How to choose offshore company ?

There are in fact many jurisdictions for offshore companies, some may share common features. The common features are as below:

a) Set up documents – there must have Memorandum and Articles of Associations (M & A) which write down, briefly speaking, the powers and responsibilities of directors and shareholders, and how the internal structure of the offshore company is managed and operated.

b) Certificate of incorporation (CI) – it is the document which proves the company in existence and is in a legal entity, in legal term.

c) Registered agent or secretary – it is a common requirement that an offshore company must appoint a local agent or secretary responsible for dealing with all official communications or correspondings.

d) Registered office – it is also a common requirement that an offshore company must have a registered office and informs to Companies Registry that it is a legal address to receive all official correspondings.

e) Shareholders as owners of the company – in the initial M & A and other formation documents, the shareholders will subscribe and pick up the shares of an offshore company and become the owners of the company. There status is only an investor; they will not involve the management and operations of the offshore company.

f) Directors as managers (or employees) of the compnay – in the initial M & A and other formation documents, the directors will be appointed by the shareholders to manage and run the business of the offshore company. They are not owners of the company, nor investors. They are in law employees of the company.

g) Statutory records are required to be kept - the company law or rules require the company to keep updated statutory records of internal structure of company details such as the details of shareholders and their changes, the details of directors and their changes, the details of secretary and their changes, the share capital details and their changes, etc.

h) Annual renewals - almost all jurisdictions require their offshore companies to do annual renewal of licenses or keep updated filings, either internally or externally.

All jurisdictions will share the same features listed, but we think that the following are more common, in our opinion.

Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Nevis, Samoa, Seychelles, Delaware (US) and UK.