St. Lucia Offshore Companies may be registered in St. Lucia under the International Business Companies Act by: Incorporation, Continuation, Merger or Consolidation. The following are the key features of the Act. All companies must have a Registered Agent and a Registered Office:
The Act provides for confidentiality of Shareholders, Directors and Officers. Only the registered agent and the registered office are public records. St. Lucia Offshore Companies may elect to be exempted from income tax or to be liable to income tax on profits and gains at 1%. Also St. Lucia Offshore Companies are not subject to stamp duties, withholding tax and capital gains tax. There are no audit or annual filing required unless the Company elects to pay tax. The government fee is the only annual requirement.
There is great flexibility and control of the operations of the St. Lucia Offshore Company. The shareholders can limit the powers of the directors through the memorandum and articles of Association, or through a unanimous shareholder agreement. Low annual fees of US $300 provides great cost savings. The incorporation and annual fee is the same whether the capital of the company is less than or greater than US $50,000. There is no requirement for local directors and meetings of directors may be held anywhere. All Registered Agents are
regulated to ensure professional efficient service. Nominee shareholders and directors may be used and IBCs allow for shares with and without par value. There are provisions for tax concessions for any specially qualified person working for the IBC in St. Lucia. The St. Lucia Offshore Company is not subject to exchange control. Finally only one director is required, and no local director is necessary.
Incorporation of a private Cypriot company is a relatively easy process which typically takes up to two weeks. Alternatively, shelf companies can be purchased easily. A Cyprus company can be incorporated with only one Director and Shareholder in addition and there are no restrictions on foreigners acting as Director or Shareholder. Prior to incorporating the name must be approved by the Registrar of Companies. Providing there are no companies with similar name approval will be granted quickly. Filing in English is permitted.
Tax Planning-minimizing capital gains tax exposure
It is no wonder why some of the most successful companies in the world utilize offshore companies in low tax jurisdictions to minimizing their tax exposure. Google and Microsoft come to mind, but there are thousands of companies that deploy an aggressive tax planning strategy, which allows them to free up more of their marginal profits, which they then use for R&D and innovation. These companies have started as simple businesses and have developed into multinational corporations that have extensively increased the range of products they are able to produce. The reason for their stratospheric success has a lot to do with the companies’ ability to utilize savings on capital gains tax and inject these monies into innovation and research, with tremendous financial success.
Privacy and Asset Protection
In St. Lucia, it is an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment for a bank or trust officer to divulge personal details about a customer without his express permission. The assets of a St. Lucia Offshore Company are known only to the beneficial owners of the company. The equity in the form of the company’s shares are only known to the Registered Agent. The information cannot be released to any third party except with the written consent of the beneficial owner of the company. This information is not kept in any public record in St. Lucia or anywhere for that matter.
Protecting your assets is the logical step from privacy. At any given time you may be exposed to liability. In these circumstances, your assets will be exposed to legal enforcement of any judgment debt entered against you. There is an interesting strategy, normally applied in poker games which makes for an appropriate analogy. In a poker game the player systematically takes his chips off of the table only betting a fraction of his earnings in order to minimize the risk of losing all of his earnings. With every winning round, more chips are taken off of the table and the player never bets more than a safe amount in order to incrementally increase his or her earnings. This is asset protection at its core. It is the process of systematically taking your chips (your assets) off of the table so that they cannot be touched by judgment creditors or others who are looking to satisfy some other debt entered against you or someone close to you.
By reducing your onshore corporate visibility you effectively make it extremely difficult to be sued. Corporate tax returns, credit reports and other financial information may be readily available to the prospective claimant onshore, however with layers and layers of financial privacy in the offshore jurisdiction, the value of the offshore corporation- or even that it exists – is virtually impossible to ascertain.
Avoidance of currency, capital and exchange controls
This allows free movement of money across national borders – Establishing a network of offshore bank accounts owned by an IBC will create an international financial infrastructure capable of moving funds in any currency anywhere in the world. Any exchange control regime imposed in the home country will thereby be circumvented;
Eliminating stamp duties and other real estate taxes
St. Lucia Offshore companies can own real estate. If you structure the ownership of your property using an offshore company, selling your property involves simply selling the shares in the offshore company. This transfer of shares attracts absolutely no tax whatsoever, allowing considerable savings on the sale of your property.
What to Expect from St. Lucia as a Jurisdiction?
St. Lucia is one has one of the most robust financial services industries in the world. St. Lucia’s
financial system has never been “blacklisted” by the financial action task force, and we share
with all of the most developed countries in the world, a modern system of financial integrity
virtually free of any financial crime or laundering activity. St. Lucia is a premiere offshore
jurisdiction that offers all of the bells and whistles you would expect from a low tax jurisdiction
such as:
1. No or low tax.
2. Political and economic stability.
3. Absence of exchange controls, currency controls or capital controls.
4. Absence of tax treaties.
5. A welcoming governmental attitude.
6. Modern incorporation laws.
7. Simple incorporation procedures.
8. Excellent communications and transportation.
9. Stable banking environment and banking services.
10. An English Common Law System.
11. English as the language of choice.
12. Strict secrecy and confidentiality codes.
13. Minimum corporate disclosure requirements.
14. A desired geographical location.