Establish a company in Portugal and a corporate bank account in Puerto Rico – from 6,299 EUR

Portugal is not only about sunny days, seafood, and port wine. It is a wonderful business location that provides direct access to the European markets. Africa is also rather close and your Portuguese company corporate bank account in Puerto Rico will facilitate trade with American companies.

Portugal is still recovering from the financial crisis that happened about a decade ago. However, the country does not practice laid-back attitudes hoping for subsidies from richer states (like some of its EU companions do). Instead, the Government is promoting economic development by offering serious support to business companies.

This includes support to foreign-owned companies as Portugal is interested in attracting more capital from abroad to accelerate the economic improvement. Large-scale investors can obtain a permanent residence permit in Portugal without having to spend more than two weeks a year in the country. Evidently, Portuguese legal residency means free access to all other EU states.

Small- and medium-scale investors are attracted by the tax deductions that they can obtain in Portugal these days. The Portuguese Government especially welcomes foreign business people wishing to invest into some particular sectors of economy. Specifically, substantial incentives are offered to those investing into renewable sources of energy and other environmentally friendly projects in Portugal. In addition to that, the IT and fintech sectors are developing rapidly in the country. As the economy is picking up, the inflow of tourists into Portugal is growing again. Thus, investments into the tourist industry also receive preferential treatment from Portuguese authorities.

Set up a company in Portugal within ten days: an offer to those who put high value on their time

Owning a business company in Western Europe sounds great already but the possibility to establish it quickly and without too much hassle makes this opportunity even more exiting. With our assistance, you can register a company in Portugal within ten working days and start doing business in the EU and all around the world.

Apart from the speed of the company establishment, Portugal offers adequate registration prices, affordable rent of office space, and spotless reputation with the banks. Portugal-registered companies have never been involved in any money laundering scandals so banks around the world are happy to accept such companies as their clients. A Portuguese company can set up a corporate account with a local bank or a bank stationed in any other national state.

Generally speaking, Portugal is a good alternative for most other European jurisdictions. Some of them have become too expensive to relocate to, while others have had financial issues that hurt their international reputation. Portugal, on the contrary, looks fine on both sides.

A business company in Portugal: some specifics

The most convenient form of company ownership in Portugal is a Limited Liability Company that has LDA as its acronym in Portuguese. As is the case with LLC’s in all other countries, your financial liabilities will be limited by the amount of capital you invested at the moment of company formation.

As a matter of fact, one euro is sufficient as the company registered capital, in accordance with the Portuguese legislation. Besides, a single person can be the founder and the proprietor of the company. You also will not necessarily have to obtain Portuguese residency as foreign nationals are allowed to own companies in Portugal.

We can help you register a company in this country remotely. This means that you do not even have to leave home in order to establish a business company in an EU country. 

You could also set up a corporate account for your company with a Portuguese bank. However, a personal visit to the country would be required in this case. As far as the Puerto Rican bank is concerned (see below), there is no need to travel to Central America if you want to open an account there. Again, we can help you do it remotely.

One of the essential conditions for company registration in Portugal is the acquisition of a Tax ID. Both your company and you personally will have to acquire such an ID. The good news is that it is not difficult to do that.

You would not be able to establish a company in Portugal without a personal Tax ID. In order to obtain one you have to have a Portuguese citizen or legal resident (one who already holds a personal Tax ID) to act as the introducer to the country’s tax authorities. Both the Tax ID acquisition and the introducer services are included in the price of the service package that we are offering here.

You also have to keep in mind one particularity of the company registration procedure in Portugal. When setting up a company there, you can choose to name your company in your own way or otherwise, pick one of the names that are preapproved by the Portuguese Commercial Registry. In the latter case, the registration process will be rapid while in the former one you would have to wait fifteen more days until the Registrar approves your unique company name. Besides, you would have to pay extra 1,200 euros if you want to use the name of your own fantasy for the company. However, it is totally up to you to decide on this matter.

As is the case in most other countries, a company in Portugal shall have a registered legal address. The rent of the address is also included in the overall price of the service package that we are advertising here.

Documents required for setting up a company in Portugal

• A legalized passport copy of the prospective company owner;
• A legalized document to serve as proof of your address (such as a utility bill or a bank statement, for instance);
• The prospective company Articles of Association, which we will help you draw up.

Our services

A number of things have to be done in order to register a business company in Portugal. Below please find the items that our service package includes. Please mind that in case you want to establish a company under a unique legal name, the overall cost of our services will increase from 6,299 euros to 7,499 euros.

The company registration services in Portugal include the following:

• Payment of state duties;
• Company registration with the Commercial Registry;
• Preparation of the corporate documents package;
• Apostilled copies of the documents for the Puerto Rican bank;
• Company registration with the Portuguese tax authorities;
• Provision of online access to the Certificate of Commercial Registration;
• A physical ID card for the company;
• Tax ID for the company owner;
• Company representative services for three months;
• Rent of legal address for the company for three months;
• Accounting support for three months;
• Basic level Family Office services (see below) for three months.

The overall price of the service package also includes opening a corporate bank account for your Portuguese company in Puerto Rico. The process of setting up a bank account is described below in more detail.

For an additional pay, we can also provide the following additional services:

In addition to the services described above, you can also request our concierge or Family Office services. You can buy a company maintenance service package that will work out less expensive than if you pay for each service individually. There are three Family Office packages that you can choose from:

A corporate bank account in Puerto Rico for your Portuguese company

We will be happy to assist you with remote bank account opening in Puerto Rico in Central America. The bank that we are promoting here will suit perfectly well both trade and service companies.

The Puerto Rican bank

This is a private independent bank that is located in Puerto Rico. De facto, this bank is part of the US banking system, as Puerto Rico is closely associated with the USA. The bank has its own number with the Federal Reserve, which means that it is fully integrated in the United States banking system.

The account can be opened remotely, without a personal visit to the country. If you wish, however, you can travel to Puerto Rico and meet with the bank officers there in person. It is also possible to organize such a meeting in some other parts of the world. For example, the bank has an office in London.

You have to be aware of the fact that this bank does not work with cryptocurrencies. In case you would like to open an account for an organization that provides some kind of financial services, your application will have to undergo special consideration. This is not to say that the bank does not service such organizations at all but the due diligence check is going to be stricter.

You can open a corporate account with this bank in the following currencies: USD, EUR, and GBP. For EUR accounts, a unique IBAN can be obtained. There are no limitations on daily transaction amounts with this bank. The transactions can be made via SWIFT, Fedwire, and/ or SEPA.

The bank is planning to start issuing debit cards in the nearest future.

It has good expertise in trade financing and issuance of different kinds of Letters of Credit.

Apart from that, the bank has vast experience in working with service providers, especially IT companies.

Documents required for opening a corporate bank account in Puerto Rico

All the application documents shall be written in the English language. If they are written in another language, they have to be translated into English and translations apostilled.

• Account opening application form;
• Company registration certificate;
• Company corporate and constitutive documents. These shall contain the information about the company owner(s), director(s), its legal address, etc.  
• Any one document from the following list:
  • A document certifying the “active” status of the company issued by a competent regulatory agency;
  • A certificate containing the Employer’s Identification Number (EIN) issued by the tax authorities of the country where the company is registered;
  • Permit or License authorizing the company to conduct the activities issued by a competent agency; 
  • A registration certificate from the tax authorities of the company country of origin.
• A confirmation of the factual company address (not a P.O. Box): a utility bill, a bank statement, or letters from state agencies not more than three months old;
• Register of shareholders;
• Board of Directors’ resolution on opening the bank account and assigning the signers;
• Proof of legality of the sources of capital;
• A W9 form and a series of W8 forms;
• For every company beneficiary, director, and/ or authorized representative:
  • A passport copy;
  • Proof of address (a utility bill, an official letter, etc. not more than three months old);
  • A completed W-8BEN form or a completed W9 form.

We will provide all the bank forms to you when we start the process of account opening for your Portuguese company in Puerto Rico.

Some application documents can be scanned but the scan copies shall be of high quality and made in color.

The bank can request any additional documents at any time.

The costs of corporate account maintenance in Puerto Rico

The bank charges a fee for account opening. The precise amount of the fee will depend on several factors: the jurisdiction where the company is registered (offshore or onshore), the number of company beneficiaries, their countries of origin, and the sphere of business (high-risk or not).

The base fee amount is US$ 2,500 but you will know the ultimate price to pay only after your application documents are processed.

The bank accepts ACH payments. Its correspondent bank is currently the Bank of America and the Central Bank of America will soon become one. All the banking service tariffs are negotiated with each client individually.  

The incoming payment commission depends on the factors given above and it can be between 0.6% and 2.5% of the transaction amount.

The outgoing payment commission is normally US$ 60.

There are certain types of business activities that the bank considers high-risk. Applicants engaged in such activities will have to undergo a rigorous security check, as the bank has to comply with the KYC (Know Your Client) rules. The high-risk business activities include the following ones:

• Monetary dealers;
• Credit card issuers;
• Credit repair;
• Dating services;
• Debt consolidation;
• Financial services;
• Online marketing;
• Quick loans;
• Surveillance equipment production and trade;
• Telemarketing;
• Tobacco production and trade;
• Travelers’ clubs.  

Apply for our services

The bureaucratic procedures involved in company registration and bank account opening are our specialty. You will not have to leave the comfort of your home in order to set up a company in Portugal with a bank account in Puerto Rico.

If you request the service package that we have described above, here is what the whole procedure look like, step by step:

1. Write to us to [email protected] and apply for this service package.
2. Submit the application documents for company registration in Portugal.
3. We will check the documents carefully and probably ask you several questions in order to ascertain that we can provide these services to you. We do not bill our clients unless we are sure that there are good chances for success in this particular case.
4. If there are indeed, the next thing you will have to do is cover the cost of the service package.
5. With the set of application documents in hand and the payment on our account, we will launch the company registration procedure in Portugal. Normally, it should not take more than ten business day to establish a company in this country.
6. While the company registration process is in progress, you will have to submit all the application documents for bank account opening in Puerto Rico. You can supply scan copies of these documents.
7. We will see if the application documents conform to the bank requirements. In case some amendments or additions are needed, we will tell you so.
8. When your Portuguese company is successfully registered, we will send the scans to the bank, as they will have to perform their own security checks. On completion of these checks, the bank will whether accept or reject your application. If the latter is the case, we will suggest a different bank to you.
9. If the bank accepts your application for corporate account opening, you will have to collect all the required document originals and send them to the address that we will indicate. Courier services need to be used for this postage.
10. After that, you will have to pay the account opening fee to the bank.
11. As soon as the bank administration has all the application documents originals as well as the payment of the fee, they will open a corporate bank account for your company. This is going to take them only one working day.
12. Finally, you will receive your corporate bank account number and thus you can start your business operations.

If you need any additional information, please contact us via e-mail [email protected] without any hesitation at all. We will be happy to answer all your questions.