The following is the contribution of the third-party payment company WindPayer:
Since 20 17, offshore account has been blocked from time to time. I believe many foreign traders have heard of it and even experienced the freezing and closing of offshore account. At the same time, many merchants report that it is getting more and more difficult to open an account in offshore account. In view of these situations, this paper will summarize and answer the questions that foreign traders usually ask about offshore account. Let's cut into the problem briefly to help foreign traders further understand the nature of offshore account and reduce the probability of offshore account being blocked.
1, what is offshore account? What's the role?
2. What about offshore account?
3. What is the state's attitude towards offshore account?
4. Will offshore account with normal trade be blocked?
5. How to ensure that your offshore account is not frozen or closed?
6. What will be the future trend of offshore account?
7. What's the difference between an entity account and an electronic account? Which is more advantageous?
8. What is the future development direction of foreign traders?
1. What is offshore account? What's the role?
This problem should be familiar to most foreign trade businesses. Offshore account is actually a bank account (domestic onshore account) opened by depositors in Hongkong or overseas. The biggest feature of offshore account is that it is less subject to foreign exchange control, and onshore accounts will be restricted by regional laws and foreign exchange control, which will cause many inconveniences in international payment and settlement, while offshore account is less restricted and has a higher degree of freedom in capital allocation. Therefore, offshore account is better in remittance speed and operation convenience. For foreign traders, offshore account is one of the most commonly used ways of foreign trade collection and settlement in the world.
2. What about offshore account?
For mainland entrepreneurs, one of the best places to set up offshore account is Hong Kong, which is not only close to the mainland, but also one of the world-famous financial centers, with well-known banks in the world, such as HSBC, DBS Bank and Hang Seng Bank. Hong Kong has no foreign exchange control measures and has great advantages in international collection and other businesses. It can be said that for foreign traders who need to collect and settle foreign exchange, having a offshore account is almost the standard for every foreign trader.
3. What is the state's attitude towards offshore account?
In order to solve this problem, we can learn about CRS, the same reporting standard. CRS was put forward by OECD to promote the exchange of tax information between countries. Countries or regions joining CRS need to automatically exchange tax-related resident account information, the main purpose of which is to effectively combat tax evasion.
We can understand that banks in countries or regions that have joined CRS are obliged to disclose depositors' information to the tax bureaus of other member countries. Chinese mainland, Hongkong and Macau became the second batch of countries and regions to enter CRS in 20 17. That is to say, all the bank accounts you opened in the countries or regions that joined CRS and the account information of this account can be found in State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China, China.
Of course, the main reason for the country to join CRS is to combat money laundering and tax evasion. It is certain that the state is increasingly strict in monitoring offshore account, but as long as normal foreign trade transactions and standardized account operations are carried out, offshore account will generally not be frozen or closed.
4. Will offshore account with normal trade be blocked?
As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of China's joining CRS is to strengthen anti-money laundering investigation and crack down on tax evasion. Most of the blocked accounts are accounts with questionable funds. However, during the closure of offshore account this time, many foreign trade merchants said that they were doing normal foreign trade transactions, so why was offshore account frozen and closed?
In fact, this is also related to the tightening of national regulatory review and policy tightening. In the past, the bank's review of offshore account was relatively loose, foreign traders occasionally operated irregularly, and the bank would not check too closely. With the tightening of policies, the investigation of banks has been strengthened. If foreign traders have irregular account operations, their accounts will be regarded as abnormal, and they will also face the risk of being frozen and sealed up. Therefore, foreign traders who conduct normal foreign trade transactions should pay attention. If your offshore account operation is abnormal or not standardized, you will also face the risk that your account will be blocked.
5. How to ensure that your offshore account is not frozen or closed?
Foreign trade merchants engaged in normal trade can pay attention to the following points if they are worried that their offshore account will be affected, so as to reduce the risk of account closure.
1. Ensure the authenticity of the trading background. With the strengthening of regulatory policies, any cross-border transactions without proof of legitimate sources of funds will be strictly investigated. Foreign traders should ensure that their foreign trade transactions have a real trading background and relatively stable trading frequency, and it is best to have relevant domestic entities.
2. Avoid trading with sensitive and high-risk countries. In order to avoid money laundering, foreign trade personnel should also pay attention to avoiding currency transactions with sensitive and high-risk countries (such as Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, etc.). ), and payments from these sensitive or high-risk areas are likely to be intercepted and verified by banks.
3. Minimize personal transactions. When conducting cross-border transactions, foreign trade merchants should try their best to make business-to-business payments, and try their best to reduce personal account remittances to avoid affecting the stability of offshore account.
4. Keep your account active. It is best for foreign trade merchants to keep certain funds in offshore account and maintain certain activity (a small amount of transactions within three months). Accounts that have been inactive for a long time are easily cancelled by banks.
5. Actively cooperate with the bank investigation. Foreign trade merchants should actively cooperate when receiving the bank questionnaire, and provide true and complete corresponding information in time as required. For uncooperative customers, the bank will directly cancel the account.
6. What will be the future trend of offshore account?
In fact, apart from the difficulty in opening an account in offshore account, due to the ignorance of offshore account and related policies, even if the account is opened successfully, foreign traders will easily freeze or close the account for various reasons. However, where there is demand, there is service. Apart from opening an account in a bank, I believe many foreign traders have heard of it and even used the offshore account provided by a third-party payment institution. So, is the offshore account provided by third-party payment institutions safe enough?
In fact, let's take WindPayer, a recently active third-party payment company. Payment companies with foreign payment licenses have reached stable cooperative relations with regional banks. In other words, the offshore account provided by WindPayer is actually the offshore account opened by the bank, which has the functions that normal offshore account should have. Different from banks, the target group of payment institutions is small and medium-sized foreign trade merchants. Account opening, data review, account maintenance and other services. , there will be specialized personnel to connect and provide better account use services. In addition to more thoughtful service, foreign trade merchants do not have to worry about the account being blocked. After all, the service provided by such payment companies is to check and maintain accounts for offshore account, an overseas trader, to ensure that the accounts are not frozen or closed.
7. What's the difference between an entity account and an electronic account? Which is more advantageous?
It is worth mentioning that some third-party payment institutions provide electronic offshore account. The biggest difference between this electronic offshore account and the traditional offshore account is that the electronic offshore account has no physical card, and it is only for corporate accounts, because the electronic offshore account is a product specially set up for global collection of foreign trade. The third-party payment company is essentially a offshore account opened by a bank. What's more convenient is that the whole account opening process of E offshore account is conducted online, and it is not necessary for foreign traders to conduct on-site audit through the port, nor to purchase bank wealth management or time deposits, which greatly saves the time and energy costs of foreign traders.
In view of the short time of e-offshore account, some foreign trade merchants who are used to using traditional offshore account still hold a wait-and-see attitude towards it. On the basis of ensuring the safety of funds, foreign traders should understand that in today's Internet age, the iterative speed of product update is very fast. When traditional offshore account is faced with the dilemma that it is easy to close an account and difficult to open an account, it is difficult to adapt to the normal needs of users. The electronic offshore account provided by the third-party payment company may be a new export for foreign traders to collect money internationally.
8. What is the future development direction of foreign traders?