imperative that the site have a main page with sections describing its contents.

Effective website content

In general, the site may contain information about the company, its team members or historical background, terms and conditions for the sale and delivery of goods or services, shopping areas such as shopping cart or shopping cart if the website offers its customers countable items that can be purchased online , Support section, Contact section where a list of addresses and phone numbers can be included, and an illustrative section where picture galleries, video galleries and / or audio files can be placed, saved, downloaded and / or viewed.

In addition, the site may contain Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or “Help Desk” sections, feedback areas, special offers, upcoming news or events, popular or useful articles organized as blogs, notes, or even a diary.

Website building platforms as an alternative to the traditional website building approach

There are some automated website creation platforms on the internet these days that can provide a necessary help for those who want pre-built samples of picture galleries and picture box layouts, text box templates and arrangements, title font designs, and other useful tools for visualizing the Website. The most popular of them are named as WIX.com, GoDaddy, Weebly, SiteBuilder.com, Web.com, BigCommerce, etc. Usually these platforms have demo versions that can easily be used to get started creating a new, stunning website for free.

Of course, there are some limitations on the website building capabilities. However, each registered user can subscribe to a wider range of technical means in order to achieve perfection. Such website builders are a great alternative for long meetings with graphic designers, exhausting discussions with many disagreements, conflicting attitudes, and other distracting and unnecessary obligations. The website UI is very easy to create on site and takes all the hard work off of it while creating a beautiful and functional website.

The main advantage of this approach, however, is that the interface can be customized, replaced, or rearranged as easily as it was created without understanding and writing special software code and other programming and IT work that only Professionals.

Cyprus offers a very useful intellectual property tax regime. The law provides some tax exemption for intellectual property income. More specifically, 80% of the worldwide intellectual property royalty income of a Cyprus tax resident company (net of direct expenses) is exempt from income tax. In addition, 80% of the gains from the sale of intellectual property by Cyprus resident companies (net of direct expenses) are also exempt from income tax and all expenses of a capital character for the acquisition or development of intellectual property are tax deductible in the year in which it arose and for the following four consecutive years.

Companies registered in Cyprus, if managed and controlled from Cyprus, receive a tax clearance certificate. In order for the company to retain its management and control in Cyprus, the majority of the company's board of directors must be resident in Cyprus, the company's secretary and registered office must be located in Cyprus, the board of directors must hold its meetings in Cyprus and , should the company's shareholders hold some of their meetings in Cyprus whenever possible. The tax authorities have also increased their requirements and are now examining the granting of powers of attorney by companies. If a general power of attorney is issued by the company allowing someone who is not a tax resident of Cyprus to act on their behalf, this may result in the company not being tax resident.