Although the British Virgin Islands is often seen as an offshore tax haven, a closer look shows such opinions may be overstated
There is a stereotypical image of the so-called ‘tax haven’ for ‘shady people to put their money’. While it is true that BVI Finance enjoys warm, sunny weather year round, the similarities with the stereotype stop there. BVI is a sophisticated, compliant financial services centre where the climate for wrong doers is not so attractive.
BVI offers an attractive combination of modern, flexible companies’ legislation backed with the confidence of an efficient and respected judicial system, secured ultimately by the Privy Counsel. Small wonder then why there are currently around 450,000 active BVI incorporated companies. Even today many of BVI’s competitor jurisdictions are unable to offer this combination. However, the company’s position as an incorporations jurisdiction of choice is by no means unassailable – BVI’s continued popularity will rest on its ability to improve and innovate.
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Michael Killourhy, a Partner at Ogier, advises on a broad range of corporate transactional matters, with particular emphasis on public offerings (both equity and debt), mergers and acquisitions and complex corporate restructuring.