Offshore Company Overview

The term offshore company or offshore corporation has no precise definition.

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Offshore Company Overview

What is an offshore company?

The term offshore company or offshore corporation has no precise definition. The term “offshore” typically refers to conducting business somewhere other than the place of residence of the person using the term. Thus an offshore company in this sense is one incorporated in another jurisdiction than one’s residence. However in practice the term is used to describe a number of different types of offshore companies and even onshore companies used for a multitude of different purposes. We use the term to describe companies used for achieving objectives relating to international investment, international tax planning, conducting international business (trading and services) and family wealth structuring.

Offshore Company Types

  • International Business Company (IBC) – these are offshore companies that enjoy a statutory tax exemption in the jurisdiction of incorporation (e.g. Anguilla IBC, Belize IBC, BVI Company, Seychelles IBC)
  • Low Tax Offshore Company – these are offshore companies found in offshore jurisdictions that enjoy a low statutory or effective rate of taxation (e.g. Seychelles CSL)
  • Limited Liability Company (LLC) – the LLC is a fiscally transparent company that allows income and tax liability to pass through to its members (e.g. Florida LLC, Delaware LLC, Nevis LLC)
  • Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) – this is a fiscally transparent entity that is similar to the LLC in that income and tax liability pass through to its “partners” (e.g. UK LLP)
  • Onshore Company – these are companies that are incorporated in jurisdictions that either have a territorial tax regime (e.g. Hong Kong Company) or that offer some other incentives whereby the company can be used in a structure to achieve a low overall effective rate of taxation for the structure resulting in similar benefits to offshore corporation formation. Popular examples are Switzerland, Malta, Luxembourg, UK, Cyprus, Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore and more.

Offshore Company Uses

Offshore Company Setup and Other Services

Sterling not only provides services to support setting up an offshore company, but also a range of other services at the time of and after the setup. Offshore company formation (a.k.a. offshore corporation formation) is but a small part of our overall services:

 

While we are specialists with regard to Seychelles offshore company setup and related services, we provide similar services for a number of other jurisdictions including British Virgin Islands (BVI), the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and more. Contact Us today to get started.

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