subject: Why Incorporate a Company in the Seychelles? [print this page] Seychelles is booming as an International Offshore Financial Centre. It has recorded the highest percentages of growth in respect of new company registrations of any Offshore Centre for each of the past 4 years in succession.
1. Seychelles is staunchly economically independent and is beholden to no one. It has relied on developing its commercial fishing sector, its offshore financial services sector and in particular its tourism sector to maintain its economic independence through some tough times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is a policy which is now reaping serious dividends with no less than 30 new 4/5 star Hotel projects either under construction or approved for commencement, and an upsurge of business activity generally.
2. When Seychelles first kicked off as an IOFC back in 1994 it modeled its laws directly on those of the British Virgin Islands ("BVI"), the best known privacy haven and most successful Offshore Centre of the past 25 years (in fact we copied their International Business Companies Act word for word).
3. BVI however and most of the world's major Offshore Centres of the past 30 years (eg The Channel Islands, Bahamas, Anguilla, Turks & Caicos, The Netherlands Antillles, Monaco etc) are either British or European dependent territories and have close economic ties (and in most cases tax information sharing treaties) with the EU, and/or the UK and/or the USA. Panama whilst, on paper an independent republic, has close economic ties with USA (eg the same currency) and has in place an information sharing treaty with the US.
4. As such with the push from the OECD to try and harmonize international tax rates BVI and most (if not all) of these centers have been forced to (or are under huge pressure to) dilute their IBC's privacy features. Most are also faced with the massive handicap of being required, pursuant to the terms of their respective treaties, to hand over tax/company ownership information on demand to the big brother countries.
5. Seychelles is a totally independent republic and has not signed any such tax information sharing treaties. Hence the influx of both new IBC formations and of companies from the Caribbean looking to migrate to a more secure privacy haven.
