Incorporating Offshore

Are you looking for an offshore solution for your tax planning or investments projects? Do you worry about asset protection? If the answer is yes, then offshore structures can more than meet the challenge. However, it’s not always easy to find acceptable and cost-effective offshore solutions. That’s where we come in. TBA offers a complete line of efficient, competitively priced offshore services for service providers, corporations, entrepreneurs, and wealthy individuals.

Our track record speaks for itself. Since 1998, TBA & Associates has provided thousands of company formations and hundreds of offshore bank referrals to satisfied customers in North America, Asia and Europe. International Business Companies and Bank Accounts come complete with offshore debit/credit cards and online trading capability. Nominees and Virtual Offices worldwide are provided as well.

Low Tax Offshore Companies
Tax Haven Jurisdictions

Low tax offshore companies also refer to different types of offshore companies that can be formed in an offshore centre or jurisdiction such as the British Virgin Islands, Belize, the Seychelles or RAK UAE.

Companies incorporated in jurisdictions offering both offshore and onshore companies, they may benefit from favourable tax regulation and/or special offshore company regimes.

Mauritius is an example; it has two types of companies that are used both for offshore business and international tax planning. The Mauritius GBCII Offshore Company pays zero tax and is effectively a tax haven company, similar in many respects to a BVI Company, whilst the Mauritius GBCI Company is tax resident and typically utilised for double tax treaty and international tax planning.

Hong Kong is another example; although not typically regarded as a tax haven, it has a favourable tax regime which effectively means that properly structured, managed and administered Hong Kong companies can be used to undertake offshore business and international business without paying tax in Hong Kong provided that incomes are generated overseas (outside HK). This type of tax regulation is known as “territorial taxation”.

Fiscally Transparent Companies
The US LLC – Limited Liability Company
The UK LLP – Limited Liability Partnership

The LLC or Limited Liability Company and the LLP or Limited Liability Partnership type of company are a particular class of company used for international business and tax planning, due to their advantage of limited liability and the flow-through characteristics of a partnership for tax purposes.

This means that profits are divided amongst the members, in proportion to their respective ownerships, and are taxed in their hands; Under certain circumstances, if all the members or partners are non-tax resident in the domicile of the LLC or LLP company and no business is undertaken in that country, neither the LLC or the LLP company nor the members or partners will be subject to tax in the company’s country of establishment. Such companies are said to be “fiscally transparent” and examples include US LLCs and the UK LLP.

Companies Incorporated in
Tax Advantageous Onshore Jurisdictions

There are several countries as known as Onshore Countries, offering tax regimes that are by statute tax advantageous for specific international purposes. Offshore business consists not only of tax havens but also of onshore high tax countries competing to attract international companies and individuals with a wide manner of tax planning regulations and opportunities. These tax advantageous regulations are used for a large variety of tax planning business, such as:

Double tax treaty planning relating to dividends, interest and royalty payment

The establishment of holding, international headquarter treasury and finance operations

Specialist business, for example, leasing

Personal and family wealth management and tax planning

In fact, almost all countries offer tax regulations of one kind or another to encourage inward investment. International tax advisers have long been aware of the opportunities which exist for improving 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 range 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. So, today the offshore world includes the expert implementation of specific tax advantageous structures domiciled in high tax onshore countries as diverse as the UK, Singapore, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Switzerland and others.