Aug 14, 2020

Nevis – Offshore Heaven for Non-Residents

Nevis is an island in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean and together with the island of Saint Kitts, it forms the federal state of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Nevis is a leading financial center with strong standards and an excellent reputation. Confidentiality of Nevis bank accounts and offshore companies started in 1985 and was guaranteed for foreigners. In the years from 2008 until today, there has been a global surge in offshore finance, however, some places have doubled by offering high banking secrecy to the wealthiest. Among them is the small Caribbean island of Nevis.

In the world beyond the sea, Nevis is a provider of funds and specializes in allowing its clients to create corporations with greater privacy than almost anywhere else in the world.

To summarize, Nevis is one of the most popular jurisdictions to set up a business which you will learn more about in the following article. 

  1. Tax Optimization
  • For residents:

Individuals

Nevis’s taxation system for individuals is known as one of the best in the world. When we talk about this jurisdiction, wealth and global income are not taxable. In order to work in Nevis, you need to obtain a special permit that costs 1500 East Caribbean Dollars per year. 

Companies

Resident legal entities pay tax on the income received from all over the world.  If a company is officially registered in Nevis it is a resident legal entity and it must be managed by local directors. The corporate rate is high, and goes up to 35%, but it does have good benefits.   

  • For non-residents

There are a couple forms of companies that can be opened by non-residents in Nevis and what distinguishes them from resident companies is the company actually has nothing to do with Nevis itself, and therefore does not pay taxes to it.

It only takes a few days to register a Business Corporation in Nevis, but in order to do so, you must have at least one shareholder, while anybody can be the owner of the company. There is no rule about where the person opening the company must come from, meaning that the shareholder can come from any country. The required minimum share capital is 1$ and there is no required minimum authorized capital. Nevis BC can be set up completely remotely. 

When it comes to opening a Limited Liability Company in Nevis, it is important to say that it is governed by members or managers, and that there is a requirement of at least one manager. Also a LLC in Nevis must have a registered agent and office physically on the island, but at the same time it can be incorporated remotely and can be operated with from anywhere. 

Both BC and LLC in Nevis are excused from all local taxes, but there is a possibility that that could change after the transition period and 0% tax and territorial taxation might occur shortly after. 

The biggest difference between BC and LLC in Nevis is in the structure of management and leadership.

  1. Privacy – Registry of the beneficial owner is closed

Privacy is one of the most important aspects in Nevis. The goal is to have you protected from outsiders and any kind of threats. 

Privacy of any shareholder is fully protected due to the fact that Nevis Registrar of Companies is closed to the public. There is no total legal immunity as we know, but in other words, in Nevis, it is impossible for a third party or someone from the public to enter the register and, for example,  find out who the owner of a certain company is. If a third party somehow finds out who the owner of the company is and wants to prosecute him, it is necessary to pay the Nevis Court $ 100,000 to the Nevis court just for them to even consider taking over the case. In this way, Nevis, as a jurisdiction, offers legal protection for people that incorporate there.

  1. Asset Diversification and Protection 

Risk assessment in the protection of property and business is the primary strategic activity in the construction and operation of the security system of any successful company. Through the process of risk assessment, hazards to the organization and its interests are identified and considered, and in relation to the established levels of risk, adequate measures for their minimization and elimination are determined and prescribed. Pursuant to the conclusions of the risk assessment, security planning is performed by defining procedural, operational and tactical actions in order to effectively treat the identified threats to the property and operations of the entity. Simply put, if an individual wants to protect a certain amount of their assets, or the entire amount, they will do so by protecting their assets in banks.

Diversification is extremely important in investing because it reduces the likelihood that one factor will affect your entire portfolio. The goal of any portfolio is to be profitable in the long run. You cannot achieve long-term profitability if you find yourself in a market situation that will stop you trading. Diversification helps you avoid a negative scenario. The point of diversification is that the individual provides a certain amount of money and breaks it into several parts. This means that an individual would open several bank accounts and distribute his money under certain conditions in banks. The good side of diversification and division of your assets is that, as an individual, you would be secured from several sides in several banks and under different conditions. Diversification is also safer than any type of insurance.

How to incorporate a company in Nevis?

Please contact us at [email protected]

We will provide you with a free initial consultation. You will be able to discuss incorporation procedures as well as banking options for the company

You will need to pay prior to the company being incorporated. The fee for basic incorporation LLC or IBC package is USD 1,899. It takes only a couple of days to incorporate a company in Nevis.

You will be required to send us a notarized copy of your passport, a copy of utility bill not older than 3 months and a due diligence and order form, filled in and signed.

We will then incorporate your company.

For all further questions please contact us at [email protected]