Go Offshore

Set Up a Company

It is near impossible to list every single possible use of an offshore company, though typically, our clients have set up offshore companies for the following reasons:

Offshore financial centers

Our clients favour very low or zero tax offshore international financial centres, such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Samoa, Mauritius or Panama.

There are considerable advantages to incorporating a company or establishing a fund in such jurisdictions, including favourable tax regulation, rule of law,  minimal compliance and disclosure requirements, a corporate legal regime allowing incorporation of many different types of corporate and fund structures, favourable accounting requirements and ease of set-up and establishment. For example:

Double Tax Treaties Benefits/International Tax Planning: Mauritius has two types of company that are used for offshore business and international tax planning. The Mauritius GBCII Offshore Company pays zero tax whilst the Mauritius GBCI Company is Mauritius tax resident and would be eligible to claim for double tax treaty benefits and is extremely popular as a financial vehicle in international tax planning.

Flexibility of Structure: Various types of incorporations are possible in many of these offshore financial centers. A BVI Corporate may be incorporated as a company limited by shares, a company limited by guarantee (with or without authorisation to issue shares), an unlimited company (with or without authorisation to issue shares), a segregated portfolio company, a private trust company and a restricted purpose company. Collective incentive schemes could be incorporated in the BVI as partnerships, limited partnerships, unit trusts and corporates.

Minimal Disclosure and Compliance Requirements: For the BVI corporate, the information of directors, officers and shareholders can be kept completely confidential and there are no requirements to file organizational or financial information with the Registrar of Companies (except for Memorandum & Articles of Association). Share registers are available only for registered shareholders or by order of the BVI Court (but bearer shares are totally anonymous). Lastly, there are no requirements to file accounts or annual summaries with the Government, only the annual fee form should be completed and filed by the registered agent in the BVI.

Hong Kong and Singapore: Both Hong Kong and Singapore, although not typically regarded as being offshore, have  favourable tax regimes which effectively means that correctly structured, managed and administered Hong Kong and Singapore Companies can be utilised for undertaking offshore business and international business without paying tax in Hong Kong or Singapore provided that profits are not deemed to arise locally.  

Stable Rule of law, No foreign exchange control and Political and economic stability 

The offshore financial centers all benefit from the rule of law. Further, these jurisdictions have no foreign exchange controls and funds that can be moved freely in and out. Lastly, these jurisdictions are socio-economically stable and have good reputations for being safe havens for conducting international business activities

International tax advisers have long been aware of the opportunities which exist for improving overall tax efficiency by using the special low tax regimes offered by high tax countries seeking to encourage international business. However, successful implementation of such structures is dependent on a wide variety of issues, often relating to matters such as anti-avoidance provisions, double tax avoidance, controlled foreign company and management and control tests and provisions, transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, participation exemptions, capital gains tax and a myriad of other ever-changing tax regulation. More recently, the weapons contained in the armoury of the tax collectors have been supplemented by exchange of information treaties and provisions.