By Tanzeel Akhtar From The Street

Cryptocurrency companies are setting up shop in places like Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.

There are a number of Bitcoin and tech companies popping up in places like Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man due to the attractive tax benefits and loose regulations.

For obvious reasons, these places are a start-up paradise and globally recognized as tax havens. But it’s not all cloak and dagger on the blockchain. Companies need take legal nuances into account when doing business in these shelters.

Cryptocurrency is, after all, under heavy scrutiny by regulators at the moment. It’s the hot new thing that will either become very huge or fizzle out. But as the document “Are Cryptocurrencies ‘Super’ Tax Havens?” argues, storing cryptocurrencies in a tax haven could be doubly surreptitious for tax evaders.

So does this mean there will be no regulatory oversight of what happens to the money raised from the sale of the EOS Tokens (on the Ethereum blockchain) if a company is based in a tax haven? As tempting as it may be for Bitcoin start-ups to play it fast and loose, they’d do well to cover their bases by playing by the rule book and doing their due diligence in advance.

Ross Wilson, who works for an Isle of Man-based Bitcoin exchange called CoinCorner, explains that what differentiates the Isle of Man from other jurisdictions is that it has taken the initiative to bring cryptocurrency businesses within the scope of its designated business legislation.

For more on this story and video go to: https://www.thestreet.com/story/14265580/1/bitcoin-start-ups-find-secret-protection-in-offshore-tax-havens.html

IMAGE: Tech Wire Asia