Low-tax offshore comparison

There are many offshore jurisdictions where offshore companies have quite liberal tax rates. Here we have prepared the comparison table that shows the main differences between Seychelles low-tax offshore company (Special Licence Company) and several other low-tax offshore companies in terms of taxation, share capital, management, shareholder and accounting.

Country Seychelles Barbados Isle of Man Cyprus Ireland Labuan Switzerland
General information              
Entity CSL IBC Limited IBC Limited Trading Limited
Law Hybrid Common Common Common Common Common Civil
Average formation time 2 weeks 1 week 2 days 1 week 2 weeks 1 week 2 weeks
Change in Domicile permitted No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Taxation              
Min. government fee USD 1,000 USD 250 GBP 250 - EUR 40 MVR 2,600  
Taxation 1.5% 1.0%-2.5% 0% - 10.0% 10.0% 12.5% 3.0% or MVR 20,000 Yes (various)
Double tax treaty access Yes Yes UK Yes Yes Yes Yes
Share capital              
Standard Currency USD USD GBP CYP EUR USD CHF
Permitted Currencies Any except local Any Any Any None Any except local No
Minimum Paid Up Share Capital USD 1 USD 1 GBP 1 CYP 5,000 EUR 1 USD 1 CHF 100,000
Usual Authorised Share Capital USD 5,000 USD 1,000 GBP 2,000 CYP 5,000 EUR 1,000,000 USD 10,000 CHF 100,000
Directors              
Min. Directors 2 1 2 1 2 1 1
Local Directors Required No No (except to benefit from Canadian treaty) No No No No Yes
Directors on Public Record No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Directors Meetings Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Switzerland
Shareholders              
Minimum Number of Shareholders 2 1 1 1 1 1 3
Shareholders on Public Record No No Yes Yes Yes No No
Shareholders Meetings Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Anywhere Switzerland
Secretary              
Company Secretary required Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Local or Qualified Company Secretary Local Recommended Local No No Local No
Accounts, Returns & Audit              
Audit requirement No Only if Income or Profits > USD 500,000 Yes, with small company exceptions Yes Yes Yes Yes
Accounts preparation requirement Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Accounts filing requirement Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Publicly accessible accounts No No No No Yes No Yes
Annual Return filing requirement Yes, not public Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes