Since 2003, Healy Consultants Group has assisted our Clients with registering their offshore company in Guernsey. Our services include i) Guernsey business registration ii) licensing assistance in regulated industries iii) international corporate bank account opening iv) legal tax structuration strategies and v) virtual office solutions.

Guernsey business setup summary

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• Advantages and disadvantages

  Advantages of Guernsey company registration

  

  1. Registration of a company in Guernsey can be completed with only i) one shareholder and ii) one director, who both can be foreigners and reside elsewhere than Guernsey or the United Kingdom. The minimum paid-up capital is £1 (€1) and the incorporation procedures can be completed within one week;
  2. International companies registered in Guernsey are legally exempt from local corporate tax and withholding tax on dividends and interest remitted abroad, provided that none of the shareholders and beneficial owners are residing in Guernsey;
  3. It is easy to maintain a company in Guernsey because:
     • The company does not need to have a resident director, provided that a registered agent is appointed;
     • It is not necessary to file financial statements with the Guernsey Registrar, although such statements must be prepared and kept for at least six years at the registered agent’s office;
     • Companies with less than ten shareholders are exempted from audit requirements. Companies with more than ten shareholders are only required to file audited financial statements if the three following conditions are met: i) annual sales over £6.5 million ii) net assets over 3.2 million and iii) over 50 employees;
     • The official language of Guernsey is English, hence eliminating translation costs for Clients from countries where English is also the official language;
  4. Guernsey has excellent infrastructural facilities that enables the companies incorporated in the island to access the global markets and interact with a wide range of customers. The nation has recently invested US$1.3 billion and developed a data centre having 7 fibre optic cables which connects the country with UK and France.

  Disadvantages of Guernsey company registration

  1. Our Clients willing to start an offshore company in Guernsey should be aware that this place is still perceived as a tax neutral jurisdiction. Foreign tax administrations will subject the owners of companies registered in Guernsey to close scrutiny to prevent tax evasion. In some countries, warnings remitted to Guernsey can also suffer higher than standard withholding tax rates;
  2. It is important our Clients are aware of their personal and corporate tax obligations in their country of residence and domicile; and they will fulfill those obligations annually. Let us know if you need Healy Consultants help to clarify your local and international annual tax reporting obligations;
  3. Guernsey has signed few double taxation avoidance agreements, namely with i) Bahrain ii) Cyprus iii) Hong Kong iv) Isle of Man v) Liechtenstein vi) Luxembourg vii) Malta ix) Qatar x) Seychelles xi) Singapore and xii) the United Kingdom. It also benefits from partial treaties with a few other countries;
  4. Guernsey has a small population of 62,506 people, as per 2018. As a result, it is challenging for employers to expand their business locally or launch and test new products in this extremely small market. Moreover, it would be tough for employers to hire skilled labour force in areas other than finance, business, administration and IT services;
  5. Effective 1 January 2019, Guernsey entities including i) investment holding companies ii) IP companies iii) trading companies iv) professional service providers and v) funds and other financial services companies are required to employ local staff and lease a physical office.

• Best uses for a Guernsey company

  1. Guernsey is a reputable jurisdiction to form an international company because:
     • Guernsey is a crown dependency following English common Law. Its Financial Services Commission is a well-regarded regulator for the corporate and financial services industries;
     • Guernsey has good transparency standards: the Island maintains a registrar publicly available, where the identity of directors and shareholders owning Guernsey offshore companies can be viewed online;
     • Guernsey has committed to implement automatic exchanges of tax information with other tax authorities of the European Union. It has also signed tax information exchange treaties (but not DTAAs) with 57 other countries;
     • For the reasons listed above, Guernsey’s compliance standards are well regarded, as demonstrated by its rank as the 10^th most cooperative offshore jurisdiction (out of 112) by the Tax Justice Network.