Register a Company in British Virgin Islands

The British Virgin Islands

This is the overseas territory of the United Kingdom. There are fourteen different territories under the United Kingdoms’ sovereignty but they are not a direct part of the United Kingdom itself. They are referred to as the British Virgin Islands to distinguish them from the American territory. They were also formerly known as crown colonies or simply colonies.

Tax is defined as a financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by the state or a functional equivalent of the state. Failure to pay the required tax is punishable by law either through civil or criminal penalties to the non-paying entity, whether individual or company. Taxes are either direct or indirect and they can be paid either in cash or in labor. Taxation is not voluntary for any company or individual but it is enforced to support the government as it undertakes the different functions required in running the country successfully. In this respect, the BVI’s are considered tax havens. A tax haven is defined as a country where taxation is either low or nonexistent. Different countries around the globe have different tax havens for different categories of people and or companies. This is largely market driven. The government of the day is responsible for coming up with the necessary legislation and incentives to attract their target market to invest off shore companies in their country.

An off shore company is a company that is established outside its principal area of operation. Sometimes, this company is also referred to as a non-resident company. This type of company is formed within an off shore financial center in the country of choice. As of June 2008, there were 823,508 off shore companies registered in the BVI. Since 2001, the Independent financial services commission has regulated financial services.

Tax havens generally have the following characteristics. Firstly, they self promote as off shore financial centers. This is a low tax, lightly regulated jurisdiction. This jurisdiction specializes in providing commercial as well as corporate infrastructure in order to facilitate off shore investments be they off shore funds or the creation of off shore companies. They have nominal or nil taxes and they have no requirement for any substantive local presence. They also do not have any effective or transparent exchange of taxation information with foreign tax authorities.

Lastly, off shore financial centers lack transparency as far as legal, administrative, or legislative provisions are concerned. Within the BVI’s, 51% of the government revenue is from taxation arising from the establishment of offshore companies. This revenue arises from the issuance of licenses for these companies in question and from the taxation levied on the company’s employees. Forty one percent of the companies within the BVI are off shore making this the largest proportion of off shore companies in the world. The per capita G.D.P as of 2004 was 38,000 dollars. The main pillars of the economy are tourism and financial services although financial services are more popular because of better pay for the employees.

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