Selecting a Jurisdiction for Business

To conduct business properly, you need to carefully select the jurisdiction for your company.

The choice of the state to register a company plays a key role when starting your business. It is important that the country where you plan to open a company matches your goals and needs. Different countries have different conditions and rules for business owners when registering a company.

Selecting a Jurisdiction for Business

Are you looking for low taxes?

If your goal is a jurisdiction with minimal or no taxation, then offshore jurisdictions will suit you. These are states where income received outside the territory of a given country is exempt from taxation.

As a rule, such jurisdictions also support the principle of anonymity of data on business owners, which leads to the fact that the state register of companies is closed and it is impossible for third parties to find out who the company's shareholder (business owner) is.

The disadvantages include the complexity of interaction with financial organizations due to the peculiarities of the legislation of the said jurisdictions. In the process of cooperation, it is necessary to disclose information about all ultimate beneficial owners.

Are you looking for a reliable country?

However, if you are looking for a more prestigious jurisdiction, then usually choose Western European countries, Australia, the United States of America and some of other countries. However, these countries offer higher tax rates and stricter requirements for doing business by establishing many different rules.

Are there any other criteria for choosing a jurisdiction?

These are far from all possible criteria. In addition to those mentioned, there are such aspects as the industry affiliation of the enterprise, the need to obtain special permits, the formation of an official or financial representative office, business maintenance costs, the admission of partners to the management of the enterprise, including their appointment as directors, or inclusion in the shareholders, as well as a number of other factors.

What to do if you want to meet several criteria at once?

In such cases, we recommend starting a business from several jurisdictions at once. This method applies to corporate structuring of an existing business, but in some cases it is also suitable for starting a business.

We usually offer up to 10 jurisdictions to choose from and ask (based on our assessment of the criteria you propose) to select 2-3 of them. Then we organize companies in each selected jurisdiction so that they are connected to each other in the right way to meet the most optimal possible conditions.

Which country is best for business?

There is no best country that would be ideal for every type of business and satisfy the maximum demands of any entrepreneur. The choice of jurisdiction for doing business is determined by the priorities that are important to you, or that our specialists will help you determine.

Can I change the company's country?

Relocating a company is usually called "domiciliation". It is possible, but it is expensive, takes a long time and involves a lot of legal actions. Among other things, you will also need to register the company in the new jurisdiction and liquidate the company in the old one, but in both cases the processes are different from the standard ones.

To avoid this process, it is better to initially decide on the country for your company, which we will be happy to help you with!

Where to start searching for a country for a company?

First of all, we recommend identifying the most decisive criteria for you, such as obtaining a license, minimum tax payment, legal presence, business area, etc. This is necessary for our analysis, including the legislation of the countries in which the company already is/is planned to be registered.