Which countries and Bank allows adult business legally ?
 

Dear site owners,

I need your help in the next topic:

I am a Hungarian site owner here in Hungary, (Central Europe) and wanna open a company - outside of Hungary to use this company to operating my adult site(s). ( until now I did it as a sole proprietor with a private bank account, but from now, I wanna and must change it to company. )

To open a company example in Cyprus or The Netherlands, or Belgium - it is not so complicated, but I must need to open a bank account too - to be able to receive funds from the payment processors like CCBILL, EPOCH, SEGPAY, ect....

But when you would like to open a bank account for this company - the BANK will ask you - what kind of business activity you would like to do under this company name.

Now, there are two possible ways to say:

1. Say the truth, I need this company because it works in adult business ( operating porn sites... ) If you say the first one, most of the banks DO NOT will accept to open a bank account for this - because it is too risky for them.

2. You lie to the bank and just say: This company will do internet-based online services.... In case of this second version - maybe the bank accept it maybe not. Or ask your profession - are you able to provide this "internet services, advertising services " or not...

Which one is the best/better choice ?

So not just the company establishing place is the question - because it is the easier part.
The more important part is the bank, and bank account, and official business activity which is registered for this upcoming company.

So I would like to ask the similar site owners - as me, please help me with your comments ideas - which works today regarding this question...

Thank you for your help. Istvan

What's wrong with hungary? There is only 10% income tax how much i know .

Denmark is good for porn. The banks dont care as long as its legal.

I used Nordea Bank ( https://www.nordea.dk/ ) for years, but you gotta present it as a business-case with volumes and budgets in the first presentation/communication with them... if you dont, you wont find any open doors anywhere.

But anyway, CZ is one of countries where you can do it legally. And there is also banks which wont bother you with any questions.

Here the taxes are crazy..., and the tax office asking everything what do you do and why, how, ect ect... So Hungary is good for production ( Nice girls, food, and places ), but not good for owning a business here...

They have to do that everywhere due to the EU Anti-Money Laundering and Countering regulations. That is why you need a good relationship with your bank and a SOLID businessplan that shows them where the money comes from

I have no idea!
p.s. I'm staying in Budapest for 8 more days, hit me up with you wanna talk biz this weekend!

Yes. I still remember getting a 3 page questionnaire which i needed to fill up for getting a corporate account on one bank, so i gave up from working with that bank. But it depend from bank to bank, some are more strict some more relaxed.

Why not open a bank account in the US?

Dear Oracle Porn, I am a Europe based person, and because of this - I must use the same Europe based company. - I got this info from one of the biggest payment service provider...
So for me is not possible to open a company in USA or Canada, because the payment processor company will do not accept it...
( I am able to open the company, but the payment processor will not accept it... Now I am asking other payment processors, but I am afraid will get the same feedback... Will see )

I think in most countries where porn is not outlawed/illegal, the only reason a bank won't open an account is because they don't want to be involved in a 'dirty' business. Nothing to do with legalities. Mainly reputational risk.

Unless you're making huge amounts of money, you're probably going to have to beat around the bush when it comes to explaining your business (if the bank even asks).

Hi Istvan, i think you must to incorporate a company in Cyprus and choose a bank like bankofcyprus.com or hellenicbank.com. However you must start by opening your company with a tax lawyer company like Cyprus Company incorporation | Offshore | Shelf companies & Meridian Trust or BDO and They can advise you a bank.
You can give as activity: Management of Internet websites
I think the best would be that you move on site !

this is repression. Why would bank care where from money is coming from? If someone is suspecting on criminal activities, it is job for the police, not for a bank.

Thanks all for your comments. News is still welcome ! :)

Thank you for all of your comments! New comments are still welcome!

Hiho Istvan,

my suggestion would be to ask INet Cash and Verotel if they have some suggentions for you and a little assistance. INet Cash is based in germany and Verotel in The Netherlands. Both have webmasters from Germany and The Netherlands. Tell them your situation and ask nice and friendly if they can tell you where some of their Dutch and German based webmasters have their business bank accounts.

hxxps://www .inet-cash.com
hxxps://www .verotel.com

Sorry for non-clickable links, but have to few posts to link directly.

This is a tough one - they are cracking down on adult and the places that aren't want tons of tax data. The bank I use you probably couldn't use as a European. There are good suggestions here though.

This does not sound accurate....anyone can open a US company and a US bank account and operate a business under it.

There you go . . .

Check my site about companies and BA

both banks does not accept adult

Banks can do business with whoever they want outside of protected classes I believe. There's probably very few adult businesses that are super open about what they do with their bank. A teller may not care and may not pass the message on, but any "teller says it's OK so adult is OK" bank's risk management may have a different and more powerful opinion.

I wish one of these days a billing company makes their own bank (USA). I'd pay more in fees and agree to keep a much higher balance if I knew the account wouldn't suddenly be closed because they don't like sex.

our British bank & Spanish bank & accountant knows our income from our adult entertainment business is from porn filming & photography, no problems in Spain or the UK with the banks we use :thumbsup

I 've thought that it could be a problem only in Islamic states, but I guess I was wrong.

I keep getting bombarded these ads from Estonia...

It's a govt thing and you get a business, an account and even residentsy if I remember correctly. I don't think they are fussy about the biz type.....

That was three years ago soft has been shut down in Estonia - things are different now

I must say, we're all glad you're doing so well, but what suggestion do you have for the OP?

Both these bank don’t accept aduly based business. Bad experience with them.

Only 2nd option is good where you can say to bank IT based and online services.

Actually, this is not a lie.. paysites are internet services :winkwink:

Tell them you are a film producer and you produce all categories of short movies users pay for. That is still true, isn't it?

And if they find out the movies are all porn, well you decided to go 100% porn due to the high demand :1orglaugh

aww thanks...

and well, I was trying to say that if UK and Spain are ok with adult online businesses, i´m sure there is a bank in Hungary. With Budapest as porn capital, i´m sure there would be no problem suggesting your business is an "adult online business". You never want to lie, just stick with the truth. And besides, why even mention adult, if it was children's clothing, you would say, online marketing and sales, so stick to this for adult products too. :2 cents:

Yep, in official company category registration, which is done when you register company, you can pick only "major category" , in this case would be internet services, so if such rule apply to official company registration details, then it should apply to banking as well.

A lot of European countries are becoming Islamic.

absolutely :thumbsup