Looking for a BVI corporate service provider

[cardholder]

Hello,

I'm looking for a BVI corporate service provider to set up good company substance and management.

The ideal setup would be a local individual director (not just nominee but also one that could sign things, etc), physical office address (with a utility bill is a plus). (having the option to hire a local employee is a plus).

Management location doesn't have to be in the BVI, but it has to be in a location where it wouldn't trigger additional taxes or paperwork (for example, cayman would work too).

does anyone offer this service or has experience with a good service provider?

(I've asked something similar before in the regular forum and have seen other threads there too, but thought the mentor group may be able to provide better insight)

 

[Sols]

What you're asking for is fairly standard. I think you may have misunderstood what a nominee director is, though. A nominee director will sign agreements, but most won't sign just anything you give them. There is personal liability in place, so they take time to review the agreements to ensure they are lawful and the risk level is acceptable.

Try Sovereign Group, TMF, Vistra, or any of the big law firms in BVI (Carey Olsen, Conyers, Maples, Ogier, Appleby, et cetera). AFAIK, most of them offer both nominees and substance (office address with a bill).

However, if you want a nominee that's more open to doing what you tell them to, what you want isn't a nominee. It's called an employee. Nothing stops you from forming a company in BVI, putting up a job ad, and hire a local person to be the director. There's a bit of extra paperwork involved, but generally it's easy to hire locals in BVI. Rent a small office space for them.

You could hire this director anywhere in the world. Costs are quite high in BVI.

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[cardholder]

that makes sense. Some companies i spoke with will not have the nominee director sign anything, others would sign stuff.

my goal is to have real substance - a director that is both on paper and in practice a decision maker for a business that is fairly light on decision making needs.

in this sense, a full time director, and the hassle of hiring a random employee in bvi could be a bit of an overkill.

I was hoping there was a service provider with nominee director services that are able to act as an actual fractional director/ceo.

You could hire this director anywhere in the world. Costs are quite high in BVI.
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i could hire a director anywhere, but if that director is from spain, i could end up with a permanent establishment in spain, and be liable for spanish taxation. same goes for most countries in the world. is there a country where that is not an issue?

 

[Sols]

cardholder said:
that makes sense. Some companies i spoke with will not have the nominee director sign anything, others would sign stuff.
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That sounds strange. Glad you avoided those who said the nominee wouldn't sign anything. That's not normal at all.

cardholder said:
my goal is to have real substance - a director that is both on paper and in practice a decision maker for a business that is fairly light on decision making needs.

in this sense, a full time director, and the hassle of hiring a random employee in bvi could be a bit of an overkill.

I was hoping there was a service provider with nominee director services that are able to act as an actual fractional director/ceo.
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Speak with the service providers I mentioned. If you run a low-risk business (not crypto/gambling/adult), what you're asking for is fine. Just expect to have to answer questions about each agreement you want the director to sign, and sometimes it'll take a few days.

Note that the director may be a company and if you require a natural person director, make that clear.

cardholder said:
i could hire a director anywhere, but if that director is from spain, i could end up with a permanent establishment in spain, and be liable for spanish taxation. same goes for most countries in the world. is there a country where that is not an issue?
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Tax havens and places with limited effort/ability enforcing tax laws. You could hire a local person as director and even rent an office space for just a few thousand USD a year in South America, where many jurisdictions have territorial taxation. Can be hard to do without good connections, though.

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[Martin Everson]

You can also look at MJS Associates below. They offer substance and director services.

http://www.mjsandassociates.com/bvi-offshore-services.html
P.S Not used them myself as I live in tax free country 😛. But the ones Sols listed are good to go.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[BeyondBorders]

Go with a reputable Trust Company Provider, pay a bit more and avoid headache down the line. Would personally recommend the boutique firms in the Channel Islands.

 

[cardholder]

BeyondBorders said:
Go with a reputable Trust Company Provider, pay a bit more and avoid headache down the line. Would personally recommend the boutique firms in the Channel Islands.
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do you have good experience with some that you can recommend? what kind of prices are we talking about?

Sols said:
Tax havens and places with limited effort/ability enforcing tax laws. You could hire a local person as director and even rent an office space for just a few thousand USD a year in South America, where many jurisdictions have territorial taxation. Can be hard to do without good connections, though.
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That makes sense for some. Though for my case I rather find a provider where it's all 100% proper.

director and management from a territorial taxation country could deem the corporation have a permanent establishment there, and then the corporate income could be treated as generated locally (generated by the local management), making it liable for taxation (if I understand how it works correctly). please correct me if that's wrong.

Last edited: Nov 7, 2023

 

[Sols]

cardholder said:
director and management from a territorial taxation country could deem the corporation have a permanent establishment there, and then the corporate income could be treated as generated locally (generated by the local management), making it liable for taxation (if I understand how it works correctly). please correct me if that's wrong.
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Theoretically correct. Practically wrong.

I have never seen or heard of Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, Guatemala, and so on seek to tax anything but income that occurred between two domestic parties (and when there haven't been any aggravating circumstances).

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[cardholder]

sounds like what you're describing is flying under the radar ((so to speak), which could be a good strategy for some, and I know it works a lot of the time.

If the goal is to set it up very properly though - It seems doubtful the above would work if this was a higher profile company and/or the local tax authorities looked into the company and found it has local permanent establishment due to local directorship and management.

 

[Sols]

cardholder said:
sounds like what you're describing is flying under the radar ((so to speak), which could be a good strategy for some, and I know it works a lot of the time.
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It's not really flying under the radar. The authorities know exactly what's going on and are just choosing to leave it be. The way the laws are written, it's not even guaranteed they could claim much if anything, if they ever were to try.

The idea of tax residence isn't really a major concern in territorial tax countries. They still don't tax foreign-sourced income.

cardholder said:
If the goal is to set it up very properly though - It seems doubtful the above would work if this was a higher profile company and/or the local tax authorities looked into the company and found it has local permanent establishment due to local directorship and management.
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Just to put it out there: if your risk appetite is literally zero, which it sounds like, if you are resident in for example a high-tax European country, Canada, Australia, et cetera, your offshore director can be considered a sham.

If you as the UBO maintain effective control in running the business, it doesn't matter how many utility bills you have in BVI and how full-time your director is. The tax authority will consider you the real director and tax you and the company accordingly.

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This is the probably the answer to your question.

 

[cardholder]

Thanks Sols! Appreciate the point of view.