Cyprus Accountant ‘YourBooks Ltd’ are a specialist one-stop-shop offering cost effective business services including; tax advice and company planning, Offshore Company Formation in Cyprus, Belize, Seychelles & BVI, Opening Offshore Bank Account in Cyprus (and offshore) with internet banking and debit cards, Accounting and audit services in Cyprus.

If you are looking for an accountant in Cyprus, or interested to understand the benefits and advantages of offshore company formation in Cyprus, Belize, Seychelles or BVI – then contact YourBooks Ltd for a fast, efficient and confidential service.

Your Books Ltd typical clients are international Limited Companies and Private individuals, where our wide range of professional services includes; Cyprus Lawyers, Cyprus Accountants, Cyprus Tax Advisors and Cyprus Auditors, all having extensive experience and can advise the best options for you, your company(s) and your business.

Everything is explained clearly and no question is too small. Offshore Company formation is quick easy and cost effective.

CONTACT US NOW TO SAVE TAX AND PROTECT YOUR ASSETS

Offshore Company Jurisdictions – An Overview:

		offshore company in; Cyprus		offshore company in; Belize		offshore company in; Seychelles		offshore company in; British Virgin Islands
Cost of formation (from)		€700		€350		€550		€750
Company tax		10%		0%		0%		0%
Comment		Full EU member state 45 Double taxation treaties		No annual reports required		No annual reports required		No annual reports required

 

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NEW: For more confidentiality see our “Platinum Package”

YourBooks offers:

• Professional advice
• Worldwide registration services
• Cost effective prices
• Customized order processing
• Lifetime support
• Fast turnaround

All companies we offer are fully legal and able to conduct activities worldwide. An offshore company, nominee director, nominee shareholder, virtual office, offshore bank account with debit cards is quick, easy and cost-effective

For keeping information anonymous and protecting privacy, including keeping all business details confidential, and the limited liability and tax savings delivered by offshore companies they are clearly the preferred type of company structure.

Some advantages of offshore companies are:

• Nil or low taxes
• Confidentiality and privacy protection
• Business can be conducted internationally

Offshore Company / Business Advantages

In order to achieve your goals, it is vital to select the best country (jurisdiction) in which to register your offshore company.  An offshore company can allow the owners of the business to dramatically reduce tax liabilities legally.

The offshore company can open bank accounts and trade normally anywhere in the world, like any other company; with complete confidentiality. Leading international banks and companies go offshore to facilitate financial management of their businesses.

Offshore corporations possess equal legal rights like any other non-resident companies.

Offshore Company Formation: Tax Advantages

A common characteristic of an offshore company is a low or zero rates of company tax and a strong privacy law.

“Offshore” has also become associated with tax havens and financial centres such as Dubai, Monaco, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Panama and others.

Tax mitigation is an important but not the only consideration; there are legal, administrative and fiscal reasons for structuring offshore. We recommend clients carry out extensive research and obtain independent tax advice in the country where they are tax resident.

All offshore company formation and offshore banking is facilitated under strict confidentiality and we provide support and guidance to enable clients to incorporate offshore companies and trusts.

As with United Kingdom companies, a limited company is a separate legal being or entity from its directors and shareholders and therefore any liability or loss incurred by the limited company is claimable from the company, its assets and share capital and not the assets of the shareholders or owners. Offshore companies provide same level of protection as well as privacy. Please click on the company formation jurisdiction below or follow the underlined link if you require Limited Company Formation service in the United Kingdom.

Offshore companies provide the same level of protection as well as privacy.

In many tax haven jurisdictions the profits of an offshore company are often tax free.

Business owners resident in high tax jurisdictions may use a zero tax offshore company to accumulate profit offshore.

Profits may be allowed to roll-up so tax advantages may be gained on investment income as well as the original profits. Cumulative profits can therefore be substantial.

Payments repatriated to the high tax country of residence by company directors and shareholders are taxable at the rates of shareholder’s/director’s home country.

Anti-avoidance legislation in their country of residence may also need to be considered in the careful planning and structuring of an offshore company. Our offshore company formation services are ideal for trade, tax mitigation and asset protection.

Offshore Company Formation: Privacy

Property Ownership with an Offshore Company

As an Investment Vehicle

Employment Company – Professional Services

Offshore Trading Companies

Offshore companies engaged in international trade (import or export, for example) may well use an offshore company to take orders but arrange for delivery to be made from the point of manufacture or purchase. Profits on the transactions may thus be accumulated in the offshore company incurring low or no tax.

Offshore Company Formation: Uses

Offshore Holding Companies

If a holding company is situated in an offshore jurisdiction which is free of income and corporation tax, and where dividends need not be paid, the subsidiaries of the holding company can benefit from the profits accumulated in the tax free jurisdiction because they may be invested or used to fund the subsidiaries.

If a person owns a number of assets in several different countries they may consider holding these through a personal offshore holding company. This would give the individual privacy and, upon demise, probate may only need to be applied for in the country where the offshore company is incorporated rather than in each country where the assets are situated. The arrangement is discreet, simplifies the administration of the deceased’s affairs and saves legal fees. The individual may also wish to establish a trust to hold the shares of his company, so that upon his death the benefits of his assets may seamlessly devolve to his heirs with no inheritance tax (depending on the jurisdiction).

Holding company for Intellectual Property, Copyright, Patents and Royalties

It is possible for offshore companies to be assigned or purchase the rights to use and to sub-license patents, copyright and intellectual property. Consideration to the value of the asset at time of transfer should be given; an established patent would be more valuable than a patent at patent-pending stage so would cost the company more. Royalties may derive from a high-tax jurisdiction and may be subject to withholding tax at source. Such taxes may be reduced if paid to a company in a tax-free jurisdiction.

The Purpose of an offshore trust or Foundation

A trust or foundation may be used for a variety of personal, estate, financial, tax and business planning objectives, and is often utilized in combination with an underlying offshore company. The objectives may include:

Protection of assets from future personal liability

Tax Planning – minimising estate/inheritance, capital gains and income tax.

Provision for spouses and other dependants, especially those who may be unable to manage their own affairs (young children, the elderly, the disabled or sick).

Efficient and timely distribution of assets upon death

Confidentiality

Avoiding forced heirship

Preservation of family wealth

Continuity of family business

Ownership of assets and investments

Establishing pensions or employee stock option plans

Protection of lender in corporate financing transactions

Creating or making provision for Charities.

The Structure of a Trust

A trust is a legal relationship (originally developed under English Common Law) whereby a person (hereafter referred to as the Settlor) gives property (the Trust Fund) to professional administrators (the Trustee(s)) to hold for the benefit of certain persons (the Beneficiaries). Many Trust arrangements also include another person, known as the Protector. What must be clearly understood is that for a Trust to be valid, all assets settled into a Trust are no longer the property of the Settlor, are no longer under his control and he will not be able to reclaim them.

The Trust arrangement is encapsulated in a written instrument known as a Trust Deed. The Settlor (who may also be a beneficiary and a co-trustee of a Trust, but not sole beneficiary and sole trustee) indicates to the Trustees how the assets would have been handled had he/she maintained control of them, and this letter is known as the Letter of Wishes. Though not legally binding upon the Trustees, the wishes are usually followed except where a change of circumstances makes it clear that to do so would not be in the beneficiaries’ best interests. The Trust Fund may be any property (cash, personal effects, real estate, securities, other tangible and intangible assets).

Trustees have stringent duties imposed upon them by law and are obliged to administer the Trust in such a way as to safeguard the best interests of the beneficiaries. The Beneficiaries may be individuals, companies, groups, charities, etc. The Protector, usually at trusted friend or adviser of the Settlor, (but may also be a committee or company) is sometimes appointed to ensure that the Settlor’s wishes are honoured by the Trustees.

The above is just a brief overview of the subject. Much will depend on the jurisdiction where the trust is to be established and the particular circumstances of the person or company concerned. For detailed guidance browse our tax books section.

Banking Introduction Notice

Non status business bank accounts offer high acceptance ratios for people with poor or adverse credit record and history but are not guaranteed. Clients who require guaranteed bank accounts should read the offshore bank account section.

Which country?

We can incorporate companies in any country.  However we focus on the above countries because they offer the best solutions to creating corporate structures wherever in the world you are located.

Our recommended jurisdictions combine stable legislation, solid government, highly competitive rates and trouble free registration in only 24 hours (company registration in Cyprus can take longer).

Offshore Companies – A History

The low-tax (offshore) sector has grown as a response to high tax rates, and now it is estimated that more than half of the World’s money is in low-tax jurisdictions.  There are 70 self-declared tax havens already.

the phrase ‘Offshore’ means another country from where you live or are tax resident.  Most low-tax jurisdictions or tax havens  are islands and traditionaly have been  Loosely, it is used to mean ‘outside the control of highly-taxed nations’, although those nations could have controlled the growth of low-tax jurisdictions much more tightly if they had wanted to.  It is an interesting question, why they didn’t – maybe a combination of individual self-interest and muddle?

In the last decades of the 20th century, it seemed that the large, rich nations no longer had the financial clout or even the desire to take on ‘offshore’ in any comprehensive way. This was partly because the rich countries had their own tax breaks and incentives for particular local purposes, and partly because the rich countries themselves (both the countries and their citizens) make plentiful use of ‘offshore’.  The OECD fulminated about ‘harmful tax competition’, and the EU complained about ‘unfair tax practices’, but in the real world of offshore there was little change to low-tax regimes. On the contrary, many jurisdictions which had traditionally made their living from bananas, sugar and tourism decided to join the low-tax bandwagon.

In 1999 and 2000, global concerns about money-laundering and fears about the leakage of tax revenues gave the rich countries a motive and the opportunity to mount a more concerted attack on ‘offshore’, and this was much accentuated by the horror of 9/11 as the world tried to get to grips with the financing of terrorism.

The EU, the OECD and a US Democratic administration joined forces to attack ‘offshore’. This certainly led to better regulatory structures in many of the IOFCs, and after initial fierce resistance to the underlying agenda of ‘tax harmonisation’, it also led to the spread of ‘transparency’ among low-tax jurisdictions, meaning that the domestic and international (non-resident) regimes were ‘harmonized’, usually at a tax rate somewhere between the pre-existing rates. Some jurisdictions simply abandoned corporate taxation altogether.

Perversely, the result of forcing the low-tax jurisdictions to clean themselves up was to make them into more effective competitors, and their growth rates in the first decade of the 21st century far outstripped those of the high-tax countries that were tormenting them.

One thing that the rich countries can do, and increasingly try to do, is to limit the behavior of their own citizens offshore. As ever, their prohibitions have far more effect on poor people than rich ones. Well-advised, wealthy individuals and corporations generally manage to avoid anti-avoidance measures.

The Internet brings a new dimension to taxation, because for the first time it is possible for a supplier to offer and deliver some sorts of product (e.g. music, gaming and financial services) to citizens in ways which completely bypass the traditional tax-measuring and tax-collecting arms of government. The tax leakage this implies has spurred governments on to a more effective attack on low-tax techniques and locations; but they have had only partial success. It’s likely that a global approach to e-commerce taxation will evolve in time. This is not a problem that can be solved by individual countries, or even by groups of countries.

IOFCs themselves are a very mixed bag, and serve a variety of different purposes for various types of individual and corporation. Not all of those purposes are legitimate: there is no question that drug barons and other illegal ‘businessmen’ have used and do use IOFCs to wash their money before recycling it legally. The world’s Governments and over-arching economic organizations such as the OECD have had some success in preventing abuses, but laundering remains a problem in some IOFCs. Among the main legal uses of IOFCs are:

* Tax-efficient structuring of international trade
* holding and investment companies
* offshore investment funds
* protection of personal wealth using trusts
* international financial services, notably banking and the trading of financial assets
* ‘captive’ insurance companies
* shipping registries
* betting and gaming
* distribution of electronic goods including music and software

Many IOFCs are most useful in relation to a particular high-tax country, e.g. the Isle of Man which is offshore the UK. Others have specialized in particular business sectors. The Jurisdictions section of the lowtax.net site describes the characteristics and uses of many of all the main IOFCs in depth, and in the Uses of Offshore later in this section you will find a sector-by-sector analysis of how offshore can be used, with links to the jurisdictions that specialize in each sector.

Many IOFCs use both English legal systems and the English language; and there are plenty of reputable advisers to help a beginner through the early stages of using a low-tax jurisdiction, whether in terms of trading, investing, or in terms of living there.

A Cyprus offshore company can be the perfect holding company mode for operating within the EU.  A Belize offshore company can be the perfect holding company for holding shares in companies that operate inside the EU; especially Cyprus companies.  Cyprus offshore companies benefit from 45 double taxation agreements.  Cyprus offshore companies can operate as holding companies; holding shares in companies with little or zero withholding tax.  Cyprus offshore company formation is easy and is suitable for businesses trading within and outside the EU.  Belize offshore company formation is easy and is suitable for businesses trading within and outside the EU.  Seychelles offshore company formation a straightforward process and international bank are used to operating with such companies.  Cyprus company registration is done in two parts; first the name is approved and then the company registration process is completed and companies house by the registrar of companies.  Belize company registration is done in two parts; first the name is approved and then the company registration process is completed and companies house by the registrar of companies.  In Cyprus company incorporation will be followed by registration for company tax which is 10% and VAT which is 15%.  To register offshore company in Belize takes 24 hours.  The register offshore company in Cyprus is supervised by the registrar of companies at Companies House.  The process to register offshore company in Belize, BVI or Seychelles is simple and fast.  The decision to incorporate offshore should deliver tax deductions and asset protection.  Owners that incorporate offshore can benefit from asset protection and low taxes.  A Belize offshore company will have no problems opening an offshore bank account in any EU country with internet banking and debit cards.  A Seychelles offshore company will have no problems opening an offshore internet bank account with debit cards in any EU country.  Belize offshore companies are taxed at 0% and there are no requirements for annual reporting.  In Belize offshore company formation is supervised by the registrar of companies at companies house in Belize.  Belize company registration includes the provision of a memorandum and articles of association.  To maximize tax efficiency, Belize company incorporation is often used with a Cyprus offshore company.  To maximize tax efficiency, Cyprus company incorporation is often used with a Seychelles offshore company.  Many businesses register offshore companies to legally save tax and protect assets.  Business in the EU and North America often register offshore companies to legally save tax and protect assets, by using holding companies and various double taxation treaties.  The registration of companies in Cyprus is managed by Cyprus company house.  The registration of companies in Belize is managed by Belize company house.  When you decide to incorporate companies in Seychelles, BVI or Belize, it only takes 24 hours.